Am I left handed? or are YOU??

[DanGer1285]

Swing right, throw right, shoot pool right, shoot hockey right, shoot basketball right, jerk it right, kick balls with my right foot.

Guess I'm purely right sided.

 

[jaj23]

hope jaj23 would agree with this response but to maximize power in your swing you take your hands in a straight path to the ball bringing your bottom hand in towards your body and driving your top hand through the ball. You should never actually rotate your wrist until after you have made contact with the ball so whether or not your fingers are overlapped or not should not matter. Im assuming by rotational you mean during your load you turn your upper body in and as you begin your swing you extend your hands and rotate your upper body but thats not mechanically right. The further your hands are away from your body, the less power your have. You can still hit a ball a long way doing that if you have a lot of power because after all your hitting composite bats but usually if you hit that way your either a dead pull hitter or don't hit the ball to the opposite side nearly as hard as you pull it. keeping your hands inside the ball and exploding with the top hand is the only way to hit the ball to all parts of the field with authority.

Yep. In addition, the arms should be bent (top arm > bottom arm) at contact and should extend through the ball.

 

[kweiss]

This has always puzzled me...Im a left handed batter from the pitchers POV but i stand in the box on the right side when i approach it. I throw right handed but bat left..my right hand is on bottom which makes it my dominate hand the "powerhouse". Why are there so little amount of left handed batters? Shouldn't everyone who's is right hand dominate bat left handed?

This is my theory on why so many pro MLB players hit left handed. And also why lefties tend to have smoother swings.

 

[jadavis17]

Yep. In addition, the arms should be bent (top arm > bottom arm) at contact and should extend through the ball.

exactly... can't have your hands close to your body without bending your elbows. Trying to explain how everything should happen from head to toe would take a very long post but I think with what little info given people should be able to see why the overlap grip is not necessary. Hitting a ball is very similar to properly punching someone in the face You don't want your elbow to extend causing your fist to basically stop right at the person's face. You want enough bend in your elbow that you can punch all the way through to back of their head and then some!!

 

[jadavis17]

This is my theory on why so many pro MLB players hit left handed. And also why lefties tend to have smoother swings.

My thought on this theory is since there are only around 4 or 5% people in the world who are left handed you don't see nearly as many of them with bad swings because there are not nearly as many of them playing as righties. There are so many right handed people, the probability of them sucking is higher. Right handed players can have just as good of a swing as a lefty. Lefties can have terrible swings as well. Just like saying more people in 2011 were murdered in the U.S. than in 1911. well there are millions more people here now and out of those millions there are few more stupid people in the world that would kill someone for whatever reason.

 

[stickin2j]

 

[mutigerfan21]

I think I can top this. Played college baseball and pitched right and left handed. Normally left hand dominate but also pitched right handed. Threw harder right handed than left handed, but better control left handed. Play softball now primarily left handed. However I bar right handed, can bar left but not great. Played all other sports right handed and footed. But I write, and eat left handed. Completely ambidextrous all the way around here.

 

[BEEJ]

This has always puzzled me...Im a left handed batter from the pitchers POV but i stand in the box on the right side when i approach it. I throw right handed but bat left..my right hand is on bottom which makes it my dominate hand the "powerhouse". Why are there so little amount of left handed batters? Shouldn't everyone who's is right hand dominate bat left handed?

because only 10% of people are wrong handed

 

[1st Baseman]

Lefties

because only 10% of people are wrong handed

This, sir is correct, 10%-15% of the global population is left-handed.

 

[1st Baseman]

I agree w/ all above, some curious left-right combos out there. Let’s keep in mind that this is based on genetics and training; in my immediate family all females on are left-handed: my two daughters and my sister and her two daughters. I’m, the only male lefty and do almost everything left-handed except use a computer mouse. In my years in Karate and kick-boxing I always trained to kick more often w/ my right leg b/c it was closer to my opponent, so, my left leg is stronger but my right leg is much faster and flexible. My last commander in the Army shot rifles right-handed, handguns left-handed, threw footballs and softballs left-handed, wrote lefty, used a computer mouse right handed, batted lefty and golfed righty. The computer mouse is mostly a matter of convenience and habit, a lefty sits in front of a computer and chances are the mouse is on the right side, so instead of rearranging the whole setup we just grab the mouse and go. BTW, I’ve been to one of those “lefty stores”… can’t use most of that stuff.

 

[kweiss]

My thought on this theory is since there are only around 4 or 5% people in the world who are left handed you don't see nearly as many of them with bad swings because there are not nearly as many of them playing as righties. There are so many right handed people, the probability of them sucking is higher. Right handed players can have just as good of a swing as a lefty. Lefties can have terrible swings as well. Just like saying more people in 2011 were murdered in the U.S. than in 1911. well there are millions more people here now and out of those millions there are few more stupid people in the world that would kill someone for whatever reason.

