'Scuse me for protruding, but…

I'm right handed, but due to a physical handicap (polio when I was two), I learned to fence left handed. I also shoot (targets) left handed and I prefer to use a mouse left handed. But eat right handed and I handle a pen or pencil with my right hand (writing, drawing, etc.). I could already print block letters when I started school and I was taught cursive writing in school. But my handwriting has gone to blazes because the vast majority of writing I do these days is on the computer and I don't seem to pick up a pen or pencil all that often anymore (shame on me!). But I hold pen or pencil with the finger tips, not like I'm going the stab the paper with a dagger, the way kids seem to learn it these days. I really like fountain pens.

I'm not really ambidextrous. Things I can do with one hand, I can't necessarily do well with the other.

One advantage I had as a fencer was that there are not all that many "southpaw swordsmen" and most fencers don't run into left-handed fencers that often. It tends to throw them a bit.

But that goes for lefties, too. A bout between two left-handed fencers is liable to be pretty sloppy and tentative.

I've heard that about one out of six people is naturally left-handed, and that trying to force a young southpaw to be right handed can result in psychological difficulties later on.

Don Firth