Leading With Their Left...
the advantages for left-handers in sport
It is often stated that sport is a prime example of left-handers
superiority, but what are the reasons behind this theory?
The "leftie advantage" seems to emerge
in sports demanding rapid reactions and good spatial judgement. In
fencing for example 7 of the 16 top world fencers are left-handed, and
so are 5 of the top 25 international tennis players and 4 of Europe's
ten best table tennis payers. In boxing, squash and cricket left-handers
also
enjoy more than average success. Among the scientists who have studied
left-handedness in sport
one in particular, a French neuroscientist named Guy Azemar,
investigated the proportion of left-handers in world-class
championships over several years. He reported that about a third of
elite fencers are left-handed. One fencing great was the Italian
Edoardo Mangiarotti who won a total of 13 fencing medals. Mangiarotti
was naturally right-handed but was forced by his father to fence with
his left hand as it was thought to be an advantage.
Tennis champion Martina Navratilova During his study for the French Institute of Sport
and Physical Education, Azemar became convinced that sporting lefties
have an innate advantage, particularly in "opposition" sports. To
explain why, he concentrates on the way the brain is wired up. The brain
consists of two halves (hemispheres) each performing
different tasks, and it is sometimes thought that in left-handers
these functions are more evenly distributed between the two sides
i.e. our brains are more symmetrical. For example, in a left-handed
tennis player the control of movements and part of space management
are performed on the right side of the brain.
This means that the
process of the player seeing the ball coming and actually hitting the
ball are both dealt with by the same hemisphere. In a right-hander this
visual information has to transfer to the opposite hemisphere to direct
the player's movement, adding an extra 20 or 30 milliseconds to the
reaction time - hardly significant one would think, but it can be
decisive in world class sport.
Greg Rusedski (pictured right) once had the worlds fastest serve. The
Canadian-born star switched to play for Great Britain in 1995. He held
the world record for the fastest-ever serve, 149mph at Indian Wells in
1998. It has since been broken by Andy Roddick
during a Stella Artois Championship match against Paradorn Srichaphan at the Queen's Club, London, UK, on June 11, 2004. He his a whopping 153 mph!
Many scientists agree the
left-handers could have a sporting advantage, but think it is not simply
a question of speed. Some American researchers think that left-handers
may actually possess enlarged right hemispheres, giving them superior
spatial skills.
Power server Gred Rusedski
S.A. Cricketer Nicky Boje
Two psychologists at Durham University, Charles Wood
and John Aggleton, think that the advantage is more likely tactical
than neurological. They claim that with a large enough sample of
world-class tennis results from several years the leftie effect
vanishes. However, when Wood and Aggleton analysed cricket yearbooks,
they found that a higher proportion of professional cricketers bowled
with their left hand - about 20% leading to their theory that the
advantage is tactical. Left-handed bowlers have the benefit of
unfamiliarity and they can bowl at a different angle and move the ball
in the opposite direction to their right-handed counterparts.
Tactical advantages of left-handers are also well established in
tennis and squash. Martina Navratilova once pointed out that many
players have pet shots such as hitting the ball across court to
their opponent's weaker backhand. If they play this shot against a
left-hander then it will go to the lefties stronger forehand. A
left-hander also has an awkward serve that swings away from the
backhand of the right-hander.
However, the main advantage for left-handers in fast sports
would seem to be practical. Lefties are perfectly used to playing
right-handers but for right-handers, a left-handed opponent is a
very tricky exception. It could also be that right-handers are put
at a psychological disadvantage simply by knowing their opponent
will be left-handed and expecting them to have this advantage.
"I'd love to open a tennis school for children in my hometown of Sochi." said Sharapova Maria.
