Fencing.Net - Your Guide to Fencing & Fencing Equipment

sabresamurai · 07-20-2003, 12:21 AM

i am a left handed fencer and i wondered, "Is there an advantage or disadvantage to being a lefty? Or does it not even matter?"

Talyn · 07-20-2003, 12:32 AM

If you're left handed you generally have an advantage over right handers since they are not used to fencing leftys.

However, you may also have the same trouble with other leftys since you dont fence them much; advanced/experienced fencers don't seem to have too much trouble since thye are used to it.

rukovsoft · 07-20-2003, 12:33 AM

in addtion to what was said earler,
there is a whole theory on the "brain" difference between righty and lefty like they perceive things differently. actually a lot of studies have been made...maybe somebody on this forum can sum up the results. i ve read them somewhere...but cannot remember. is there is a link with the theory that describes what part of the brain does what...?

Wizardly · 07-20-2003, 12:51 AM

The obvious disadvantage is finding equipment...I've yet to see a club that has a left-handed french grip. If all they have are pistol grips, you're in even bigger trouble. Don't get me wrong though, the equipment does exist. It's just a little more aggravating to find now and then. For example, if you're the only lefty at a tourney and you break your last blade, you can't borrow someone else's too easily.

One more advantage... you pretty much always get the left side of the strip.

wflaschka · 07-20-2003, 01:50 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by rukovsoft i ve read them somewhere...but cannot remember. icannot remember if there is a link woth this theory that describes what part of the brain does what...?

That's a powerful demonstration of brainpower there.

I am not a neurologist (AFAIK), but I've heard that writers, musicians and artists are often lefties. As lefties, they are better at applying the powers of the right lobe of the brain, leading to better conceptual reasoning, abstraction &etc.

On the fencing strip, this artistic urge might, for lefties, translate to better improvisation or finesse. Righties, using the powerful analytic tools of the left lobe, are rule wonks.

From an equipment viewpoint, finding lefty gloves and weapons in piles of club gear is indeed tiresome.

From a coaching standpoint, I'm always wondering if I'm ruining my fencers by giving predominantly left-handed lessons.

JEC · 07-20-2003, 02:15 AM

In general, the feeling is that strong left-handers also have a "different", some would say better, visuo-spatial perception than right-handers have. The strongest successful asymmetric brain that I have known was a patient who was left handed and had rare right partial seizures due to a gross malformation of the left brain known as schizencephaly. I met this guy days before he got his music Ph.D. He told me that he easily gets tunes by ear but was relatively terrible in math and english. In general, the feeling is that strong left-handers also have a "different", some would say better, visuo-spatial perception than right-handers have. Strong left handers have shifted language along with handness to the right brain hemisphere and consist of less than 5% of the population, while left handers are around 10-15%. However, the main reason why left-handers fencers are a more difficult for right-handed fencers is the relative unfamiliarity early during fencing learning curve. Elite fencers might often have an unusual high representation (around 30-50%) of left-hander fencers. Whether this overrepresentation is due to a "head start" for left-handed fencers, better visuo-spatial perception, or both is not known. In the mean time, for us, right handers, cheer every time that a left-hander faces another one.

rukovsoft · 07-20-2003, 04:00 AM

[quote]Originally posted by wflaschka
[b]That's a powerful demonstration of brainpower there.

...i was writting several posts at the same time. didn t read what i wrote.

the two by wflashka and Jedc sum up the two things i ve been reading about and couldn t explain due to my lack of mastering in sciences: the difference of perception and the way "brain" work in lefties/righties.

corinna2u · 07-20-2003, 04:51 AM

hmmm...

I am a lefty, that fences the two other leftys in our household practically every day, and I do most everything else with my right hand...

so am I doubly advantaged or have I made my lefty advantage null and void,

cowpaste · 07-20-2003, 12:38 PM

Wait...so what does it all mean if I'm a right handed dork who fences left? Maybe that is why I just plain suck....

The0ne · 07-20-2003, 01:54 PM

Lefties have a secret evil fencing power bestowed by the powers that be! Fencing lefties is just plain harder then fencing other Righties (I am righty btw) because. . . I havent figured out why, but they just are!!!

annacattiva · 07-20-2003, 03:08 PM

Wizardly- come out to Western Mass sometime! Both of my clubs have lefty French and pistol grip foils in the equipment locker. In fact, I'd guess that about half of our weapons are various kinds of lefthanded.

Wizardly · 07-20-2003, 11:01 PM

I'm doubly disadvantaged by also having big hands.

There just isn't a visconti big enough...

Talyn · 07-21-2003, 02:08 AM

Leftys are.... sooo... wierd and everything they do is back to front in fencing.

Zelda · 07-21-2003, 04:46 AM

I resemble that remark!!!!!

Wizardly · 07-21-2003, 04:59 AM

We leftys are just naturally blessed with innate qualities most people have to read Sun Tzu's "Art of War" to learn.

But then they learn and the playing field is level again.

We're like teh southern hemisphere...not as many people live here, and when it's summer there, it's winter here...but it all makes the same perfect sense. We're like a world map where South is up.

mifencer · 07-21-2003, 12:57 PM

After a certain level, there's no difference between lefties and righties.

jeff · 07-21-2003, 01:06 PM

Like Talyn said, we lefties fence righties much more than they fence us, which gives us much more practice training for the actions that exploit the situation.: the 4, counter 4 riposte, the feint attack that lands on the flank or back, and so on (and similar, in samurai's sabre).

Some lefties are clueless when fencing other lefties, and it can be comical to see two of them facing each other with a "now what?" expression on their faces.

I do like the theory that we have secret evil powers...

three_hundred_fifty_five · 07-21-2003, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sabresamurai
i am a left handed fencer and i wondered, "Is there an advantage or disadvantage to being a lefty? Or does it not even matter?"

If I had a dollar every time that question was asked. Go back to Kansas... oh wait, you are from Kansas.

Peregrine · 07-24-2003, 02:43 AM

I'm a newbie, but thought I'd jump in here.
I now fence at a school made up primarily of artists, so we have an unusually large representation of lefties. Our maestro is also left handed. Here's what I know:
The right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, and vice versa.
The right side of the brain is very visual, while the right side is more mathmatical and word-oriented. This is why you can sort-of blank out while driving and singing along with a song: the right side likes to take over while singing the words, and the left side keeps on driving.
[For more on this see the introduction to "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain"]
Whith all that gobble-di-gook being said... Left-handed fencers are just wierd, evil, or both.

broncofencer · 07-24-2003, 03:21 AM

Being a left handed fencer myself in all three weapons. I find that at tournamets there is no real advantage to fencing left handed especially in epee where most lefties end up. Besides in both foil and Epee it always seems that all the lefties are in the same pool to effectivly weed each other out. Sabre is a little different at least here in Michigan as there are very few lefties if any that fence sabre at most tournamnets.