The Quest for Ambidexterity

I was watching some old home videos the other day and was rather surprised by something my dad said as he handed me a teething toy.
"Here you go--oops, that's right, always in the left hand. It's pretty clear already that you got your mother's hand dominance."
The fact that I'm left handed is news to me, because for the past fourteen years I've been writing with my right hand. It's not even very ambiguous, I'm strongly right-handed. I'm not entirely surprised, because other than my hand, I'm extremely sinister. Learning to shoot bow and rifle was extremely difficult, as I had to learn to shoot with my right, non-dominant eye, and both my mother and older bother are left-leaning ambidextrous.
Another inspiration for this exercise was when I was working on a timber frame recently, and one of my ambidextrous friends was able to switch, quite seamlessly, from his left to right hands while driving a peg with a mallet.
Not only is it utilitarian from day to day to have the choice of hands, but there are other, perhaps less immediate benefits. It's thought that exercising both sides of the brain lends itself to heightened problem-solving capacity. Also, in the event of a stroke, one side of the brain will be left operable for communication. Unfortunately, I can neither confirm or deny the veracity of these claims.
With these incentives in mind, I decided to pursue ambidexterity, and post a guide online for like-minded Instrucablites.

I've devised a few techniques to train the non-dominant hand. These will be grouped into 3 categories: encumbrance, passive training and active training.

Please keep in mind that I'm striving for this goal as well. If anyone has ideas I haven't come up with, or have improvements on my techniques, please let me know.

Step 1 Encumberence Training

At home, wear a (non-insulative) glove, wrist brace, wrist weights, or wrist guard on your right hand. This will force you to use your non-dominant hand more without fully debilitating your dominant hand. While out and about, you can accomplish a similar effect by wearing bulky jewelry, watches, bracelets or other unobtrusive encumbrance devices. The purpose of this part of the training is to remind you, consciously and subconsciously, to do the others.

Warning. There have been concerns expressed that weighing down one of your hands and leaving it sedentary for long periods can decrease its dexterity. I would therefore advise against casting your hand in a cement block in an attempt to attain ambidexterity. Do not neglect your dominant hand in the course of this training. Also, I would like to state that I am fully responsible for anything bad that happens to you when you're following this training regimen. Or when you're not. Please, please sue me.

Comments

[misterpointy]

wow, i'm naturally ambidexterous, and i take it for granted cause i don't realize that other people can't use both hands the way i can. I am right eye dominant though, but i'm not sure if you can train you other eye, or if it's something you're born with.

[Mother Natures Son]

You can. I'm left-eye dominant, but I've trained myself to be...ambiocular? I've managed to learn to shoot with my right eye.

[rogueleadr]

When I worked as Archery Director at the Boy Scout Camp Cherry Valley on Catalina Island, I trained to become "ambiocular" as well. I am normally left eyed, but sometimes I shoot better right eyed. I have yet to introduce this to guns though...

[dung0beetle]

I am an ambidextrous artist, and I can draw with both hands at the same time, although I have to concentrate so that I do not reverse the things that I am drawing with each hand. (did that make sense? I hope so) Symmetrical drawings at the same time are unusually difficult, as I still have a dominant hand. I am right dominant, but my left has more control (ie. I can draw a perfect circle or straight line with ease with my left hand).

[Mother Natures Son]

That's intriguing. If your left hand is more precise, in what way is your right hand the dominant one? Speed? Comfort of use?

[dung0beetle]

I live in a right handed world. I write better with my right hand, doors are easier to open with my right hand (most by design), and I was taught to write with my right hand, so I was "brainwashed" at an early age to favor my right hand. To answer your question, yes, I am much faster with my right hand, and it is also more comfortable.

[Mother Natures Son]

Interesting. My older brother also had hand dominance problems in school--or rather, the school had problems with his hand-dominance. In his case, they objected to the fact that he didn't favor either hand, and apparently called my mom several times about it.
I've always found the stigma rather odd--in Latin, left is sinster, in French, gauche; both have negative connotations in English.

