Why It's Good To Have A Weak Hand

We might have a strong hand because having a weak hand is actually useful.

LEARN MORE
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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:
- Handedness: the tendency to use one hand more than the other for specific tasks

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CREDITS
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Peter Reich | Script Writer
Kate Yoshida | Narrator and Director
Sarah Berman | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation
Nathaniel Schroeder | Music

MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC

OUR STAFF
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Sarah Berman • Arcadi Garcia i Rius
David Goldenberg • Julián Gustavo Gómez
Melissa Hayes • Alex Reich • Henry Reich • Peter Reich
Ever Salazar • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida

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REFERENCES
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Chédotal A and LJ Richards. 2010. Wiring the brain: the biology of neuronal guidance. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 2010 Jun; 2(6): a001917. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a001917

Magat M and C Brown. 2009. Laterality enhances cognition in Australian parrots. Proc. R. Soc. B 276:4155-4162

Forrester GS, WD Hopkins, K Hudry, A Lindell (eds). 2018. Cerebral Lateralization and Cognition: Evolutionary and Developmental Investigations of Behavioral Biases. Progress in Brain Research. Book series. Volume 238, Pages 2-433

[ilikaplayhopscotch]

It’s hilarious and also very scary to imagine a spider hunting by just beating up its prey.

[UnPuntoCircular]

When I fractured my right wrist, I had to learn to use my left hand for daily tasks. And I got pretty good at it, but it required a lot of practice to build that "neural circuit" and strength.

[jzneto]

I am ambidextrous for a lot of things. And I developed that on purpose since I was 13. The point of the "weaker" hand as a supportive one is totally true and I always say that. When people try to train the other hand, things seem more difficult at start than they should be because we often try to only emulate the dominant hand movements and totally forget the supporting job of the "weaker" hand. Pay attention to both hands when doing a task and then try to switch hands. It will help a lot.

[Arclor]

I trained myself to be ambidextrous over like 6 years.

Main reason was I read it was good for your brain plasticity and gave you an advantage in martial arts (it might, but not much lol).

Never regretted it for a second; I love being able to pick up and do something with whichever hand is closer. 99% of the time I don't notice, but there are a few quiet moments in my life that have made it worthwhile!

[IamCoalfoot]

I first realized how important my non-dominant hand was when I realized _it_ knows how to move me around in video games. It is neither less useful nor less dexterous, they're both just specialized to their roles, which seems to work out alright I'd say.

[niklas]

Don't forget that there are a lot of tasks, such as typing on a keyboard, that require the use of both hands at very high dexterity. When typing, I truthfully cannot perceive a difference between my hands. They both seem similarly dexterous and accurate. This, to me, reinforces the idea that most of the difference is manifested by learned preference - not innate disability.

[PescadorGama]

What's amazing is that depending on the task, your preferred hand may vary and not always be the same one!

[soldierofEYUPBrepublic]

As a left-hander, I can say that you will have an advantage in most sports. I was kickboxing at the time and my trainer told me this

[eh]

Fighting a left handed person in a sword fight? Big mistake. That leftie has experience fighting right handed people! Right handed people fight southpaws less often!

[dynamystic]

Glad you included that the non dominant hand has tasks its optimized for. There are many activities which my "dominant" hand is far worse at completing.

[Artemipso]

As an ambidextrous person I actually perform completely different functions with my two hands. I use my right hand to write and use my left hand to play sports and draw. I can switch their roles up with relative ease (i.e. I can also use my left hand to write decent long essays) but I tend to have a preferred side for each specific activity.

[Ohem]

I’ve always had more sensation and sensitivity on my left side, I was taught to be right handed but became left handed over time as it was easier. This also means I perceive pain more on my left side than right, so most ”grunt” work is done on my right as it’s less strenuous.

[Video_Commenter]

I lose a brain cell everytime people ask me:
“How can you write with your left hand”

[vacafuega]

I tried switching hands for a while and found that while it's relatively easy for my left hand to take over the right hand activities, it's WAY harder for my right hand to figure out how to support. Being a seamless assistant is a whole other level compared to just doing things well.

[literalphoton]

I remember one time I was bored in like third grade, and i made it my mission to use my non-dominant hand for months until I learned to be ambidextrous. I soon realized how hard of a task that was, but not exactly for the reason I thought it would be. Using my dominant hand for simple supporting tasks like holding down the paper while I wrote with my non-dominant hand was actually just as difficult as writing with my non-dominant. I gave up after like a month or two because I had gotten behind in class by being a slow writer but tbh I think the experience did train me to get a little better with swapped hand roles, because everyone compliments how well I can write even with my non-dominant hand.

[Stratelier]

As a lefty (and one of three in a family of five), none of us _ever_ bothered trying to learn how to mouse with our dominant hand. And once two-button mice became standard, it wasn't worth the effort of constantly switching which button the OS considers the primary one. It was simply easier to learn to mouse right-handed to begin with.

[le]

Ambidextrous people must be looking at both of their hands right now contemplating life after finding out they're inefficient.

[GreyKnightsVenerable]

Fun fact: Due to the designs of castles, left handed swordsmen would outperform right handed swordsmen in enclosed close quarters combat. (Raiding side.)

[wfy]

So pretty much for efficiency and the fact that our left hands can play a supporting role for our right hands, like stabilization

[jackanderson]

"MinuteEarth with hands isn't real, it can't hurt you"

MinuteEarth with hands: