Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: MikeL2 Date: 27 Jul 11 - 10:38 AM hi lennia Of course I do all those things with my left hand.......but not as well as when I use the right hand on the left arm. But buttoning the right arm with my left comes easier than the others......!!!??? My wife says that I am just awkward....lol Regards Mike |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 26 Jul 11 - 02:44 PM And how do you cut the nails on your right hand, put a watch on your right wrist, scratch a mosquito bite on your right arm, or rub your right elbow? If you do any of that with your right hand, then it would be strange. |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: MikeL2 Date: 26 Jul 11 - 10:16 AM Hi I am a complete right hander at everything.....er except when I wear long sleeved shirts I find it easier to button/unbutton the right arm with my left hand than the other way round !!! Is that strange???? Cheers Mikel2 |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: Penny S. Date: 26 Jul 11 - 08:36 AM Maybe if he had written one thing with one hand he could have got published too! Penny |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: GUEST, topsie Date: 25 Jul 11 - 04:12 PM Writing different things at the same time using both hands is said to have been a favourite trick of Branwell Brontë. |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: Penny S. Date: 25 Jul 11 - 04:00 PM I can do mirror with either hand. Used to do it on postcards to avoid the postie reading it - not that anything was inappropriate. I was writing to a leftie, so knew the recipient would be able to manage it. What I can't do is write different things at the same time with opposite hands, which I have heard of. Penny |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: JohnInKansas Date: 25 Jul 11 - 01:19 PM Later my mother told me that she and my father asked an experienced teacher about my mirror writing, and she said, "Just leave her alone. She'll turn it around on her own." And I did. So you were smarter than Leonardo? He never turned his around. Of course there were a lot fewer people (who could read OR write) around to argue with him in his day (and maybe he wasn't much interested in anything "they" had to say?). John |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: Rapparee Date: 25 Jul 11 - 10:33 AM Let's just come out and admit it: being left-handed is the mark of Satan and yer all his minions. Drop 'round, minions are more fun than angels. |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 25 Jul 11 - 10:26 AM I'm sure nobody taught me to hold my hand the way I do. I do it because it feels right. (When I'm not in a hurry, I have very nice handwriting.) Modern pens, which dry instantly, are a real blessing, of course. Early on, baffling remarks were made to the effect that "It's backwards." So I watched carefully when we learned writing. When we started writing, the teacher and all the other kids picked up their pencils, moved to the edge of the paper across from their hands, and started writing. So I did the same. Later my mother told me that she and my father asked an experienced teacher about my mirror writing, and she said, "Just leave her alone. She'll turn it around on her own." And I did. |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: skipy Date: 24 Jul 11 - 05:54 PM When I was in the Mob (RAF) I had a left handed respirator, otherwise I could not aim a 762 as the gas canister got in the way. Skipy |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: JohnInKansas Date: 23 Jul 11 - 11:03 PM The writing position you describe, if I visualize it correctly from your description, is one of a couple of positions taught to lefties "back when ..." ... (by the relatively few enlightened enough not to try to force them to change). Writing with a "wet ink" pen, or even with early ballpoints, it was about the only way a left handed person could avoid dragging the hand through what was written before it had time to dry enough to resist smudging and becoming illegible. The positions that some call "more normal," have the same smudging problem even with a pencil, if the lead isn't fairly "hard." The "curled" position is also well suited to being able to see what you've just written, without having to move the "pen" (or whatever) away from where you'll continue writing. The reason they were taught is because they were close to what was "natural" for the kids trying to learn worked out as "the best way to get it done." Your books were probably written by imature illiterate children (i.e. any people under 50, who grew up with "progressive" education and hence didn't learn much?) who don't know any traditional lore very well. Maybe they should get out of education and take up a religion calling where "explanations that aren't" are more universally loved and appreciated. John |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 23 Jul 11 - 01:43 PM Hi, John. Yes, I have a great eye doctor. My eye problems were ignored till I was way past the age when anything could be done about them. I was doing well in school, so nothing could be wrong - that was my parent's attitude. They were wrong. I think the best thing that happened to my weak eye was wearing contact lenses for many years. They do a better job than glasses, and when my weak eye started