Right Handed vs Left Handed People...

[Hartwood71]

After fishing for >45 years, without ever thinking about it, I just now realized that I reel retrieve on both sides.  

Baitcasting: Right.  

Spinning: Left.  

Fly fishing: Left.   

Basketball: Right.  
Throwing: Right.  
Hitting: Both. 

Golf: Right.  

Hockey: Left.  

Surf: Left

Writing: Definitely Right (and still barely legible)

 

Bazaar.  Ive always made fun of lefties for being a weird species.   I probably have to re-think that.  

 

Besides being a little embarrassing to admit, it makes me wonder.... Do any of you have strong opinions about the ‘other-side’ or reel on each side?

[Bird]

Spinning is always left but baitcasters are either hand, have lefts and rights on boat.

[roadwarrior]

George Welcome

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Posted August 22, 2007

Let's get technical, as there are in fact reasons, not just some lame holdover from days past that put the handles where they are.

What will move the fish during retrieval is placed to the strong hand!

A baitcast is designed to be used as a winch, so it is the reel that retrieves the fish. Hence if you are right handed the handle is in your right hand.

A spinning reel is designed to pick up unloaded or loose line, not retrieve the fish. Hence it is the rod that does the retrieval, so it is the rod that is in your strong hand. If you are right handed then the pole goes to the right hand.

•  

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George Welcome Sebastian Florida

[Maxximus Redneckus]

Truth

[Hartwood71]

That makes total sense.  Ty.  Although I’m still not sure I trust lefties, in general. 

[michaelb]

I am neither handed and do things with both or either hand. So I would play tennis with my right hand and badminton or ping pong with my left, which makes total sense. When I bought a bait casting reel, I bought a left handed reel, thinking that is what I was used to, only to find out I have been using my right hand on my spinning reel all those years.

 

Most kids are going to learn from the parents and use the gear their parents had. So a right handed mom or dad is probably not going to switch the handle for a child that may end up being left handed. So most left handed kids grow up using right handed gear and get used to doing things that way (or not, and switch as they understand the differences).

[Dens228]

I was born in the early 60's and am left handed.  The nun's at my Catholic school tried to make me right handed but didn't succeed.  But growing up there just wasn't a lot of left handed items or sporting gear so I adapted. As a result I'm all over the place on which side I use......off the top of my head as it stands now

 

Shoot guns,...either way

Shoot a bow... rh

Throw....rh...........got a new baseball glove at 8, right handed but I'd rather use the new one than the correct one

Fish.......right handed, try getting left handed stuff in the 60's!! LOL

Bat..........either

Eat ....lh

Scissors........rh

kick........lf

Write........lh

box.........rh

 

[Johnbt]

"A baitcast is designed to be used as a winch, so it is the reel that retrieves the fish."

 

Over 60 years of fishing and I didn't know that.     I suppose I'll just keep doing it my way.

[WRB]

Hand to eye coordination is important and you can train your hand you can't train your eye. Everyone should determine what is their dominate eye, left or right? Your dominate eye determines where everything actually is located. You do this with a simple test.

Hold your hands straight out in front of you and from a trianglur hole using your thumb out away from the fingers, hand held overlapping to form about a 2" to 3" hole. Look through the hole at a distant object across the room or outside with both eyes. Now while looking at the object close one eye, if the object is still centered in the hole that eye is your dominate eye. Now open both eyes looking at the object and close the opposite eye,thr object should dissapear jumping toward the dominate eye. 

If you are right handed and left eye dominate it's nearly impossible for you hit a target using both eye open because the target is in reality off to one side, not where you see it.

Right handed people with left eye dominate should retrain their hand eye coordination by using the left hand. The opposite for left hand people with right eye dominance if you want to be accurate at hitting targets or casting to a specific target without adding compensation.

Bait casting reels perform better with the handle upright at 12 o'clock and your wrist flexes properly to cast with your thumb held towards your body, not upright at 12 o'clock. The rod should be held by your dominate eye side hand to cast accurately.

Spinning reels are better balanced held on the rod hanging down, the handle should be opposite your dominate eye side.

Rods cast lures and fight fish, reels cast and retrieve line. Fighting fish is controlling them by keeping the rod loaded and line tight, not wenching them towards you with a reel.

Tom

[MN Fisher]

11 minutes ago, WRB said:

Hand to eye coordination is important and you can train your hand you can't train your eye. Everyone should determine what is their dominate eye, left or right? Your dominate eye determines where everything actually is located. You do this with a simple test.

