Switching to leftie

[Brandj]

Yesterday I was at the fencing club, and got a really bad cramp in my right hand. To fool around, I grabbed a friend's lefty epee and glove, and hooked onto a strip. In half an hour I won 4 of 5 matches. Unknown to me, my coach was watching and when I went to talk to him, he said that from now on I will fence left handed because my footwork lefty is even better than righty (which is sort of odd), and I have much more of a feel for an epee with my left hand.

What is your guy's opinion on this? Are there any other people here who were in that situation?

Thanks,
Branj

[Zilverzmurfen]

Sort of. Sans the initial cramp.


(Seriously though, I'm a leftie since birth and would never be able to fence right handed unless forced to. )

[Rabid Monk]

Welcome to the priveledged ranks of the lefties.
It is now time to let you in on the secret all lefties know, which enables our superiority to be upheld. (PM a lefty)


When I first started fencing, I fenced right handed.
I wasn't sure which was better, so I went with the same hand as everyone else. A little later, at my first competition, I asked a left handed fencer how they found it. He said it was a "tactical advantage", and a lot more comfortable for him.
Being mostly ambidextrous (I write left handed, but I suspect with practice my right hand would be indistinguishable. It isn't bad now), the switch was easy. I liked it, and have stayed left handed since, except when fooling around with epee (our club's lefty epees dissappeared).

I've recnetly started fencing right handed on occasion again. I don't do bad, since I know the actions and such, but I lack the practice, so it gets ugly at times. But eventually I'll be half-decent with either hand.

So my opinion is: Good for you, you should find it fun. And you better taunt the righties, since they'll be considering you a traitor.
But I'd also recomment fencing right handed on occasion, just to keep those skills up, since you appearantly can.

[lefty_monster]

As monk said, welcome to our ranks! You may be awarded a position of power in our new world order if you play your cards right.

I've never heard of anything like this before. Though being a lefty is a definite advantage IF AND ONLY IF (i've been doing too much algebra) you learn to fight both righties and lefties. The most common complaint i hear at national tournaments is that people don't know how to fence lefties. Even lefties complain about it. Mostly lefties complain about it. Lefties are not immune to the evil magic of other lefties.

[jeff]

Brandj, being lefty is an advantage, especially at lower fencing levels. What the others have said is good advice. Whether or not it works for you really depends on how ambidextrous you are. If you're like Rabid Monk, then it could be a good move for you. Do you find yourself to be strongly right-hand dominant elsewhere?

[carter693]

i'd say being lefty isnt much of an advantage. but that may be because i'm a right that gets lessons from a lefty.

[piste off]

Do it if it feels "right" (no pun intended).

One of our vet national champions is actually a lefty that fences right-handed. As a youngster in his first fencing class, the right-handed teacher said "Get on-guard like this." So he did, and never changed.

Rick

[crquack]

I am right-handed but use the left hand occasionally for various tasks (I can tie surgical knots with both hands for instance). I started fencing right-handed. Then I developed pain in my right SI joint which was made worse by incessant lunging and landing on it with all my weight (not inconsiderable!). One day, therefore, I borrowed a left-handed foil and try to go left-handed in the wall drill we do in our club. Although I felt rather awkward, I found that people had great difficulty hitting me.

I then converted one of my epees to left hand. I have not fought many bouts with it, but won more than half of them which is better than my record in epee right-handed.

I attribute this to the natural difficulty of others fighting left-handers and to change in my attitude which, left-handed, becomes more conservative in epee. The moment I grab my epee with the right hand it seems to become a sabre :-). By the same token, I have not tried sabre left-handed yet. I may have to, as the joint is not getting any better. But I have a feeling that in the end I shall fence sabre right and epee left.

I was going to start a new thread on this but Brandj beat me to it...

[Asprin]

One of the coaches at my club is a natural left and he taught himself to fence right handed. He says that built up muscles (mainly in his legs, I think) that meant he messed up his performance both when hes being a lefty and a righty.

[eac]

My post from another thread, which seems relevant:

Originally Posted by Which weapon has the most lefty advantage?

