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Left Hand Free?


Rambam

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13 hours ago, Taribo said:

I think you’ve got a point @Ellafella, I’d imagine the same applies to guitarists - there’s a disproportionate amount of lefties that make it. Wonder if applies to creativity as well as hand-eye coordination? 

I am left handed and I failed to learn how to play the guitar and I have zero creativity.

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11 hours ago, cosmic said:

My mate is a natural leftie, but at school they forced him to learn to write right-handed. So he kicks with his left and flicks Vs with his right!

Yes; way back in medieval times, left-handedness was associated with being in league with the Devil. Hence it was thought that it was something that had to be "discouraged" hence at school left-handers were forced to write with their right hands. The Latin for left is "sinistralis" which is the derivation of the word "sinister". Meaning wrong or untrustworthy etc. 

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8 hours ago, Igorwasking said:

I’m right footed, but used to take free kicks with my left - could hit it harder with that peg for some reason.

Alan Hinton is left-footed but can kick with both feet. He used to take penalties with his right foot. 

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8 minutes ago, Ellafella said:

Yes; way back in medieval times, left-handedness was associated with being in league with the Devil. Hence it was thought that it was something that had to be "discouraged" hence at school left-handers were forced to write with their right hands. The Latin for left is "sinistralis" which is the derivation of the word "sinister". Meaning wrong or untrustworthy etc. 

I didn't know that.

I've read before that the King of France was left handed, so ordered his army to use their swords left handed. 

Which was a disadvantage when raiding English castles with spiral staircases!

Although I'm reaching the age where I think 'Did I read that, or did I dream it'?

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On 09/03/2020 at 22:04, Taribo said:

I think you’ve got a point @Ellafella, I’d imagine the same applies to guitarists - there’s a disproportionate amount of lefties that make it. Wonder if applies to creativity as well as hand-eye coordination? 

Is that true? Left handed guitarists are a bit of a rarity in my experience, hence why left handed guitars are usually much harder to find

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12 hours ago, reverendo de duivel said:

I didn't know that.

I've read before that the King of France was left handed, so ordered his army to use their swords left handed. 

Which was a disadvantage when raiding English castles with spiral staircases!

Although I'm reaching the age where I think 'Did I read that, or did I dream it'?

Think you’ve got that half right. I might be wrong, but I always thought the staircases spiralled anti-clockwise down to make it easier for the defending soldiers, as most would have been right-handed and be able to swing their weapons round the corner. If that’s true, then the French king knew this and trained his army, who would have been at an advantage raiding castles and swinging up with their left hand. 
 

(Obligatory Kenneth Williams GIF for some of the phrasing)

 

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3 minutes ago, cosmic said:

Think you’ve got that half right. I might be wrong, but I always thought the staircases spiralled anti-clockwise down to make it easier for the defending soldiers, as most would have been right-handed and be able to swing their weapons round the corner. If that’s true, then the French king knew this and trained his army, who would have been at an advantage raiding castles and swinging up with their left hand. 
 

(Obligatory Kenneth Williams GIF for some of the phrasing)

 

Might be the first time I've ever learnt anything on this forum

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13 hours ago, Ellafella said:

Yes; way back in medieval times, left-handedness was associated with being in league with the Devil. Hence it was thought that it was something that had to be "discouraged" hence at school left-handers were forced to write with their right hands. The Latin for left is "sinistralis" which is the derivation of the word "sinister". Meaning wrong or untrustworthy etc. 

In Icelandic, wrong handed is the term used for  left handed.  My friend's mother and grandma told me repeatedly that i was the spawn of the devil, but maybe that was for something else heh.

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23 minutes ago, cosmic said:

Think you’ve got that half right. I might be wrong, but I always thought the staircases spiralled anti-clockwise down to make it easier for the defending soldiers, as most would have been right-handed and be able to swing their weapons round the corner. If that’s true, then the French king knew this and trained his army, who would have been at an advantage raiding castles and swinging up with their left hand. 
 

(Obligatory Kenneth Williams GIF for some of the phrasing)

 

You are not wrong, sir.

However it wasn't universal. I believe some castles were built the opposite way because the families who built them were prone to left-handedness. If memory serves I think Ferniehirst castle is an example of one. 

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Just now, angieram said:

Only on dcfc fans would you find a discussion on the orientation of castle staircases! 

I'm sure there's a forum of historians somewhere talking about the potential of a new contract for Chris Martin.

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2 hours ago, cosmic said:

Think you’ve got that half right. I might be wrong, but I always thought the staircases spiralled anti-clockwise down to make it easier for the defending soldiers, as most would have been right-handed and be able to swing their weapons round the corner. If that’s true, then the French king knew this and trained his army, who would have been at an advantage raiding castles and swinging up with their left hand. 
 

(Obligatory Kenneth Williams GIF for some of the phrasing)

 

No, you're not wrong. 

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The British army in it's infinite wisdom decided to adopt a rifle that is still in use today that cannot be fired left handed. I had to re-learn how to hold a rifle from scratch in a way that felt horribly uncomfortable and pass the same marksmanship test as all the right handed people that didn't have the same issue.

The alternative was having a red hot brass round hit me in the eye/cheek every time I fired it.

Gotta love the army.

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8 minutes ago, JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta said:

The British army in it's infinite wisdom decided to adopt a rifle that is still in use today that cannot be fired left handed. I had to re-learn how to hold a rifle from scratch in a way that felt horribly uncomfortable and pass the same marksmanship test as all the right handed people that didn't have the same issue.

The alternative was having a red hot brass round hit me in the eye/cheek every time I fired it.

Gotta love the army.

That the SA80?

Not uncommon for militaries throughout history to enforce handedness, though. It helps in a lot of areas, although obviously far more so back when combat was largely melee. 

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2 minutes ago, SaintRam said:

That the SA80?

Not uncommon for militaries throughout history to enforce handedness, though. It helps in a lot of areas, although obviously far more so back when combat was largely melee. 

Yeah, the A2 variant is the one I used, but until they replace the whole thing the problem will persist. In terms of enforcing handedness it's daft on a rifle, you want to be able to switch orientation depending on your position. If you are behind a wall and need to look out to the left you either have to accept that you are going to eat some brass if you need to fire left handed or expose more of yourself than should be neccessary and fire right handed.

The army needs a more modern rifle full stop really. The original SA80 was a disaster and we had to comission H&K to bring it up to even a minimum standard for widespread use. They should have canned it there and then.

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