Benefits of being left-handed?

[Shillelagh]

Hey,

I was wondering what you guys think the advantages (if any) there are of being a southpaw in a tournament (sparring).

Thanks.

[vertigo]

It might throw off a right handed opponent a little... but the same would also go for you (lefty vs. righty).. I doubt there are any signifigant advantages. Just my initial thoughts (could be wrong, but oh well)

[Shillelagh]

Thanks the reply

I fight mostly right handed people so I think it's more of a surprise for the right handed people.

[aefibird]

It probably would throw off some people, but a good fighter should practice off both left and right lead.

Being left-handed *might* make a difference in the execution of some techniques, which also may give left-handers a slight advantage.

I'm primarily right-handed, but learned to use my left hand when I was a teenager after breaking my wrist in several places. I still prefer to play pool left-handed.

[Kenpo-Sloth]

Great Subject,

I don't do tournaments, but when I started training I questioned why all the begining techniques seemed to be designed for Right Handers.

Later I realized-- What I thought was my biggest disadvantage became my biggest advantage!!

A technique's Ideal Phase may be designed for the Right Hander but a Martial Artist needs to be ambidextrous and one way to do that is use the opposite hand as the primary hand as often as possible.

We Leftys are at home on either side!!

But just try to find a Left-Handed catchers mit,

Left-Handed fishing reel, etc...

And thank goodness for computers, because my hand always smeared my writing

[isshinryu5toforever]

most of the reels I have, you can turn the handle either way lol, alright, but back to the topic.

In point sparring, i don't think lefties hold any distinct advantage. In something like boxing lefties can throw off the timing of their opponents jab. This holds less true in kickboxing where the legs are involved too. I have seen the timing thing work in boxing because a lot of the lefties I've known have a heavy punch from their left hand, so they just try to disturb the timing of the jab of the other fighter by jabbing at the same time to set up their reverse punch.

[jarrettmeyer]

We train both sides, and we are always challenged on our weaker sides. Typically, we'll do twice as much out of our weak side than our strong. In time, our weak side will change. Reverse and repeat.

Now fencing is a sport where lefties have an advantage. If you're a rightie, you're not used to lefties, but lefties practice against righties all the time. 70% of the A-rated fencers in the U.S. are lefties. ("A" is the highest grade in fencing.)

[ShotokanKid]

I fight lefty even though I'm right handed. This gives me a couple of advantages:

1. It confuses them a little bit

2. It allows me to pull back into cat stance and kick off the front leg

[Shillelagh]

Thanks for the input guys.

I'm fairly happy that I am left-handed... it's taught me how to fight from both sides a bit more then someone who is right-handed. I'm an odd fighter too because my jab is my strong hand so it throws some people off when they get hit by it. Yeaaah...I'm a freak...lol

[SanShou]

Yeaaah...I'm a freak...lol

haha totally