[JamesTB13]

Yeah, THAT, you can thank the ages-ago religious fanatics for. The left-handed people were thought to be evil, I don't know exactly why, but, if you look at the Bible(I think, I don't know I'm an Atheist), there is a person/angel thing referred to as the 'Left Hand of God'. From what I understand, 'Ole Lefty did the *hmm hmm* 'necessary evil' in God's name. So, yeah, look at the original really old religions, not Christianity or whatever, and find lefty's evil roots. I say not Christianity, because, if you really look, it takes many elements obviously and blatantly from older religions.

[finton]

Sorry, I normally wouldn't reply to such comments as JamesTB13's, but James: please, if you're going to make such statements, do your research first. A quick online search would tell you that the only being possibly referred to as such (in the Bible) is Gabriel and that is in Christian or Jewish tradition, not the Bible itself. He certainly wasn't evil. Other tradition (again not the Bible itself) asserts that Satan originally sat at God's left hand (note: no-one is called the Left OR Right Hand of God - that's just where they sat), thus perhaps leading to the conlusion your "religious fanatics" came to about lefties.
As for your unsupported assertions about Christianity's makeup, or at least the Judaeo-Christian line through the Old Testament, it need not take elements from older religions: The Biblical narrative goes back to the beginning of the world, chronicling the rise of both Judaism and Christianity. Admittedly certain "Christian" cults have picked up a bunch of bollocks from all sorts of sources, but that doesn't change the basic premise.
Your being an Atheist does not excuse you from knowing what you're talking about.

[JamesTB13]

Loving the 6 month later reply...I thought it was pretty clear when I said 'I don't knoe, I'm an Atheist', that it meant this is my understanding of things. So, it's true that in the medieval age, ceratin areas beleived, because of their religion, that left-handed people were evil. Now, I'm not going to reply after this, because I only like to argue facts...y'know, science and such. I stopped beleiving in fairy tales when I was 7. As a final statement...You will notice that the Bible's storyline is essentially a cobbling together of much older, and now essentially non-existent religions.

[finton]

Good to hear from you so quickly James. Yeah, six months is a while 'cept that was the first time I've seen this particular Instructible and I wrote on the same day. I'm with you on the "...like to argue facts...y'know, science (sic) and such"; that's why I felt duty-bound to write regarding your original statements, you and I being lovers of facts and all.
Still, Instructibles should be about facts and "how-to-do" rather than diatribe, so how's about we just retire gracefully to our respective religious beliefs - you to Atheism and me to mine. Cheers :]

[wrathgod]

another painful way of getting to use your non-dominant hand is by learning to play an instrument both ways. i'm a left dominant but play the guitar in a right dominant fashion. tried playing the other way and it was near to impossible. had to learn it from scratch but now i can do a michael angelo any time ........ cool or what?

[Mother Natures Son]

Michael Angelo? I'm not familiar with that term. But playing an instrument ambidextrously is certainly impressive.

[wrathgod]

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=sDF9GzwVq3E ............ well thats not me ........ but thats who michael angelo batio is ......... you should even check out this one .............. http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=P-XfnkLdkjo

[Mother Natures Son]

Ridiculous. That...that is...That is madness. Hm. Another cool thing would be to learn to play with either hand without changing the string configuration (So that when you're playing left-handed the bottom string is actually on the bottom, maybe). That way you could just switch in mid song. Not a lot of practical benefits other than freaking people out, of course.

[finton]

It IS possible to learn ambidextrousness: some years ago I had a job mapping assets onto a computer and developed bad OOS in my right wrist. To alleviate that I persevered with learning to use the mouse with my left hand (without swapping the buttons over). I can now use a mouse with dexterity in either hand.
I like Mother Natures Son's idea that "exercising both sides of the brain lends itself to heightened problem-solving capacity". Boy, I hope so!

[JamesTB13]

You, Sir, just (almost) described the iconic guitarist Jimi Hendrix. As a kid, he played naturally left-handed, but they could only afford a right-handed guitar, so he learned to play UPSIDE-DOWN. Eventually, he learned his normal way, but still.

[redstarsrbija]

Madness?? THAT IS SPARTA!!!!!!