And yet 38% of MLB hitters are left handed. I'm saying it gives a fundamental advantage in swing quality, and that advantage is seen in the significantly higher percentage of pro lefties (most of whom throw right handed).

 

[theBOMBsquad]

I read somewhere that most people's dominant eye is their left eye which makes it easier to bat "right handed." Since most people do things with their right hand, they just assume that the way those people bat would be called "right handed" also. Interesting theories...

Extend your arms in front of you with your palms facing away.

Bring your hands together, forming a small hole by crossing the thumbs and fore fingers.

Choose a small object about 15-20 feet away from you. With both eyes open, focus on the object as you look through the small hole.

Close one eye and then the other. When you close one eye, the object will be stationary. When you close the other eye, the object should disappear from the hole or jump to one side.

If the object does not move when you cover one eye, then that eye is dominant. The eye that sees the object and does not move is the dominant eye.

 

[theBOMBsquad]

Extend your arms in front of you with your palms facing away.

Bring your hands together, forming a small hole by crossing the thumbs and fore fingers.

Choose a small object about 15-20 feet away from you. With both eyes open, focus on the object as you look through the small hole.

Close one eye and then the other. When you close one eye, the object will be stationary. When you close the other eye, the object should disappear from the hole or jump to one side.

If the object does not move when you cover one eye, then that eye is dominant. The eye that sees the object and does not move is the dominant eye.

I'm left eye dominant but I bat left handed amd I am still right handed! I'm an abomination!!

 

[wcoastsoftball]

Playing devils advocate but why is the overlap grip preferred by alot of ppl. Even if it's just a finger or two

I likethe overlap grip if I am trying to pull or stay on the right side of the field. If I see a shift in the outfield I will change to a standard grip for more control and go oppo. I don't think I have a poor mechanical swing, just prefer the feel of the overlap or power and it works for me. But I have started this season hitting poorly so I may go back to standard grip for everything until I get my timing down.

 

[EdFred]

Extend your arms in front of you with your palms facing away.

Bring your hands together, forming a small hole by crossing the thumbs and fore fingers.

Choose a small object about 15-20 feet away from you. With both eyes open, focus on the object as you look through the small hole.

Close one eye and then the other. When you close one eye, the object will be stationary. When you close the other eye, the object should disappear from the hole or jump to one side.

If the object does not move when you cover one eye, then that eye is dominant. The eye that sees the object and does not move is the dominant eye.

Throw right, kick right, shoot right, write right, bat left, right eye dominant.

 

[tippin20s]

Left-eye dominant, throw right, hit right(but can also hit left with less power), kick right, write right, JO right.

 

[Dyingbreed]

Ok I will bite. Natural Lefty, mom is lefty dad was righty. I used to be able to write, catch and throw left and right handed. This lasted until I was about 11 years old when I was made to pick a hand. I eat and write lefty now, everything else I do right handed. After a right shoulder reconstruction I found out that I can bowl left handed too. When I was younger I prefered to play hockey righty with a lefty stick. For being a lefty its all about how we learn. Its hard for a right handed person to teach someone left handed things. So many times we can adapt to what ever the situation dictates.

 

[BabeRuthPose]

I write left ,bat left ,throw right golf right( was a poor kid and we only had right handed) shoot pool left and I wipe my ass w my left.

Is this a peeing contest? If so, I want in.

 

[goldglover79]

Bat and throw right. Split wood,write,and work hand tools left handed

 

[jadavis17]

And yet 38% of MLB hitters are left handed. I'm saying it gives a fundamental advantage in swing quality, and that advantage is seen in the significantly higher percentage of pro lefties (most of whom throw right handed).

If someone throws right handed then they are right handed even if they bat left. As far as there being so many left handed hitters, that is because of scouting. With there being a higher percentage of right handed pitchers, teams look for lefties for the better match up. Just like when a lefty pitches teams want more righties in the line up. Hitting or throwing with either hand is a mirror copy of each other. Lefties have an advantage batting off of right handed pitching and since you see so many they tend to have more success, but when you pitch a lefty what happens to their average most of the time??? it goes WAY down. The sweeter swing depends on the ability of the athlete not what hand they are...there are tons of right handed VERY talented ball players out there that don't get a shot simply because they don't offer a good match up to right handed pitching. Teams take the left handed first baseman for turning the double play(cuz your shoulders are already square to make the throw) and any outfielders they can get since you can't put a lefty at 2nd,SS,3rd, or catcher. gotta stop now, don't want to write a book.