Exercises to reduce "handedness"?

[Gerry Seymour]

That's important imho. Since most attacks will come from right handed people, we trained almost exclusively with right-handed defense.

In my grappling art, since most attackers will be right handed, you will need to be most proficient with right hand defense. That doesn't mean only defending with your right hand, it means defending against a right handed attack. It makes sense to learn a few left handed attack defenses, but that shouldn't be your concentration. I think that would be counter productive when the majority of attacks will be right handed.

And right hand attack doesn't mean only the right hand/foot will first attack you. For example, a person may grab you with his left hand for control preparatory to striking with his right hand.

Agreed. I normally let students attack naturally. Only when I spot a weakness or see no left-handed attacks do I make them change it up.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

it means defending against a right handed attack.

Agree with you on this. Just try to point out that "defending against a right handed attack" is the same as to use your "left hand to defense".

If your opponent's right arm tries to get you into an under hook, it will be your left arm to fight against his right arm (either don't let his right arm to under hook your left arm, or try to use your left arm to over hook his right arm). This is why if your opponent is better than you (he uses under hook on you more than you use under hook on him), you will train your "left arm defense" more than your will train your "right arm offense", you will become a left handed person.

Here is an example.

 

[BryceSPQR]

Agreed. I normally let students attack naturally. Only when I spot a weakness or see no left-handed attacks do I make them change it up.

I read on one of your posts that switching your computer mouse from dominant hand to the off hand helps a bit. I tried it out (I am at a computer for most of my day). It was pretty interesting. I legitimately had to think about what I was doing at first but in barely anytime at all I had adapted (for the most part). I am definitely going to keep doing this.

Second, coming from a traditional JKA Shotokan, I become very strong on my "Left hand downward block" because that is how almost all of the basics and drills begin. I had to go out of my way on my own to make sure I could still "right hand downward block." It did lead to some interesting things though. My right hand reverse punch became amazing, so I never thought of it as a "weak hand strong hand" thing. I considered it more of a technique preference and over use. Still a weakness of sorts, but not really a dominant hand issue.

Fighting natural instincts can be both necessary and risky at the same time. In my personal training, I make sure to play to my strengths (mostly because that is WAY more fun and rewarding) but then I make sure to play to my weaknesses, which is equally as rewarding but not nearly as much fun.

Thanks!

 

[Langenschwert]

It depends on what your goal is. For high level competitors, focusing on making the dominant side awesome is more important. There are no competitive sport fencers who complete with their off hand in serious tournaments. How many boxers train their off side? Likewise in judo we only train the dominant side for a long time.

I tried learning single handed sword with my off hand. After two years, I started doing it lefty, as is my natural inclination. I was better lefty than righty almost immediately. I can do the techniques right handed, but not under any great amount of pressure.

I don't know if it's possible for someone with a strong preference to become completely ambidextrous.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

It depends on what your goal is. For high level competitors, focusing on making the dominant side awesome is more important. There are no competitive sport fencers who complete with their off hand in serious tournaments. How many boxers train their off side? Likewise in judo we only train the dominant side for a long time.

I tried learning single handed sword with my off hand. After two years, I started doing it lefty, as is my natural inclination. I was better lefty than righty almost immediately. I can do the techniques right handed, but not under any great amount of pressure.

I don't know if it's possible for someone with a strong preference to become completely ambidextrous.

We train for self-defense, so the application here is important. Firstly, we need to be able to competently handle attacks from both sides. Secondly, if we get injured on our strong side, there's no ref to stop the fight - we have to have some level of competency with the remaining arm.

I certainly don't encourage anyone (even without a strong natural preference) to try to develop ambidextrosity. That would take too much time away from more important training. I just want to help students whose off-side is VERY "off" develop some competence there.

And, yes, the brain can adapt to things like using the mouse off-handed fairly quickly. For a while, it was even odd for me to use it strong-handed. The great thing about something like using a mouse is that it's not a twice-a-day exercise. It's something we do over and over throughout the day, so it creates change in the neural pathways fairly easily.