The advantage of being left-handed in interactive sports
NORBERT HAGEMANN
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University of Mnster
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Mnster, Germany
As compared with their prevalence in the general population, left-handers are overrepresented in the expert domain of many interactive sports. This study examined to what extent this is due to negative perceptual frequency effectsthat is, whether the greater frequency of tennis matches with right-handed opponents makes it possible to discriminate the stroke movements of right-handed players more precisely. Fifty-four right-handed and 54 left-handed males in three equal-sized groups of varying levels of tennis expertise (national league experts, local league intermediates, and novices) completed a tennis anticipation test in which they had to predict the subsequent direction of an opponent's temporally occluded tennis strokes on a computer screen. The results showed that all three groups were better at predicting the direction of strokes by right-handed players. This supports the hypothesis that the overrepresentation of left-handers in the expert domain is partly due to perceptual frequency effects.
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With slight geographical variations, the proportion of
left-handers in the population seems to have hardly changed
for several thousands of years (Faurie & Raymond, 2004).
Depending on which activity is observed (e.g., throwing,
using a hammer), it ranges from about 10% to 13%
(Raymond, Pontier, Dufour, & Mller, 1996). However, among
top-level international athletes, left-handers1 are
overrepresented (as compared with their prevalence in the
general population) in most interactive sports in which two or
more athletes play or fight each other directly (e.g., tennis,
fencing, or boxing), but not in noninteractive or individual
sports (e.g., golf or swimming) (Grouios, 2004; Grouios,
Tsorbatzoudis, Alexandris, & Barkoukis, 2000; Raymond
et al., 1996). For example, in an analysis of world
rankings from 1968 to 1999, Holtzen (2000) showed that
lefthanders were clearly overrepresented among the worlds
top 10 ranking players in tennis (male, 24.06%; female,
11.80%), the worlds number one ranking players (male,
34.4%; female, 30.3%), and Grand Slam finalists (male,
22.27%; female, 18.75%). A higher proportion of
lefthanders can also be confirmed in the top ranks of other
sports, such as fencing (Bisiacchi, Ripoll, Stein,
Simonet, & Azemar, 1985), baseball (Coren, 1993; Goldstein
& Young, 1996), and cricket (Aggleton & Wood, 1990;
Edwards & Beaton, 1996; Wood & Aggleton, 1989).
Earlier Explanations
Two explanations for this phenomenon are discussed
particularly frequently in the literature (Grouios, 2004;
Grouios et al., 2000). The first assumes that left-handers
possess a neuropsychological advantage (the innate
superiority hypothesis); the second, that they have a strategic or
tactical advantage (the strategic advantage hypothesis).
Innate superiority hypothesis. Geschwind and
Galaburda (1987) pointed to the developmentally determined
enlargement of brain regions in the right hemisphere of
left-handers, arguing that this should particularly favor
them when performing activities placing demands on the
right half of the brain, such as spatial imagery tasks (e.g.,
Rossi & Zani, 1986) or tasks requiring certain attentional
functions (Bisiacchi et al., 1985). Bisiacchi et al.
confirmed an advantage for left-handed fencers on several
attentional tasks, suspecting that the right half of their brain
is neuroanatomically highly suitable for such activities.
Taddei, Viggiano, and Mecacci (1991) reported similar
findings in fencing. They studied 8 male fencers (with at
least 10 years of fencing experience) and 8 controls
(college students). One half of each group were left-handers
according to the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (EHI;
Oldfield, 1971). Using psychophysical measures (visual
evoked potentials), they found that visual stimuli evoked
potentials more rapidly in left-handed fencers than in
right-handed fencers and that this effect was particularly
marked for large visual stimuli.
Particularly with regard to motor skills, one significant
factor seems to be whether the motor task is performed
with one hand (e.g., darts or bowling) or both hands
(e.g., golf, ice hockey, or baseball). When performing
a task with both hands, left-handers could benefit from
the weaker lateralization of the two brain hemispheres
(Grouios, 2004). The stronger nondominant side or the
superior interplay between the two sides could then lead
to better overall performance in bimanual activities. For
example, McLean and Ciurczak (1982) concluded that
this weaker lateralization was responsible for the
superior average batting performance of left-handed baseball
players (who both pitch and bat with their left hands), as
compared with right-handed players who also bat with
their left hands (but pitch with their right).
Grondin, Guiard, Ivry, and Korenss (1999) analysis of
the batting performance of all major league baseball
players (18711992) also produced the same finding. However,
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