Re: Learn to throw with other arm?

On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 05:34:53 -0500, Steve <smalpert@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Craig Richardson wrote:

It's tough enough to learn to switch-hit after 20 - I know from
experience. I've been playing soccer for a decade straight, and my
left leg is still almost exclusively for standing on - and considering
how much more fine muscle control is involved in throwing accrurately,
I'd be surprised if one in a hundred post-teenagers could manage
anything convincing.

Hm. Last spring I kicked a goal with my left leg, and most of my
right-legged shots don't go where I want them to. Also, for the last
two+ years or so, I've been working on leftie frisbee, and have a pretty
good backhand now. I'm 23, so certainly still fairly young, and my left
arm certainly can't throw a ball (not like my right can either...), but
it seems within the realm of possibility to at least learn passably
(i.e. enough to play catch with your son).

Sure. I could probably toss forty or fifty feet lefty with enough
accuracy to keep the other guy from doing too much chasing (and little
enough power that he wouldn't have to go very far when he does). But
even throwing BP fastballs consistently over the plate from a real
mound is probably beyond me. And even when I was in game shape, I was
the rec-league version of Randy Winn in the OF, so I'd have to get my
left arm /stronger/ than my right to make it worthwhile, and that
ain't gonna happen.

Basically, I suspect diminishing returns. For a different example, I
expect that many more adults could train themselves (and the training
itself would be much easier) to write legibly with their off hand than
to do calligraphy with it. And the skills to play ball competetively,
even at the rec level, are hard enough that a lot of people can't do
it even allowing them their primary hand. It's worth a try if there's
no alternative, but I'd prepare myself to be pleasantly surprised if
it succeeds rather than unpleasantly surprised if it doesn't.

--Craig

--
Craig Richardson (crichard-tacoma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
"Then I heard the whirring of the motorized snowmen, sound[ing] like the
death rattle of very small robot lizards, and I left the seasonal aisle"
-- James Lileks, "The Bleat", 2005/10/10
.

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