I wouldn't exactly call it a psychological advantage; I'd call it an experience advantage. Lefties have more experience righty-lefty than righties do righty-lefty, and most matchups involving lefties are righty-lefty, so in most matchups the lefty has more experience with the current situation; furthermore, lefties have the same experience lefty-lefty that lefties do, so that's a break-even. So, in 80% of their matches, lefties have an experience advantage.

And, the experience advantage is larger the more different the situation is. So, the question is asking "In which weapon is the righty-lefty matchup the most different from righty-righty?"

[begin crackpot theory]
I think this effect doesn't directly account for the ridiculous numbers of lefties at the top level-- at the top level, there are ridiculous numbers of lefties, so both lefties and righties are quite used to fencing them. No, I think it's a spring-birthday effect. In top-level soccer, there are a significantly disproportionate number of people born in the spring. This is because the age cutoffs are usually at the year, so kids born in the spring are generally larger and stronger than the rest of the kids in their age bracket. Generally larger and stronger kids in each age bracket do better, and are therefore encouraged to continue working on and playing soccer. People who play a lot of soccer get a lot better at soccer, thus there are more spring kids at the top.

Similarly, in fencing, lefties do well as kids, are encouraged to fence because of their advantage, and more of them continue to the top.

[Brandj]

Originally Posted by jeff

Brandj, being lefty is an advantage, especially at lower fencing levels. What the others have said is good advice. Whether or not it works for you really depends on how ambidextrous you are. If you're like Rabid Monk, then it could be a good move for you. Do you find yourself to be strongly right-hand dominant elsewhere?

I write righty and eat lefty if that makes any sense. The reason I write righty is not because I can't lefty, its because when interacting with people, it is better to show how much like them you are (especially in a college setting). I still remember this grumpy old professor that did not like lefties and had a nasty habit of taking points off for smudging the ink. However, I find it more natural to use my left hand. I can actually lift more weight with my left hand than I can do with my right.

Originally Posted by lefty_monster

As monk said, welcome to our ranks! You may be awarded a position of power in our new world order if you play your cards right.

I've never heard of anything like this before. Though being a lefty is a definite advantage IF AND ONLY IF (i've been doing too much algebra) you learn to fight both righties and lefties. The most common complaint i hear at national tournaments is that people don't know how to fence lefties. Even lefties complain about it. Mostly lefties complain about it. Lefties are not immune to the evil magic of other lefties.

Thanks for that advice! I did in fact fence a lefty today. It was not pretty.

Originally Posted by Rabid Monk

Welcome to the priveledged ranks of the lefties.
It is now time to let you in on the secret all lefties know, which enables our superiority to be upheld. (PM a lefty)


When I first started fencing, I fenced right handed.
I wasn't sure which was better, so I went with the same hand as everyone else. A little later, at my first competition, I asked a left handed fencer how they found it. He said it was a "tactical advantage", and a lot more comfortable for him.
Being mostly ambidextrous (I write left handed, but I suspect with practice my right hand would be indistinguishable. It isn't bad now), the switch was easy. I liked it, and have stayed left handed since, except when fooling around with epee (our club's lefty epees dissappeared).

I've recnetly started fencing right handed on occasion again. I don't do bad, since I know the actions and such, but I lack the practice, so it gets ugly at times. But eventually I'll be half-decent with either hand.

So my opinion is: Good for you, you should find it fun. And you better taunt the righties, since they'll be considering you a traitor.
But I'd also recomment fencing right handed on occasion, just to keep those skills up, since you appearantly can.

Wow. I am in almost exactly the same position as you are. Except the fact that I have quite a bit of competitions under my belt, and I will probably have to really overwork myself to get my left hand to the same level my right hand is right now.

I have a question for you,
When you fence right handed, do you on occasion feel as if you are loosing control of the epee? Like in a heated match I just start flailing the epee around, while fencing with my left hand that rarely happens.

Thanks
Brand J.

[Rabid Monk]

I went to competitions after only about 3 months, in the novice (< 1 year) category.

Most of my sword work was flailing.

But when I've fenced righty more recently, I have not felt like was losing control. I noticed I had less control, but that was due to a lack of practice. It's simply more noticable now than it used to be because you know how it should be done, whereas beginners don't have that ase to build upon.
At last, that my take on the question.

[Brandj]

Originally Posted by Rabid Monk

I went to competitions after only about 3 months, in the novice (< 1 year) category.

