lancecanter

And it looks good that I will be performing for over a thousand people come summer.

I was born left handed. My family persistanly made me right handed. I could always do things really well left handed but still better right. I decided about ten years ago that I should still have my left hemisphere dominance intact and it needs exercize.

Writing is complicated.
I started with writing backwards with my right hand. All the time! Taking notes in class, writing poems, everything. Soon I was able to practice these same motions with my left hand, but mirrored, therfore it would be in a left to right motion. Walla! Left handed writing made easy!

(Note writing left handed is by physical nature much harder than right handed. I can write away from my body much better than toward my body. Backwards left handed, forwards right handed easy.Backwards right handed and forwards left handed hard.

Learn how to write big left handed first and slowly get smaller and smaller. This way you can learn how to use your whole arm, than your wrist, to just your fingers, all are essentian in good penmanship. Also practice your alphabet, this way you can learn to move your hand across the paper correctly.
If you have a friend of opposite handedness watch how they write and study their penmanship. This will give you insight of how to perform hand motions and to develope your new penmanship. I say this because my penmanship is different depending which hand I use, and which direction i am writing.

I noticed that i had an intense uncomfortable feeling in my left side while doing tasks that are considerably easy with my right. Using all these new muscles was tough because they did not have the development my right muscles had. The tone and devolopement, my muscles wear weak despite there size. The motor coordination to understand things left handed; my mind needed to adapt. I needed to understand orientation of objects and how they interact with my new angle of vision. I needed to learn how to use my left eye for dominent focus, the hardest task yet.
For motor skills, I learned to relax certain muscles and use some with all my might just to get the result I wanted. It is also very important to physically execize your new found body, get your body in shape.

For eye dominance I started by looking to the left really often. I started to focus on things far away through a peice of glass or window. by doing so I could maybe see a car in the distance but notice the two visual fields in my sight.
For example, look out a window at something, focus on it, but in your periphrial vision, look at something on that window, a rain drop or peice of dirt. There are two right? a single object seen by both eyes, which makes two seen in your visual field. Or look through a hole made by your fingers at an object. Learn to see through that hole with either eye, you will notice you will use one more than the other.

I learned that doing something left handed required my right hand to function properly to accomodate this mirrored movement. Example, when writing on a clip board left handed, I had to learn to use my right hand accordingly to keep that board steady! The same goes for a lot of things, like throwing! You need balance in your body for doing complex full body motions. I had to learn how my body moved on both sides to learn how to throw left handed. Learning how to use my right side as leverage to get the force and timming that is essential for left handed throwing. When doing any full body task, look at every single position of your body, every foot finger hand arm, to see what is out of place compared to when you do it with your dominant side. This will speed things up.

I also noticed that I started to do things bacwards by accident on occation. Sometimes I would write a capital E with either hand and magically a 3 would appear on my paper!?

I started to assign certain situations and times of the day for each hand, or sometimes alternate all together. i used to use my left hand at work, and my right hand at home. People were a bit supprised to all of a sudden see me use the opposite hand. Many people thought I was right handed and others left handed.

This is what I do now, I have a left hand day and follow up the next day with a right hand day. I now give myself a complete 50% ratio to each hand all the time. I can also avoid my accidental mirroring of motions by using one hemisphere more per day.

I do my artwork with both hands, sometimes at the same time. I like to do ink artwork with both hands which I do with dots.

I like to paint and charcoal with one hand (usually) at a time. Each hand will usually manipulate only one side of the paper. Some motions in artwork are better performed by a certain hand, maybe requiring a certian movement of wrist or arm. This is a great way to practice ambidexterity, artwork is so abstract that it doesn’t have to be perfect, leave perfection to mother nature.

http://pic4.picturetrail.com:80/VOL766/2636084/5255152/90549126.jpg

This was a picture I drew for a friend by REQUEST, it was half right handed and half left handed. A very small portion in the middle is a combonation of hands.
(notice the two signatures)

off the record, this was really scary to draw but I thought it came out really well, damn my friend!


I still do somethigs better than others, I bat better left handed but golf right. My high scores in bowling are 205 right 191 left. I write better left handed than right, I don’t know why but people tell me my left hand penmanship is better than my right. I can throw farther right handed, because my right hand has been throwing for 27 years unlike my left for 10, but i am getting stronger everday.

If you need any help or advice let me know
lancecanter@hotmail.com

jared~~