Left Handed Geocachers

[Papa Bear_Left]

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous...

When I was using a computer mouse a lot at work as well as at home I was starting to get RSI-type symptoms, so I switched to using my mouse with my left hand at home. Although I no longer use a computer at work, I still use the mouse on the left, only switching over when I need to do something requiring finer motor skills, image editing and the like.

Whenever I've been driving in Europe or the US, the first thing I did when I got behind the wheel was thump the door with my left hand. Then I'd remember and reach out with my right hand to select Drive or 1st gear!

[andiamo]

Voted left handed as this is what I use for writing and using a spoon, but bat and bowl right handed, and weld right handed but equally capable left handed - go figure

[pprass]

Voted left handed as this is what I use for writing and using a spoon, but bat and bowl right handed, and weld right handed but equally capable left handed - go figure

Same as me?

[Lucy]

I'm left handed for writing only

Everything else like golf or playing the guitar or whatnot I'm right handed

I do everything that is single handed with my left by anything two handed I am right. I confuse them with cricket as I bowl left and bat right .

When I played cricket, I batted both! People would often wonder why I wore thigh pads on both legs; I would change stance in the middle of the bowlers run-up . I also have 2 forehands and 2 backhands in tennis. I play golf right handed, had to because the clubs I learnt with were hand-me-downs. My son is a lefty too, I make sure he has everything he needs, like scissors etc.

[Keeper of Time]

Im a lefty too, I remember all too well when I was at school the teachers would smack the back of my hand with a ruler if I tried to pick up a pen with my left hand. I could not write with my right hand and so I went through all of my school years not really being able to write at all. When I left and went to university I had to teach myself to write with my left hand and to this day all of my writing is in capital letters as I could not get the hang of joined up writing at all.

It has never really stopped me from doing things, all sport I play left handed and I ended up playing competative table tennis for England juniors when I was 16 (many many years ago). My spelling is not the best and I find myself always looking for different words to replace a word I can not spell.

It is amazing the different things that are designed for right handed people from scissors to GPSr units.

[stanley]

I'm very right handed, can't even drink a cup of coffee with my right hand. For those lefties amongs us did you know about this place? http://www.leftys.com.au/

[Philipp]

Interesting thing on this site is that they say left handed people prefer to have the gear stick on there left in the car. Does that mean Australia has more left handed people than USA?

No - it just means you're driving on the wrong side of the road. We are driving on the right side

[pprass]

...I'm very right handed..

What - I don't believe that

[Dvixen]

Interesting thing on this site is that they say left handed people prefer to have the gear stick on there left in the car. Does that mean Australia has more left handed people than USA?

No - it just means you're driving on the wrong side of the road. We are driving on the right side

No, Australia the left side, NA drives on the right side.



(I haven't mixed up the sides in oh... about a year.)

[Richary]

I remember having a lot of trouble many years ago in Cambodia during the UN mission. Cars were left hand drive (so the gearstick was on the wrong side, change gears with right hand). But they drove on the left like here. Took a bit of getting used to, but I never hit anything in the 6 weeks.

[noikmeister]

Maybe you should reframe the poll.apparently 13% of people are left everything, rather than these freaks that are a bit of both.[:P] I don't think learned ambidexterity counts. I'd like to know what percentage of people are naturally ambidextrous. I'm one of the 13%

[Morley196]

I class my self ambidextrous can learn with both hands to do most activities, father was lefty, sister lefty so I learnt to do many things both hands. what ever is the most comfortable way, so i can type well but spell bad (does that count as typing?) cant write well left handed but can still write, can kick and throw both hands and feet so ambidextrous (is a bit hard to throw with my feet)!!

[ForYourEyesOnly]

Maybe you should reframe the poll.apparently 13% of people are left everything, rather than these freaks that are a bit of both.[:P] I don't think learned ambidexterity counts. I'd like to know what percentage of people are naturally ambidextrous. I'm one of the 13%

I think maybe (and not accounting for the natural bias in such a poll i.e. lefties and those that work with both hands are perhaps more likely to respond to the poll) that we are approaching an interesting result. Most people that are ambidextrous tend towards being left-handed - their ambidextrous ways having been learnt from operating in a right-handed world. I'm not sure that further identifying the "pure" left or right-handers would be of assistance in drawing any (and I'll agree pretty tenuous and speculative conclusions) about the left or right brain hemisphere thinking of geocachers.

You could of course work off one of two hypotheses. The first hypothesis would be that left-handers are over represented in the geocaching world because it attracts those with the left-handed/navigating type of brain wiring. A second possible hypothesis is another way of looking at the same question - i.e. that right-handers (? pure right-handers) are under-represented in the geocaching world because they are less likely than a left-hander (or an ambidextrous person, or a person who has learnt many ambidextrous activities) to be attracted to the spacial/navigation concepts involved.

Again, discounting the natural bias, it would seem that left-handers ARE indeed over-represented (being anywhere between 10-15% of the general population) and right-handers ARE indeed under-represented (they are at least greater than 80% in the general population).

Significant? Probably not. Interesting? I think so.