Most of my sword work was flailing.

But when I've fenced righty more recently, I have not felt like was losing control. I noticed I had less control, but that was due to a lack of practice. It's simply more noticable now than it used to be because you know how it should be done, whereas beginners don't have that ase to build upon.
At last, that my take on the question.

Very good point!
It is like i never noticed the mistakes until i fenced lefty and saw it from a different perspective.

[jeff]

Originally Posted by Brandj

I write righty and eat lefty if that makes any sense. The reason I write righty is not because I can't lefty, its because when interacting with people, it is better to show how much like them you are (especially in a college setting). I still remember this grumpy old professor that did not like lefties and had a nasty habit of taking points off for smudging the ink. However, I find it more natural to use my left hand. I can actually lift more weight with my left hand than I can do with my right.

What this says to me is that you may be left handed, and are suppressing it. Though, surely you learned how to right long before college. Were you discouraged from using your left hand when you were child? Water under the bridge now, but maybe left is your natural preference.

[Brandj]

Originally Posted by jeff

What this says to me is that you may be left handed, and are suppressing it. Though, surely you learned how to right long before college. Were you discouraged from using your left hand when you were child? Water under the bridge now, but maybe left is your natural preference.

Yeah that's exactly what happened.

I was born in the Soviet Union, and when my grandparents noticed my left handedness, they have decided that the devil came up to posses their child. So naturally like any loving grandparents, they beat me with a ruler every time I reached for a pencil with my left hand.

[jeff]

Wow. That's a shame, despite their good intentions.

You may as well fence left handed then - it's very likely your dominant hand.

[Beloit Fencer of Old]

I noticed this when, as a lark, I fenced against some of my college fencing students as a leftie, when I've always been a rightie. I beat them, then asked if they felt silly. "Why," they asked. When I pointed out to them that I had fenced against them as a leftie for the first time ever, they groaned.

I discovered that using my non-dominant hand, I had to concentrate more on my footwork and bladework, and my fencing was actually pretty good when I did! I think that you may have found the same thing...many of us, after a few years of experience, don't really think about the things we had to when we started. But when we introduce something to "handicap" our routine, we have to think about it, and it can improve our game, or at least help us perform in a way we did not think we could before we tried it.

[garyhayenga]

Originally Posted by Beloit Fencer of Old

I noticed this when, as a lark, I fenced against some of my college fencing students as a leftie, when I've always been a rightie. I beat them, then asked if they felt silly. "Why," they asked. When I pointed out to them that I had fenced against them as a leftie for the first time ever, they groaned.

I discovered that using my non-dominant hand, I had to concentrate more on my footwork and bladework, and my fencing was actually pretty good when I did! I think that you may have found the same thing...many of us, after a few years of experience, don't really think about the things we had to when we started. But when we introduce something to "handicap" our routine, we have to think about it, and it can improve our game, or at least help us perform in a way we did not think we could before we tried it.

I did the same thing one summer when all the other B and higher rated fencers were taking a couple of months off. Initially I beat everyone, then when someone finally noticed I was fencing left-handed they all felt really silly, and started to adjust to it.

I decided to keep it up for the rest of the summer and see how good I could get. I eventually got so i could beat all the C and lower rated fencers with my left hand, and several of the B's when they came back after two months off and were rusty.

gary hayenga

[Dr Epee]

Originally Posted by jeff

Brandj, being lefty is an advantage, especially at lower fencing levels.

I've hears this said often, but the fact is that all of the final four fencers in the WS event at the last Olympics were lefties, and there remains a disproportionately high number of lefties among the elite fencers of all weapons. One would have to assume that all of the righties at that level have had plenty of opportunity to practice against southpaws, but the imbalance remains. Do lefties have some mystical advantage over righties outside of mere unfamiliarity?

One thought might be that lefty beginners tend to meet with success more quickly than their peers, therefore they stick with fencing and don't drop out early. This disproportion of lefties then stays constant all the way to the elite levels.

[jeff]

Well, I wanted to say "we lefties are superior all the way to the top", but that would have appeared immodest

Seriously, though: I suspect there is at least a small advantage at all levels, with the greatest advantage at the least experienced, but never quite disappearing. The pattern of reinforced success of successful lefties probably also contributes to left-handed success.