Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Do you pick extracurriculars?

I wouldn't even if I thought she warranted one. If she ever gets a biography in print, I won't be the driving force.

Let me just add, here, though... my daughter recently contemplated using I Speak Six Languages as an audition piece-- and I nixed the idea because listening to her sing that song made me cry because it was a little too close to home, YK? (Yeah... ouch... talk about the anthem for HG perfectionism. How many of our kids here ARE Marcy Park, hmm?)

When I first certified at our local range, I was *by far* the worst shot of the group. As in, for a given challenge, everyone else could have gone out for a leisurely meal, returned, and I'd still be plugging away.

Our first challenge to be licenced with pistols involved hitting 10 out of 10 22mm shots on a 6 inch target from 25 meters. The challenge took experienced shooters anywhere from 1 minute up to about 20 minutes.

It took me more than two hours to do it, the first hour in which I may have hit the target a cumulative handful of times. (Hooray persistence!) Granted, I'd never shot before, but it was still pretty terrible. Around 1 hour and 45 minutes into shooting, one of the instructors suggested a modified hold when he realized I was left eye dominant and right handed.

The running joke with the guys until I improved was that I was more accurate throwing the gun (an untested theory) than shooting. Ouch!

Hey, looks like I am right handed but left eye dominant. Maybe that's why I sucked to much at target shooting as a teen? Does it matter with pistols (one handed grip)? I can't remember which eye I used to close.

I naturally gravitated to my left eye for the shooting I do with a camera these days

The things you learn on the internets...


Speaking of weird, my 2E son is left hand dominant for small motor skills (eating, drawing, scissors writing, writing) but right hand dominant for gross motor (throwing balls). I spent some time arguing with him and sports coaches (speaking of EC activities -- "he is left handed!" "no, I don't want to throw with my left hand!") before an OT eval uncovered the pattern...

If it makes you feel any better, when I was in boot camp, we had a day in the shooting range, which was one of those indoor-types you see on police movies, with paper targets deployed and retrieved by a rope and pulley system. Like your exercise, the weapon was a .22 pistol. I finished my firing exercise, then got to watch others take their turns from the side. One guy got everyone's attention, because a quick glance showed that he was aiming up at at least a 30-degree angle, and his shots were causing sparks on the pulley, several feet above the target.

I don't think a modified grip can fix that.

I never had any particular issues with pistols, because when I hold it out properly, it feels natural and easy to adjust a right-handed grip to line up with my left eye. Rifles and shotguns are another story, since I have to use them in the off hand. It's particularly problematic in a standing position... the heavier the weapon, the louder my body tells me to "move it to the strong side, stupid!"

You just described my mom, who used her left for writing and scissors, her right for everything else, so it doesn't come across as weird to me. She described her own mom as ambidextrous, though Grandma disputes that.

Me, I'm a natural rightie in pretty much everything, yet for some reason I've always been able to manipulate my left hand in more intricate ways than my right. This is proving to be quite useful (note that I avoided the bad pun "handy," you're welcome) since I took up the guitar.

Thanks for the reassurance, Dude. You had me laughing imagining the poor guy.

Siasl, regarding handedness, I'm right handed for anything requiring one hand (writing, shooting, fencing, throwing, racquet sports...). Yet, for anything requiring two hands (golf, hockey, lacrosse, and baseball), I'm left dominant. I wonder if this is a general trend. Let me just consult with my dear friend, Mr. Google.

aquinas, do you think you're truly right-handed for the one-hand activities and sports? I wonder if perhaps you are right-handed at those things because when you were little you weren't showing a dominant hand preference and you were subtly encouraged to use your right hand for them - nothing forceful, it just happens in our society. I'm left-handed, and I grew up playing golf, baseball, etc right-handed - not because I would have naturally chosen to, but because for instance, in PE at school there were no left-handed mitts. The first times I played miniature golf (and later real golf) the people showing me how to play were all right-handed, so that's how they showed me to hold the golf club and so that's how I played. I also can't cut using left-handed scissors, but I'm not all that great at using right-handed scissors - I'm just very used to them because when I was in kindergarten and we had to use scissors, there was only one pair of left-handed scissors and about 4-5 left-handed kids, so not enough to go around. I suppose I'm just enough ambidextrous that it all worked out ok, but I was never great at any of the sports I played right-handed. Many years later, as an adult, one of my friends in a softball league wanted to know why I didn't bat left-handed. I thought I didn't bat left-handed because I "naturally" batted right-handed, but I tried batting left-handed for him just to show him I couldn't. I was only *half* correct about the "couldn't" do it - it was clumsy at first because I had no idea how to coordinate eye/hands/bat etc to come in contact with the ball when I was facing the opposite direction and holding the bat differently than I had for years. OTOH, when I finally *did* connect with the ball it went further than it had *ever* gone in all the years I'd played softball... and I realized... I really was better at batting left-handed - I'd just gotten into a habit early on in life that made me think I was meant to play sports right-handed. I found the same thing out with kicking the ball for soccer too once I tried it with my left foot.

Two of my kids are right-handed and left-eye dominant - and I wonder a lot about whether or not they are really right-handed. My dysgraphic ds is tough to know - not having a dominant left-or-right is part of being dyspraxic (which he is). He's always held silverware etc with his right hand and written with his right hand, but he tried writing with his left hand just for fun a few years ago and it looked much neater than with his right hand, even though he'd never tried it before. Take all of that with a grain of salt - he's dysgraphic and *none* of his handwriting is legible enough to rely on, so who knows. But my dd9 - who is not dysgraphic and has legible handwriting is also very athletic - and she does everything sport-related left-handed. She's left-eye dominant. I wonder a lot if she's truly right-handed for handwriting or she just started with the right hand because that's what she saw other people doing or because one of us put a pencil in her right hand.

Sorry for the ramble - I find the whole eye-dominant vs handedness issue interesting!

polarbear

Polarbear, that is really interesting. I'm right-handed (well, I'd say around 70%, anyway) for small-motor stuff, and left side dominant for large motor (again, probably 65-70%).

Gymnastics, soccer, etc-- all left. Bought righty golf clubs, though, so I use those as a righty, which seems to work fine. Softball-- I thought I was terrible as a kid-- until I tried it as a lefty in grad school. Turns out I'm not SO awful.

check, and check.

though i write with my right hand, i'm definitely left-bodied - i step left and swim left and deal cards left... but i distinctly remember an early teacher telling me i must choose a hand to write with and i wanted to know which was better (read: typical.) so interesting this is more common than i thought!

Yes to that.

I have a friend who learned to write by watching her older left-handed sister. She is 100% right-handed, and to this day she writes left-handed. She can write right handed very neatly, but those early years of training mean that writing left-handed remains quicker and less tiring for her.


Which is why I spent so much time arguing with DS's basketball coach back in K, because he was showing all the techniques right handed and I though this was driving my son's resistance to switching to the left hand.

But after one quarter of basketball in K, all other EC experience from preschool onward in sports with no hand work required, he still did over one SD better right handed on the ball throwing OT test in 2nd grade. So I am nearly 100% (there was that horrible PE coach in K-1st...) convinced the right vs. left is wired in and not patterned...


And then there is DD4, who can write, draw and eat with both hands, although she is starting to favor the left one. When writing and unless corrected she goes left to right with her right hand and right to left with her left hand. She often draws with a marker in each hand. It is cute now.