Then of course you can end up in my situation. Right eye dominate for most of my life - then lost it to cancer 5 years ago. I've had to re-train myself to use my left eye.

[Boomstick]

I cast with my left, although I am capable of accurate shorter casts with my right too, but I have to reel with my right -- it feels super super awkward reeling with my left.

As far as some of the others you mentioned:

Basketball: Primarily left but could shoot right too
Throwing: Left. Couldn't throw a ball 10 ft with my right arm, even though it's actually stronger.
Hitting: Both. Better power batting left handed but better contact batting right.

Golf: Right. I started off playing left handed, and I'd always miss the ball and couldn't hit it far at the driving range. One day the driving range only had a right handed club, and I was hitting them 300+ yards into the woods. Who knew?

Hockey: Never really played but I feel like I could actually puck handle better left but I'd whiff on slapshots.

Writing: Left.

 

Some others:

Mouse: left

Guitar: Right handed - so the left hand does the majority of the work in the styles I usually play (I'm terrible at acoustic fingerpicking!)
Grabbing a coffee cup with a handle: Left. Can't hold the handles with my right.

Grabbing something without a handle: Either, but I will go with my right hand if I can place it on my right side.

Scissors: Right, perhaps because I was a teenager by the time I got left handed scissors and was used to using my right though?

 

And as far as my feet are concerned, if I am kicking a ball, I am using my right foot 100% of the time if I have a choice. I'm honestly not sure if it's because my right leg barely moves at the hip or preference. That is, I can put my left leg behind my head, but I can barely put my right leg over my left knee.

2 hours ago, Hartwood71 said:

That makes total sense.  Ty.  Although I’m still not sure I trust lefties, in general. 

Why is that? Because we go through challenges that right handed people don't, forced to comply to the right handed convention and thus get better at problem solving, think quicker, are better at things like math, art and music? Or maybe it's because many of us got bullied in school but not as much by other students but by school staff telling us we're writing with the wrong hand? Or is it simply because we're never right?

[FishTank]

47 minutes ago, WRB said:

Hand to eye coordination is important and you can train your hand you can't train your eye. Everyone should determine what is their dominate eye, left or right? Your dominate eye determines where everything actually is located. You do this with a simple test.

Hold your hands straight out in front of you and from a trianglur hole using your thumb out away from the fingers, hand held overlapping to form about a 2" to 3" hole. Look through the hole at a distant object across the room or outside with both eyes. Now while looking at the object close one eye, if the object is still centered in the hole that eye is your dominate eye. Now open both eyes looking at the object and close the opposite eye,thr object should dissapear jumping toward the dominate eye. 

If you are right handed and left eye dominate it's nearly impossible for you hit a target using both eye open because the target is in reality off to one side, not where you see it.

Right handed people with left eye dominate should retrain their hand eye coordination by using the left hand. The opposite for left hand people with right eye dominance if you want to be accurate at hitting targets or casting to a specific target without adding compensation.

Bait casting reels perform better with the handle upright at 12 o'clock and your wrist flexes properly to cast with your thumb held towards your body, not upright at 12 o'clock. The rod should be held by your dominate eye side hand to cast accurately.

Spinning reels are better balanced held on the rod hanging down, the handle should be opposite your dominate eye side.

Rods cast lures and fight fish, reels cast and retrieve line. Fighting fish is controlling them by keeping the rod loaded and line tight, not wenching them towards you with a reel.

Tom

I am ambidextrous.  I use my righthand for most everything (writing for example) but I use my left for tools and such.  When I have done the above test in the past, I point at an object with my right hand never moving my hand, close my left eye, and what I am pointing at remains in the same place.  I then close my right eye, open the left and the object moves.  Next I re-open my right eye, close the left, and the object is in a different place from where I started.  Close both eyes, reopen both eyes and the object is back where is started.  Weird.  Doctors have not been able to sort it out exactly but I was deadly when I was younger with a rifle. 

 

As far as reels go, I have tried both right handed and left handed.  I like using left hand retrieves the best.  They feel more natural.

 

On a side note and it's just food for thought.....  I had heard this years ago from an Abu Garcia collector.......  Baitcasting reels were originally designed to be used with the reel seated on top when casting and then turned over to retrieve> using the left hand.  Fisherman found that they liked it the other way, with the reel staying on top.  

[WRB]

The early bait casting rods had pistol grips slanted down to fit the hand with a trigger for the index finger to hold to keep the rod from slipping out of the hand. It's nearly impossible to turn a pistol grip rod over with the reel on the bottom.

I learned to cast baitcasting reels before free spools were availble so the handles spin with the reel spool acting like a gyro and slowed spinning quickly if held with handles sideways. My 1st free spool reel was a Langley Target 340 in the late 50's before Ambassaduer 500 free spool reel became popular in the early 60's.

All baitcasting reels were hand right hand handles until the optional left hand reels came out in the late 70's. Most spinning reels were left handed, a few were convertible. 

My generation left hand people were discouraged to write left handed and practically forced to learn to write right handed. I am left eye dominate and somewhat ambidextrous but prefer to favor my right hand.

Tom

[kayaking_kev]

4 hours ago, roadwarrior said:

George Welcome

• I love bass fishing!
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• Members
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• My PB: Please Choose
• Favorite Bass:Largemouth
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Posted August 22, 2007

Let's get technical, as there are in fact reasons, not just some lame holdover from days past that put the handles where they are.

What will move the fish during retrieval is placed to the strong hand!

A baitcast is designed to be used as a winch, so it is the reel that retrieves the fish. Hence if you are right handed the handle is in your right hand.

A spinning reel is designed to pick up unloaded or loose line, not retrieve the fish. Hence it is the rod that does the retrieval, so it is the rod that is in your strong hand. If you are right handed then the pole goes to the right hand.

•  

---

 

George Welcome Sebastian Florida

I spent a lot of time yesterday using the forum search engine looking for this post and never found it, and here it is posted today, LoL, thanks!

[new2BC4bass]

5 hours ago, Bird said:

Spinning is always left but baitcasters are either hand, have lefts and rights on boat.

X2

[lo n slo]

6 hours ago, Hartwood71 said:

After fishing for >45 years, without ever thinking about it, I just now realized that I reel retrieve on both sides.  

Baitcasting: Right.  

Spinning: Left.  

Fly fishing: Left.   

Basketball: Right.  
Throwing: Right.  
Hitting: Both. 

Golf: Right.  

Hockey: Left.  

Surf: Left

Writing: Definitely Right (and still barely legible)

 

Bazaar.  Ive always made fun of lefties for being a weird species.   I probably have to re-think that.  

 

Besides being a little embarrassing to admit, it makes me wonder.... Do any of you have strong opinions about the ‘other-side’ or reel on each side?

there are more of us out there than you might think

[suzuki2903]

im right handed but use left hand reels, both spinning and bait casting. its more comfortable and makes more sense to me, less switching hands after casting to be able to reel in.

[fvogel67]

2 hours ago, suzuki2903 said:

im right handed but use left hand reels, both spinning and bait casting. its more comfortable and makes more sense to me, less switching hands after casting to be able to reel in.

Same here. Although I can play pool using both hands.

[Hartwood71]

Niiiiice!   I’ve only tried left handed pool shots a on a bet (money loser).  
 

I’m now considering a lefty BCaster and betting buddies on random challenges.  

[kdubracing]

On 2/29/2020 at 2:46 PM, suzuki2903 said:

im right handed but use left hand reels, both spinning and bait casting. its more comfortable and makes more sense to me, less switching hands after casting to be able to reel in.

I'm the exact opposite of this. I'm left handed and always use right hand reels. I put the handle on the right on my spinning reels also.

[RB 77]

Right handed, right eye dominant. Fish bait casters with a RH retrieve, spinning reels with LH retrieve. All hand use activities I use my RH, except for fishing spinning reels. I surf with my left foot back (GF), but kick with my right foot. Go figure...

[Hammer 4]

33 minutes ago, RB 77 said:

Right handed, right eye dominant. Fish bait casters with a RH retrieve, spinning reels with LH retrieve. All hand use activities I use my RH, except for fishing spinning reels. I surf with my left foot back (GF), but kick with my right foot. Go figure...

Goofy footers Rule....haha.

[RB 77]

Just now, Hammer 4 said:

Goofy footers Rule....haha.

 

Yes sir! Haha

[LxVE Bassin]

I use everything left handed when it comes to fishing, I fight southpaw, throw left handed, and write right handed.

[AdamT]

I reel with my right hand, both casting and spinning.  Throw, bat, golf, and use a hammer left handed.  Shoot and write with my right.  Left hand/arm is stronger/dominant.  Right eye is dominant and right hand seems to have the more finesse control.  I’m weird I guess.