[dionysus.god]

if you like drawing and can work with pencils well, why not try and define a maze of sorts to guide your weak-hand through? Like make a bold like that your left hand has to stay on.

[tomas.savage]

non-dominant eye training is also important. there are a lot of techniques advertised with varying results.

i'm naturally ambi but had a left-eye dominance. what worked for me was wearing an eye patch to cover my left eye while doing other things (yard work, reading). this can make you look a bit goofy and invite awkward questions from inquisitive neighbors, so you may want to consider your privacy first.

[michaelgohjs]

fork and spoon are fine switching about..the hard part is ...CHOPSTICKS!!!

[12V]

i have been writing with my right hand for 9 years and it is still hard to read!
i have been practicing with my left hand and after only 4 hours it is much easier to read!
i have never tried this before!

is it possible that i am left handed but was taught write with my right ?
it has always been very tiring to write with my right.
it helps to turn the paper so it is almost parallel with my forearm.

[directall]

I'm all messed up... when it comes to everyday activities (basketball, eating, etc.) I use my left hand, but when I write, I use my right hand.

[Mother Natures Son]

That's extremely odd, from what I gather--eating with a different hand than you write with.

[strixowl]

If a left- handed person (me) is raised with right-handed parents or older siblings, it is often the case that when they are showing you how to do things like eating with a knife and fork they will teach you the right-handed way. just because most of the time they can't work out how to show you left-handed. I do all every day tasks like cleaning teeth, eating with my right-hand but write and type with my left hand but I am definatly as I can only ever use sharp knives with my left and the same with sports

a good way I've found of gaining hand independence is playing the piano/ keyboard.

[JamesTB13]

I'm the same, sort of, as directall. Everyday activities, such as sports, I do right-handed, yet, I write with me left hand. Also, I prefer to wear a watch on my right arm, and I always use my right arm to punch people, I just think (for some reason) that my right arm is stronger. Also, I use a fork in my right hand, although I AM utensil-ambidextrous. I don't know, I've always found it weird, but a couple of my friends are the same way, except right-handed.

[directall]

I'm glad somebody out there is similar to me. I'm also utensil-ambidextrous, but I naturally tend to eat with my left. I also would wear a watch on my non-writing hand. I've never really punched anyone, so I don't know how that one goes ;)

[JamesTB13]

It's not really fighting punching, it's just punching my friends.

[lobo_pal]

Sick scouting belt. Got to make one of those.

[Mother Natures Son]

After going to the 2005 Jamboree I had two. I decided to make something useful from the second.

[dkop1]

what'd you make from the second? by the way, awesome instructable, I'm trying, and using my left hand is not very hard, but it's hard to NOT use my right.

[demichimera]

a couple of questions: i can throw 90% with my left hand but my body wants to turn to the right and my feet want to step right-left instead of left-right, whats a good way to overcome this? also eye dominance tests say to form a circle with your fingers and focus on the wall... but when i do that i see two hands side-by-side, am i really stupid or ambi-eyed? tia

[demichimera]

ignore the second thing, that's evidently an eye problem :/ but what about the throwing thing?

[RaNDoMLeiGH]