seeing better, my brain begin to pay more attention to what it was reporting. It was biofeedback, I believe. With good glasses I see pretty well. I also amaze my friends by taking my glasses off and seeing remarkably tiny things with my weak eye. One effect of the problem is that I'm left-handed. I write with my hand curved towards me, and the books say that that is the mark of a person whose brain is right-handed but who writes with the left. I think that anybody who writes like that should be allowed to do it. The brain knows what it needs. |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: JohnInKansas Date: 23 Jul 11 - 07:21 AM Deckman - I possibly would never have heard of the lazy eye problem except that my sister wore a patch on one eye for about a year, and then on the other eye for a few months 'cause they decided they'd "overcorrected." I was only 5 or 6 y.o. then, but it did make me "aware" enough to notice comments about it later as treatment seemed to change some. Much later, I was acquainted with "an elder" who had no treatment, and perhaps as a consequence was very nearly blind in the eye that "refused to point where he was looking." Unlike for a jackrabbit, being able to look in two different directions at the same time doesn't seem to be a very useful thing for us peoples. John |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: Deckman Date: 23 Jul 11 - 04:49 AM John ... you are exactly correct. As a youngster, some 100 years ago, I had a "lazy eye." The treatment back in the 1940's was "eye excersizes (spelling?). I would follow my finger tip, and other objects, for hours a day. Today, I wear "prism lenses" in my eyeglasses, which seem to work perfectly for me. CHEERS, bob(deckman)nelson |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: JohnInKansas Date: 22 Jul 11 - 06:41 PM Leenia - There is a vision defect called "lazy eye syndrome" in which one eye doesn't focus with a view consistent with the other, and the "better" eye becomes so dominant that the other one just sort of "gives up." A treatment a century ago, and at least until perhaps the 50s in some parts of the US was to put a patch over the good eye to force the weaker one to work, on the theory that it might "catch up." Although that treatment apparently had some success, it apparently worked best for the very young and I don't believe it's used much any more. One "explanation" I've heard of claims that "lazy eye" is usually associated with a "convergence error." The eye must adjust the lens to focus at a certain distance, and both eyes must, ideally, focus at the same distance in order to both see the same object. In addition, for a near object each eyeball must "rotate inward" to "point at" the object. If the two eyes are focused to the same distance but are "pointing in different directions," the view is obviously going to be messed up. If both eyeballs point at the same object, but focus at different distances, the result is pretty much the same. The "convergence angle" between the directions the two eyes point must match the focus distance in order for the two views to be consistent. A consistent "convergence error" might sometimes be corrected with a "wedge lens" that bends the direction for one eye to bring the two views together, and claims have been seen that this can help recover a weakened "lazy eye." It's been far too long since I've looked at this subject though to be able to guess whether that's still considered a viable approach to the problem, and I certainly have no way to guess whether your "eyeball discrepancies" are in any way related. Nearly everyone has some difference in focal range of their two eyes, but an extreme difference suggests a need to look at whether there's some subtle cause for which some corrective action is available. I would presume that you do get regular examinations and consultations from a qualified vision professional, of course.(?) John |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 22 Jul 11 - 12:32 AM I'm sure that I am lefthanded because my right eye only sees things in focus for about six inches. It was such a useless view of the world that my left eye and then my left hand took over. |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: GUEST, topsie Date: 21 Jul 11 - 10:33 AM I'm wondering whether there could be a conflict between the choice of eye according to right or left handedness/eyedness and the choice of image according to which lens gives the clearest picture. |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 21 Jul 11 - 09:35 AM Interesting! Thanks for the account, Anne. |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: Rumncoke Date: 21 Jul 11 - 05:32 AM I'm right eyed and fairly left handed, and somewhat dyslexic - though not diagnosed, as it didn't exist when I was at school. I found that some teachers did not believe it existed - I was with a Reception class teacher who was complaining about having to do a test for dyslexia on her pupils and did not believe me when I said that I could not pick out the matching card from the third set - the first two were of things I could remember, the third were too abstract. She was really quite angry with me. I was in my twenties then. How a little dot just four years old would cope with the experience I can't imaging. Anne Croucher Dorset England |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: GUEST, topsie Date: 20 Jul 11 - 01:29 PM John, no of course I didn't mind! Next time we have a clear night I'll try holding out my thumb in front of the moon[s]. |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: JohnInKansas Date: 20 Jul 11 - 01:05 PM topsie I do like Ghandi's mention (paraphrased) that "teasing must be limited to those you respect." I hoped you wouldn't mind. John |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: Deckman Date: 20 Jul 11 - 07:52 AM I thought I'd weigh in on this thread with a rather serious, and I suspect common, problem. My father was a lefty. I was born a lefty, yet when I entered grade school in 1943, it was the accepted practice that those children who reached for the pencil with their left hands, were somehow defective. Being only six, I couldn't dispute this. By the time I was in the third grade, and under the "teaching" of Mrs. Spaulding (she taught penmanship) I knew that I was quite a defective person. I knew this because she told me so every day. She said I couldn't "hold a pencil right" (write?), 'nor could I write well. For most of my life I lived with serious writers block. I knew, early on that I couldn't write! Fast forward to about 18 years ago, when my life long friend Walt Robertson passed away. Mark Moss, of Sing Out magazine, contacted me and asked me to write Walt's obituary. I totally freaked out! WHAT ... ME WRITE? After three weeks of pure hell, I finally submitted 300 words that were published unchanged. That was a pivitol moment in my life. Today, I find myslef writing a great deal. And the positive response I receive is most gratifying. Take THAT Mrs. Spaulding! bob(deckman)nelson |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: GUEST, topsie Date: 20 Jul 11 - 06:23 AM Thanks - I'll try to be more ignorant (and less confused?) in future. |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: JohnInKansas Date: 20 Jul 11 - 05:18 AM For most people an object 100 yards away is "distant enough." If you're unable to pick a thumb (one is clearer than the other) when focusing that far away, it's likely that neither eye is sufficiently dominant for your brain to have learned to ignore the other image - or that your distant vision is poor enough that you're not really focusing on the far object* - just "blindly pointing at it".(?) When you focus farther away, everything up close is seen in "double vision," and if your brain doesn't "filter it" to remove one or the other of the two pictures confusion is likely. (Perhaps we should suggest that nobody should offer "that explains a lot about topsie" but I'm not gonna say anything.) The same thing happens when you focus on something up close. Everything farther away is seen in double vision, but most people adapt so as to ignore (or just "blur out") the parts of their field of view where the parallax effect is too significant for comfort. If your eyes are so well matched that neither eye shows easily observable dominance, it shouldn't really cause any significant problem as long as you're aware that you may need to close one eye for some tasks that require "critical focus." For the above cited pistol shooting, it is absolutely essential that your point of focus must be on the two sights, front and rear, of the pistol. Those two sights must be aligned with each other within about 0.001 inches or less to hit the center ring on the target. There's no problem at all if the target is nothing but a blur, because even a blur has a center and that's what you're trying to hit. A situation you're perhaps more likely to encounter, where suppressing (closing) one eye may aid in getting the sharpest possible focus with the other eye might be something like threading the needle on your sewing machine. With one eye shut, you lose the aid of any "stereo depth perception" but may gain enough from seeing a single image more clearly so that you can hit the hole in the needle more accurately. (For hand stitching, you don't put the thread through the hole in the needle. You hold the thread up and put the needle on it - as I'm sure you've been taught. A much easier task.) * As people age and their "depth of field" diminishes, it's common to prescribe lenses that actually set the maximum distance to which you can focus at about 2/3 of the way to the farthest thing you might need to see with some clarity, to take advantage of what's called the "hyperfocal point." Focused at 2/3 of the way (approximately) to the farthest point that's significant gives a camera the maximum possible depth of field, so that the largest part of what's beyond the focus, and the largest portion of what's in front of it, are "least blurred." While this (sort of) works for people, in most cases the camera only has one eye while we (mostly) have two, so "brain power" is still necessary to help us "ignore what doesn't fit." (Maybe you're experiencing a deficit in your "ability to be sufficiently ignorant"?) John |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: GUEST, topsie Date: 19 Jul 11 - 01:30 PM I tried the test for eye dominance and found it impossible - if I focus on the distant object I see two thumbs, and if I focus on the thumb I see two of the distant object. How distant does the object have to be? |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: JohnInKansas