I have had several conversations with others both inside and outside the sport of water polo about handedness in which I postulated that water polo is a sport where being a left handed player conveys more advantage than almost any other sport.
In water polo, the advantage in passing and shooting that a left handed player has on the right side of the playing field (especially in extra player situations) is indisputable. At the elite level, it is almost impossible to be a top team and especially to be a top team in extra player situations without an elite left handed athlete.
So at least anecdotally in the sport I'm most familiar with, there is likely a much higher incidence of left handedness at almost all levels because of strong selection and developmental bias among coaches.
Two thoughts: 1) When I broke my right thumb during football practice my senior year of high school, I attempted writing with my left hand in school. Didn't work. I was better off manipulating the pen with the cast on my right hand.
2) My wife is a lefty and proud of it. I passed along the Seinfeld joke about how refernces to lefties are so often derogatory. Such as the expression "he has two left feet." And, "What are we having for dinner? Left-overs." And, "Where did everybody go during that performace? They left."
Really interested to think that being left-handed might have some hard-wired neurological advantage in time-pressure sports.
Also, the fact that we're more bimanual than we think makes me feel somewhat vindicated for advising my sister to immobilize her son's right arm over the first two years of his life. My belief was that if she could make him left-handed, it would significantly increase his chances of becoming a left-handed relief pitcher who could get paid until he was 40.
I have had several conversations with others both inside and outside the sport of water polo about handedness in which I postulated that water polo is a sport where being a left handed player conveys more advantage than almost any other sport.
In water polo, the advantage in passing and shooting that a left handed player has on the right side of the playing field (especially in extra player situations) is indisputable. At the elite level, it is almost impossible to be a top team and especially to be a top team in extra player situations without an elite left handed athlete.
So at least anecdotally in the sport I'm most familiar with, there is likely a much higher incidence of left handedness at almost all levels because of strong selection and developmental bias among coaches.
Great stuff.
Two thoughts: 1) When I broke my right thumb during football practice my senior year of high school, I attempted writing with my left hand in school. Didn't work. I was better off manipulating the pen with the cast on my right hand.
2) My wife is a lefty and proud of it. I passed along the Seinfeld joke about how refernces to lefties are so often derogatory. Such as the expression "he has two left feet." And, "What are we having for dinner? Left-overs." And, "Where did everybody go during that performace? They left."
Really interested to think that being left-handed might have some hard-wired neurological advantage in time-pressure sports.
Also, the fact that we're more bimanual than we think makes me feel somewhat vindicated for advising my sister to immobilize her son's right arm over the first two years of his life. My belief was that if she could make him left-handed, it would significantly increase his chances of becoming a left-handed relief pitcher who could get paid until he was 40.
No shame in that. Raising a LOOGY is a parent's dream!