You have some pretty good ideas here. I'm left handed but went to a kindergarten where we sat at round tables. Some beotch girl named Whitney complained about my poking her elbow and the teacher told me to see if I could write with my right hand. Worked out just as well, since my handwriting was crap at that stage anyway, and so I wound up writing with my right hand. I wield my soldering iron, paint brush, knives, toothbrush, makeup brushes, and utensils with my left, though, so they didn't get to me completely. Also, I shoot a rifle right handed but shoot a handgun left handed, and when I play tennis or other racquet sports I have a tendency to swap hands randomly and with equal skill depending on where the ball is. When I spar (karate) I favor my left fist and right foot, kiai!! I recently took up pool (billiards) and decided to learn to shoot with both hands -- a good idea, as it turns out. Being multihanded is pretty useful except for one instance: learning to type was absolute hell. I just could not seem to get the hang of it. Finally I took a computerized test that analyzed my mistakes, and what it found was that I was consistently using the right fingers, but the wrong hand. They said it was probably because I'd trained myself to "switch" due to the way I'd learned to write with my wrong (non-dominant) hand. They asked me if I had dyslexia, which I don't, because it's not uncommon amongst people who had to switch hands for writing early on. Just knowing what the problem was enabled me to correct it almost immediately and now I type zippy fast, like 85wpm or so. In terms of personal development, it's probably had a large effect. I am a professional artist, but I do the kind of work that requires a lot of calculations so I have to be up on math. I was never very good with abstract math, which may have been due to teaching methods, but I am extremely good with spatial math like geometry. Electronics didn't click until it was explained in a more visual way (comparing electronic current to water, ah-ha!). I can kick anyone's butt at Tetris, which has the practical application of being able to pack a car trunk obscenely full and still get it to close. Problem solving, as you mentioned, is related to handedness, and not only do I think out of the box, I find ways to exploit the box, or to make the box think it is something else entirely. This might sound cool but it works against me, too -- I do not get along well in office politic situations and find it difficult to be anything other than self-employed. I am interested in learning of others' experiences -- as you train yourselves, make a note of whether you find yourself thinking that you are "different" than others. Not necessarily better, just different. I think that the hand-switching I went through in kindergarten planted that seed and continuing to do so for years, until that dreadful typing class experience unearthed the truth (you can't really switch) implanted that idea in my mind somehow. I don't regret it, I don't know how big of an influence it was (maybe I'm just naturally antisocial), but it would be really neat to learn how others' experiences go as you develop your skill. Someone else mentioned drawing with your nondominant hand. I second this. In college I would get really bored during some of the classes and since all the desks were right handed I would lean on my right hand and doodle with my left. At first I couldn't even draw straight lines, but after a while I could do that, and then circles, and then be able to completely control the line. I would sometimes take notes with my left hand but the writing was hard to read and took forever, but as my drawing improved my handwriting did too, whether or not I had practised it. I find loose sketching with my left hand brings out subtle shades and meanings in the lines that a tighter right handed drawing won't convey somehow. Persevere with your training -- it could save your life someday. Great instructable!

[JamesTB13]

I'm astounded to read that people were forced to learn to write with their 'other' hand. Wow, school's need to learn a thing or two, themselves.

[RaNDoMLeiGH]

Yeh, well... In Russia, ALL the students used to be trained to write right-handed. We had a photo of that in our language books. The teacher said they don't do that anymore, it was causing problems.

[JamesTB13]

Umm,......was this before the collapse of the Soviet Union, or was Russia continually oppressive afterwards, too. Sorry, my question mark is screwed. But, consider it a (no offense intended) question. I mean, come on. I had never heard of anything like this before these comments. All the schools here (in Canada) just let you find out what hand you write with. There isn't a 'proper writing hand'.

[ThreeWestCreative]

I have to agree with you here as well. I discovered a while back I can do pretty much anything with both hands. I started off as a right handed individual but I just feel like using my left hand sometimes when I'm bored and thats how I discovered I could do both. My mind feels different when I switch to left. The best word I can use for it is "comfortable". But I do feel exactly the same way as you about the only option for me is self-employment but I also attributed this to me being an Aries as well. :) but maybe not. I usually switch hands on my pc a lot when I've got something going on with my right hand, i.e, I'm eating with it and still want to surf the web while I'm doing it. hahahaha

[Mother Natures Son]

Wow. Neat. One thing I've found is that it's profoundly easy to type one-handed, mirroring the actions of your right hand onto your left or vice-versa. There's not much application for this for me, but apparently for linux users there's a program that will let you control which hand you're supposed to by typing with using the capslock, which enables you to type with one hand and manipulate the mouse with the other. It seems like a predictive text program would be preferable, but as far as I know no such program exists. I'm right there with you on the math--I can do complex geometry equations in my head, but I'm completely useless at algebra. Excellent advice, drawing to improve your handwriting. I can imagine that being much less frustrating.

[JamesTB13]

Ok, I have a question. What is a Trigger Mitt?!?!?!?!?!