Date: 19 Jul 11 - 12:32 PM The "accepted" test for eye dominance requires a couple of steps. The most common instruction is that you hold up your thumb at arms length and with both eyes open, line the thumb up with a distant object. Then close one eye. After you close one eye, if the thumb is still lined up you closed the non-dominant eye. If the thumb/object alignment "jumps" to a different alignment you have closed the dominant eye. This test is almost universally taught to all precision handgun shooters, since aligning with "the wrong eye" will cause "flyers" that may miss the target by a very large distance. Beginning shooters are often taught to "block the non-dominant eye," with an eye patch or some other device to avoid alignment accidents, but once using the "correct" eye consistently is learned, blocking of the other eye is usually discarded, although a very few experienced shooters may continue to "patch" if their dominance is very weak. Most experienced handgunners shoot with both eyes open, but consistently "form the sight picture" from the dominant image. The degree of dominance is variable, and I've known a couple of people who claimed that one eye was "usually dominant" but that the other eye sometimes "took over" under different conditions. (Usually fatigue or eye-strain related?) A few people have claimed that one eye is dominant for distant viewing, but the other takes over for near objects. In the one or two such persons from whom I've heard this claim, the problem went away after they got new (properly prescribed?) corrective lenses in their glasses. Good handgun shooters with cross-dominant vision are fairly rare, but probably in about the same percentages as for the general population. I've known a couple of "experts" who fired right-handed using their left eye with no noticeable difficulty. I've seen no (competent) reports of any accepted theories that cross-dominance is associated with any maladjustment or other effects of personality. The somewhat faddish popularity of "3-d" pictures and posters, in which you attempt to "hyperfocus" on scrambled images to "see" the two separate images as a "sterieo picture" has been implicated as a cause of deterioration in vision, "damaging" eye strain, and in a few cases some (probably temporary?) psychoses. There was an appearance of "popular art" of this kind ca. early 1950s, and I've seen a couple of advanced text books that attempted to use the "feature" to print three-dimensional graphs of "electron trajectories" and the like, but the practice didn't last long and appears to have faded due to complaints from ophthalmologist and psychiatrist associations who made credible claims that it was being observed to cause harm. There have been a couple of cycles of reappearances of the 3-d posters/pictures. It appears that only people with "weak eye-dominance" see the 3-d images easily, hence easier visibility for people with "young eyes" (not necessarily related to the persons' ages). During the earlier appearance, "wedge lens" glasses could sometimes be found to assist others, but I've seen no such aids during subsequent cycles of the fad. John |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: GUEST,Jon Date: 19 Jul 11 - 11:53 AM And a further thought... Sometimes, I debate "handedness" in the sense of using a better hand. With some things, eg. playing a guitar (which I do right handed) or using a cricket bat (which I would left handed - although oddly enough to me bat and guitar both feel like holding an object the same way round if that makes sense) but one of (I suppose) position/orientation. |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: GUEST,Jon Date: 19 Jul 11 - 11:47 AM Just tried the camera. I (left handed) seem to use my left eye. I'm not sure it's to do with eye dominance (and trying holding a finger up and closing each eye seems to suggest I'm right eye dominant) though. It just feels more natural/comfortable for me to hold that way and I'd guess has more to do with handedness. |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: GUEST, topsie Date: 19 Jul 11 - 11:39 AM I have heard that there is an association between "cross-dominance" and dyslexia. |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: GUEST,Stringsinger Date: 19 Jul 11 - 11:06 AM I've heard that there is a correlation with being left-handed and left-eyed and vice versa. Pick up a camera or a piece of paper with a hole in it and bring it quickly to your face. Which eye is used? Does this correlate with your strong hand? Sometimes, when one is right-eyed and left-handed or vice-versa, this is called "cross dominance". Some psychologists say that this will create problems in behavior. Don't know if that is true. Ambidextrous people seem to fare all right. |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: Penny S. Date: 18 Jul 11 - 02:07 PM I've been using my sewing machine this weekend, and realised I was using it lefthanded, according to the picture in the instruction book. That shows the right hand nearest the user, feeding the fabric under the foot, while the left hand moves it away behind the needle. I do it the opposite way. But then, I learned on a hand-turned machine, and my right hand was otherwise engaged. You can probably tell people who learned that way from those who learned on electric machines by the way