Left handers dominate in fighting.

[hardheadjarhead]

A study indicates left handers dominate in fighting:

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996773


The only times ever got knocked down was by Henry Cooper and Joe Frazier. Both lefties. Remy Presas was a leftie, too.

And don't forget Inego Montoya. Oh...he only fought with the left hand to fool Wesley in The Princess Bride. I forgot.


Regards,


Steve

 

[Zepp]

This is great. I've gotta show this one to my left-handed friends.

They discovered a correlation between levels of violence and the proportion of the left-handed population – the more violent a culture, the higher the relative proportion of left-handers.

Against right-handed people who aren't used to fighting the left-handed, I think the lefties will have an advantage. Baseball and public school have taken away most of what ambidexterity I ever had naturally, but for a while when I took fencing, I tried fencing lefty. I found that I did as well against right-handers as I did when I fenced righty.

Buuuuut..... in all other martial arts that I've been exposed too, I haven't yet noticed someone's left-handedness giving me any problems in particular. But maybe that's because I try to train both sides equally.

 

[Corporal Hicks]

I'm ambidexterious, I cant fight with either!

 

[Adept]

It depends on the calibre of the fighter. A left handed fighter is less common, so when people encounter them they find everthing is reversed, giving the southpaw a natural advantage.

However, they can often come to depend on this advantage, even if subconsciously, and then find themselves at a loss when faced against another southpaw or against someone who has trained well to fight against left handers.

 

[ShotoSan]

Hrm... well first off I would like to ask, what a left handed fighter is. When I spar, I promise you that I am never only attacking with the right side of my body. Most people tend to stick to one side facing the opponent; it is important to switch, to expose your 'bad side'. The study is correct however, Ive noticed that when you fight on your right side, the fight eventually gets predictable if you are not fighting some one with a lot of skill. When switching to the left, it is easy to break the fights rythm, because the oppoent has lost all predictability they once precived.

Another thing you may try in a sparring round, I have found to be most useful, is the double snap kick, or scissor kick, either serves the purpose. Most fights dwell on the fact that the kick is snapped out, retracted and can go again but never does... Give it a try some time!

 

[Vadim]

I like sparring against a southpaw. It definitely is a change from sparring right handed fighters. It does depend though on how skilled the person is that I am sparring. If it is a person who has more skill then I do then I might be in trouble, but regardless I enjoy sparring whether it be a right or left- handed person I am up against.

-Vadim

 

[Kamaria Annina]

Woot!! I'm left handed! I enjoy sparring southpaw as well, although I think I have the same level of power with my right hand.

 

[markulous]

That is why you must train your left and your right sides to be close to equal. When I first started with my current teacher my left jab was HORRIBLE. So we worked on that. And I really didn't know how to kick to begin with so I have thrown as many kicks with left as my right. Sure my right is a little stronger because that's the hand/foot I use outside of martial arts picking up or kicking something, but there isn't much difference.

So I could really care less which side I use. I have just as much confidence in both "stances".

 

[OC Kid]

Mr. Bob White used to spend a lot of time teaching his fighters to how use a leftreverse body punch. They became quite proficient at it and won many many tournaments using it.

 

[TonyM.]

As a southpaw I like to jam up right handed fighters by using simultanious block/punches. My right is stronger than my left, but the left has more accuracy. Speed is almost equal.

 

[8253]

I am right handed and believe that it is not your hand dominance that wins a fight. It is more in your head.

 

[Black Bear]

An interesting piece of research. On the one hand you have the correlation between incidence of left-handedness and stuff like homicide rate, on the other you have the intuitively-appealing hypothesis that lefties have an advantage because righties get less opportunities to practice against their ilk. But I don't see the connection as having been proven. Wait and see...

 

[Ceicei]

An interesting piece of research. On the one hand you have the correlation between incidence of left-handedness and stuff like homicide rate, on the other you have the intuitively-appealing hypothesis that lefties have an advantage because righties get less opportunities to practice against their ilk. But I don't see the connection as having been proven. Wait and see...

I'm not sure I follow what you're saying. What do you mean, you don't "see the connection as having been proven"? Which connection are you referring--the first one, the second one, or both?

- Ceicei

 

[Black Bear]

The researchers' inference from those two data points, is that left-handedness is a significant enough advantage in mortal combat to be evolutionarily selected-for.

 

[ghostdog2]

I seem to recall Bruce Lee suggesting that JKD fighters should fight with their strong hand forward. That would mean, I guess, that righties set up southpaw style and lefties vice versa. Not sure what difference it makes, but Lee apparently felt you were better off with your stronger, quicker side closer to your target. I've tried it, but soon fall back into my natural stance. More training time would certainly help, but..

 

[FearlessFreep]

At my (beginning) level, I tend to keep my strong (right) side foreward. I do this because a) I'm quicker on the front side b) it tends to surprise the people I spar with (who are also not very experienced)

Actually, the more I think about it, we do tend to train on both sides and our sabomnim emphasizes being equal on both sides. As I remember, I do tend to switch stances quite a bit, but I am concious that I do setup with my right foot forward pretty regularly and use front side kicks as opening attacks

 

[someguy]

Inego Montoya only fought left handed because he thought that with the right hand it would be over to fast.
Left handed people change the game. There lead hand would be on the samr side as yours for some people.