Parents Left handed gymnast?

[3LittleGymmies]

One of our daughters is 5 and on pre-team. She writes/colors/cuts with her left hand, but her "good leg" in gymnastics is her right and she can't do a thing trying to use her left as her "good side" in the gym. I am just curious if that's common or if all lefties should (for some reason) really be favoring their left leg in gymnastics, too.

 

[Copelscope]

My dd is a lefty in life but righty in the gym . We've heard from her coaches it's not terribly uncommon

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

Only from talking to others, I'm not a gymnast... there are people who are "opposite" in gymnastics to what they are in other areas. A friend of mine is right handed but a leftie gymnast, her daughter is as well. This friend used to coach team and says it isn't uncommon.

 

[Quadqueen]

quite common. My DS is a righty when it comes to writing, but a lefty with sports...he bats left, golfs left, etc.

 

[rjb123]

My DD is right handed, and is generally right handed in the gym, except she does round off and cartwheels as a lefty. She can do them both ways, but left is better for her, so her coaches have her do 99% of stuff as right handed except for those two things. Odd, huh?

 

[JMACAZ]

Both my girls are right handed but lefties in the gyn.....

 

[LIGYMMOM]

quite common. My DS is a righty when it comes to writing, but a lefty with sports...he bats left, golfs left, etc.

My DS is the exact opposite, writes lefty and bats, golfs, etc. righty. Good to know he's not totally weird!

 

[myliljunebugs]

DD is a righty in school and a lefty in sports also. It's definitely strange and being "left handed" in the gym makes her coaches second think instructions of everything to her. Hopefully her new preteam coach will already have experience with lefties.

 

[iwannacoach]

I really don't think there's a clear correlation between left handed at school and ? handed in the gym. Some kids like leading into skills with their left side, and others prefer their right lead the way. The only thin we coaches need be mindful of is to keep certain skills turning in the same direction as certain other skills. That and to keep them from wrong footing themselves by entering a skill as a righty but finishing as a lefty when trying to do a connection to a second skill, because they will likely need to enter the second skill as a righty, but will have the wrong foot in front.

 

[Jen H.]

Another righty/writey, but lefty in gym.

 

[Kiwi]

DD is generally right-handed but lefty at gym. I am a mixture - left-handed for writing, right-handed for some other things, lefty at gym.

 

[raenndrops]

Personally, I am a stronger lefty writer (but can easily write righty too)... throw left, bat switch hitter (left dominate)... righty cartwheel and roundoff... but one-handed cartwheel is right foot, left hand.

Younger gymmie is righty writer and (mostly) righty in gym. Older gymmie is righty writer and either way in gym - no "good leg / bad leg" ... just a preference based on individual skills.

 

[Ex member]

Yongest dd is a leftie when she writes and also a leftie at gym.

 

[profmom]

Interesting -- DD is mostly a righty entering skills, but is a lefty twister. Looks like her brother will be the same way. We know they are both possibly heterozygous because they have two lefty grandmothers. We have three righty kids and figure the fourth, if we'd ever had one, would have been our statistically entitled lefty!

 

[wgagym]

Very common. I am a leftie/ rightie in gym and my daughter is a rightie/ leftie in the gym. Makes it interesting for me to try to teach her her routines

 

[skschlag]

My ds is a righty for most things, and mixed in the gym. I think he is a leftie gymnast..twists left, etc, but we have had several incidents of mixed dominance in the gym that causes problems.

 

[Malenkaya]

This is interesting. I'm a leftie for writing, but I use my right hand for scissors, eating, pretty much anything else. I'm a pool player and I shoot right handed as well. Trying to hold the cue with my left hand is extremely awkward.

 

[GymMom67]

My DD is a lefty, but does everything the same as most of her team at the gym. I have noticed that one of the girls does the floor routine opposite from the rest of them, so she must be going left. Not sure if she is left or right handed outside the gym. Interesting discussion!

 

[Flossyduck]

My ds is a lefty for writing, eating etc. but a righty for gymnastics and for kicking a ball etc.

He had a funny (right) wrist, which dislocated very easily when he was a bit younger and during a Dr's check up she noticed he kicked the ball with his right foot. She thought that, as a lefty, he should be kicking with his left foot and referred him to a specialist to see if he was left handed because of his funny right wrist, rather than naturally. The specialist was completely bemused and said that it's perfectly normal to be left handed and right footed, or indeed any other combination and sent us packing!

 

[Canadian_gym_mom]

I really don't think there's a clear correlation between left handed at school and ? handed in the gym. Some kids like leading into skills with their left side, and others prefer their right lead the way. The only thin we coaches need be mindful of is to keep certain skills turning in the same direction as certain other skills. That and to keep them from wrong footing themselves by entering a skill as a righty but finishing as a lefty when trying to do a connection to a second skill, because they will likely need to enter the second skill as a righty, but will have the wrong foot in front.

Yes my did had to relearn a bunch of stuff when we changed gyms when she was a little 6 year old level 3 (Ontario Canada old levels).

It also causes a lot of debate here because different coaches think different things about legs and stuff, lol. But what was explained to me is that the higher level things (that she is now starting to get to) wouldn't have worked the way she was first taught. May e something about combinations and twisting? All I know is I was directed to many threads dealing with directions and that it was really a coaching style.