they use their hands. Penny |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: JohnInKansas Date: 16 Jul 11 - 02:15 AM Has ayone seen an explanation for the several languages that are written right-to-left? Is there some tradition for the "scholars" to be (or affect being) left handed? A couple of eastern(?) languages are commonly written top-to-bottom in columns, but all of those that I've seen "explained" are also right-to-left when going from one column to the next. Any explanations? Da Vinci wrote most of his stuff in Latin but reversed (right-to-left) and the common explanation was that it was "a code" to make it harder for anyone to read and steal his secrets. I'd suspect the real reason was that he was a leftie, but I don't think I've ever seen an "authoritative" comment on it. (?) Maybe he was actually dyslexic, since he seemed to think out of both sides of his brain (and outside his head sometimes?). John |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: Rapparee Date: 15 Jul 11 - 10:18 AM Well, as the song says "...that's the hand you use...well, never mind." |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 15 Jul 11 - 09:57 AM Unless somebody spent hours and hours over a period of months and months and kept records while they were at it, they couldn't say whether a person in a nonliterate society is lefthanded or not. When it comes to tasks, people cannot predict what hand they will use, and they may use one hand one time and the other hand another time. They may prefer the left hand for one task and the right for another, similar task. For example, when I wore contact lenses, I washed them with my right hand and inserted them with my left. It was years before I even noticed that I was switching hands. My husband, who I thought was the most right-handed guy in the world, demanded a left-handed mouse. One never knows, do one? |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: Crowhugger Date: 14 Jul 11 - 10:41 PM «You and I, Green Man, who use one hand or another for various tasks, are more common. However, we don't have a word for that.» The word I settled upon to describe it is "bidextrous." |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: GUEST Date: 14 Jul 11 - 08:30 PM Hotter than a whore in the electric chair... Going thru three changes of clothes every day just to keep workin'... Set up a drying rack in the garage and just recycling... Nasty... B~ |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: Penny S. Date: 14 Jul 11 - 06:28 PM Leeneia, here's another link to reports on the paper. It mentions different tribes out of the nine studied. Apparently the study went further than that and did involve more than a literature search. I'm trying to find the original paper, but presumably it was peer reviewed. On the other hand, (oops, accidental, but I'll leave it) the link in the wikipedia article references doesn't go anywhere, so it might have been one of those things where scientists release stuff unreviewed to the press as part of their grant bid process. It seems that the study was related to the number of lefties in sports being larger than the proportion in the non-sporting population. Another report I don't think the idea was to say that lefties were more violent, but that a society which was more violent would favour lefties. I would imagine that handedness would show up in pre-literate societies in craft activities as well as hunting and fighting. Any sort of making activity would need a dominant hand. But one thing does bother me about the study, more than the high numbers of lefties in bellicose groups. The pacifist societies had far lower numbers than would be expected, and I wonder if those societies also have a strong pressure not to be lefthanded, with individuals learning to use their right hand rather than be ostracised. Most lefthanders can learn to use the right, as was shown in the case of handwriting in schools before the schools became enlightened. I don't like to think about the other possibility. Penny |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: Penny S. Date: 14 Jul 11 - 05:48 PM MikeL2, I wasn't trying to counter the Gray Nichols bat, just adding to what someone else posted about the making of bats with a link I had found interesting. Penny |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: Rapparee Date: 14 Jul 11 - 04:27 PM Try this sometime: 1. Close one eye. 2. The one that remains open is your "dominant eye." 3. If your left eye is dominant, you would shoot (archery, rifles, blowguns) best left-handed. 