I'm just wondering here.
How many of you people here are ambidexterous?

Read: Ambidexterous = being equally adept with both hands

I have a serious problem with my left hand. Not sure whether it was caused by an accident during a childhood (hand was 'crushed' by elevator door), but i really can't seem to do a lot of things with my left hand. It quite affects some stuff i want to do...

Anyone else here with the same problem? :(

A.

This came on the right time.... I was about to ask the same question.

I find that I am too used to my right hand and almost all the coin sleights I know, I can only do it in this hand.... maybe I only practise using right hand only :( Just wondering if this is a common problem that everyone is facing or anyone of you will practise both hands for a sleight?

However, I notice that I can use my left hand to do a few flourishes but not my right hand. This is strange.

Any advise?

Cheers :)

Trust me, there is nothing wrong with both of you. I am also a left-sided-challenged person. I play football predominantly with my right foot (like Ronaldinho) and even my left eye has very poor vision (lazy eye).

This is most obvious when I play snooker. The cue should usually be below your chin when cueing, but for me it is below my right eye. I can't seem to aim properly when aiming in the normal way.

I tried kicking and handling cards with my left but just can't seem to get the knack of it. Anyway, usually people like us are compensated strongly on the right side. So no worries!

It can be trained on both of your hands. The success rate is due to your master hand. Because of your freq usage of it. Your master hand is much more rigid and stronger. So it makes some sleights easier to learn. As for non master hand, you will have a hard time trying to concenrate certain sleights as you will lose strength or concenration over time. If you determined to do it. Eventually you can.

I am a left handed deck holder, but since youn, i being taught the right handed way(Chinese Tradition). So in short, when I just started magic, I do what everyone did, holding the deck in your right hand and doing the sleight with your left. But my left hand is not fast enough, or wont attain good results as compared to my right hand after i switch to my original master hand.

Tough sleights are very hard to master on both hands, because you tend to be lazy after that, like muscle pass or Goshman pinch. I can do goshman pinch on both hands, but I never need to perform with both hands under goshman pinch. So why waste time to train on one hand that you wont use?

My thoughts la.. Hehe.

Yea, i've heard that the less dominant hand can be trained. Thing is i can't use my left hand for nuts!

I use my right hand for badminton/ table tennis so my right hand is also much 'muscular' than my left hand. Now i'm trying to do some manipulation with my left hand and i don't know whether its because of psychology or what, but i fumble ALOT and its damn slow... <_<

So far i've always found a way to switch hands for sleights, but for manipulations, i guess there's no easy way out huh? :unsure:

A.

Its always harder for non master hand. If you want to try your finger, you can get finger trainer for guitar players in those music schools. It works the finger well.

Cheaper way is to practise super hard and don't give up. :)

For me the situation is abit different. My master hand is the right hand, but i train my left hand more when doing magic. The reason is i don't wanna hurt my right hand cos i need my right hand to draw. -_- I often over trained my left hand...especially the wrist part. Now if i practice some sleights for a long time it will start to hurt :(

Hence i could do sleights better with my left hand...which is my non master hand. For example my left handed muscle pass is much higher than my right handed muscle pass

I think that the only reason to be ambidextrous in magic is so that your audience (esp if they are somewhat educated in magic) will not be able to watch your dominant hand to 'catch the move', and will hopefully be somewhat confused by the method.

But I guess there isn't much motivation or reason to be ambidextrous except to feel good. I'll just have to accept that I am 'one-sided'... ):

Hmm, that was one of the reasons i wanted to train up my left hand, but not all of it...

What about stage manipulations? 'Cause for me, i think its kind of 'weird' in a sense if you could only do productions with your right (or dominant) hand. So far, (i think) in whichever stage act i've seen that involves manipulations, both hands are used to produce stuff.

A.

I think for stage acts (manipulations), even though most of the time both hands are used, the non-master hand plays a secondary role in support of the master hand which does the more demanding sleights?

e.g. If you are a right master hander, at some point during the act you stand near your table (which is on your right when you face the audience) with your left facing the audience. In this position, your right palm is facing the audience while the back of the left hand faces the audience. You then go on to produce things (cards, CDs, etc.) MAINLY with the right hand (drawing more attention to the right hand) while the left hand also produces things but perhaps in a less tricky manner/using less demanding sleights.