...I am not really left-handed!

Xposted to fencing

For a bit of fun, one of my lefty-fencing buddies and I decided to exchange equipment Thursday night for an "opposite hand" bout. It was... interesting.

One might assume that four years of doing the same thing over and over would burn the "moves" into your brain for either side - not so! My footwork was passable but my bladework was just tragic! We both found ourselves with death-grips on our weapons in a poor attempt to compensate, and had to stop a few times to "shake out" our aching hands. Every time I lunged I unintentionally leaned the right side of my body forward, because it felt more natural (indeed, just remembering the "mindset" of wrong-handedness is messing up my typing - I've had to correct more typos, I swear....)

Indeed, I was so disoriented that distance and timing ceased to be a consideration. I lost the bout, but feel very accomplished because I scored two touches.

I think it's a good practice for any fencer, no matter how humiliating - helps even you out, and it was good for me to experience fencing a righty from a lefty viewpoint, though I was concentrating so fully on simple acts like lunging that I don't think I picked up any strategy.

We both had a good laugh, but though we felt utterly strange and did very poorly, we both agreed it would be good to try again.

Dig the new fencing icon! This and others found at martial_icons thru betnoir, and created by user_undefined - Thanks!