4. This has no relation to your "strong hand" but rather to your eye-brain-hand coordination. |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: GUEST,mg Date: 14 Jul 11 - 03:04 PM Well, they still eat, comb their hair, throw things, stir pots. mg |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 14 Jul 11 - 10:30 AM I read Penny's link. It is based on only two tribes, one in South America and one in Africa. Presumably the author searched the literature until finding two tribes out of all those available that supported his/her prejudice. I was amused by the parellel to boxing. I doubt very much if these poeple engage in conflict by standing up, man-to-man, and demanding a fair fight. No, skulking in the underbrush and throwing a spear (blow gun, rock from a sling) is lot more like it. In that case, handedness doesn't matter at all. To me the interesting question is why does the South American tribe show 22% left-handedness. (How exactly do you determine handedness in unlettered people, anyway?) |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: GUEST,MikeL2 Date: 13 Jul 11 - 02:52 PM hi penny Please don't think that I am being pedantic. The example of making a bat was of just one manufacturer. If you Google "Talent Cricket Specialists younwill see that they do offer left-handed bats. <" Gray Nicolls Edge Pre - Prepared Cricket Bat". I am going away for a few days so will not be around on Mudcat for a while. Kind Regards MikeL2 |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: Penny S. Date: 13 Jul 11 - 12:31 PM Here's the article about violence, the tribal variations. Are lefties sinister? There's a piece in Wikipedia as well. As to the cricket field, the placing of the fielders varies according to how the bowler is expected to bowl and the batsman to deal with the ball, so does have a varying asymmetry. And bat making, no reference to handedness. Making bats. |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: Rapparee Date: 12 Jul 11 - 06:52 PM Go and seek a left-handed trumpet or trombone or any brass instrument (bugles and such excluded). |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 12 Jul 11 - 10:57 AM From what I read, people who are 100% left-handed are rare. You and I, Green Man, who use one hand or another for various tasks, are more common. However, we don't have a word for that. We label a person lefthanded merely if she writes with her left hand. That's simplistic. As for that tribe that's lefthanded and more violent, I don't believe it exists. Or if it does, we need to look at all the facts about it. (Did you know that Eskimos do not have a large number of words for snow? Somebody made that up, and journalists have been quoting it for decades. It's probably the same for this convenient tribe.) |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: Green Man Date: 12 Jul 11 - 10:32 AM I play the Melodeon right handed and the guitar left handed along with the mandolin and any other stringed instrument. I play the harmonica both handed, so, am I right or left handed? |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: MikeL2 Date: 12 Jul 11 - 09:26 AM hi Jon Yes there is much more choice in the type and style 0f cricket bats these days. I remember well the Gray Nichols scooped out bat. Didn't use it myself. I always used Gunn & Moore. Just a personal choice. To answer you point about whether bats are massed produced or hand made, I guess the answer is both. Players who can afford it can have specifications eg weight & weight distribution, type & length of handle, types of shoulder and even left or right handed !!! Certainly most professionals will have hand made bats and some club players will try them in attempts to improve their performances. There is the old chestnut about the rich woman who returned a cricket bat to the shop saying that the bat was useless as her son had used it several times and had not managed to score any runs with it. Cheers MikeL2 |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: GUEST,Jon Date: 12 Jul 11 - 07:00 AM Thanks Mike (and Penny, we are not talking about very early cricket bats). Looking at bats now, it seems there is a lot more variation in the profiles of the bat there used to be (In say the late 70s there was a Gray Nicolls with a scoop out the back but that's the only one I remember that looked different to a "standard bat"). So usually a "universal bat" but with more options in terms of shape around? I wonder how they make them these days. I've always thought of them as hand made but I wonder if CNC machining is used somehow. |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: MikeL2 Date: 12 Jul 11 - 06:36 AM hi I played cricket for almost fifty years and when I first started there were definitely both left and right hand bats. As Jon said earlier the difference was the small cutout at the corner of the bat. My son and grandsons still play and I note that my son still plays with a righthanded bat but my grandsons has "universal" ones. Is this another sign of "progress" ???? Cheers MikeL2 |
Subject: RE: BS: Left-Handism From: JohnInKansas Date: 12 Jul 11 - 06:34 AM A few reference sites of Wiki ilk seem to agree that there's no such thing as a left-handed cricket bat, and multiple dealers offering "left handed cricket equipment" don't offer one. There seems to be an implication that batting left or right is done for purposes of game strategy rather than to suit the handedness of the person using the bat. It is implied that all players should learn how to bat from either side. Most "Lessons on how to bat left handed" seem to start with unintelligible (to me) explanations of why and when you should switch from right to left for certain game situations. This would imply that there is some sort of assymetry in how the playing field is laid out, or in some difference in preference for how players move left or right. In circumstance other than cricket, many in the US observe that Brits in general are a bit "off-center" in certain respects, so those of us native to the US would be likely to easily accept that cricket fields (and players?) probably are mostly a bit cock-eyed. John |