Changing from Right to Left handed?

[Wodin]

Hi All,
I've just started shooting AP and have been enjoying it enormously. I even managed to break grade in my first open comp! However due to having too much fun in my youth I have a damaged right shoulder which gets pretty sore and shaky after around 50 shots.
Has anyone had any experience in swapping over to shoot with their non-dominant hand? If so, how did it go and do you have any tips? Thanks in advance.
Wodin

[Gwhite]

Hi All,
I've just started shooting AP and have been enjoying it enormously. I even managed to break grade in my first open comp! However due to having too much fun in my youth I have a damaged right shoulder which gets pretty sore and shaky after around 50 shots.
Has anyone had any experience in swapping over to shoot with their non-dominant hand? If so, how did it go and do you have any tips? Thanks in advance.
Wodin

I did it for a while, and got to the point where my best left handed scores were better than my worst right handed scores. It takes a little while to build up the strength & fine motor control, but all the mental stuff is the same. You also have to deal with likely cross-dominant vision.

It's very doable. Consider:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1roly_Tak%C3%A1cs

[Wodin]

Thanks Gwhite. It's reassuring to know that it can be done without too much problem. I'm hoping that because it's very early in my shooting career that it might not be as difficult as if I'd been doing it for decades.
That's an inspiring story in the link - thanks.

[fhorrigan]

I didn't exactly switch sides but have a related experience that is relevant to the strength issue. I agree that it takes a while to build up the necessary strength, and would caution that it should be done slowly - at least if you are as far past your youth as me :-)

I have always used my right hand for sports, because that is my stronger side. However, I am a lefty for writing, and recently figured out that I am also left-eye dominant. So when I started shooting AP earlier this year I decided I should learn from day one with my left hand. I figured strength wouldn't be a big issue because (1) it's just a little bitty pistol! and (2) I have been regularly lifting weights in the gym for many years, so while my right is stronger, my left has not been neglected. Therefore I was surprised after about a month of practice that my shoulder was in pain and it's movement restricted. I have never had shoulder problems in my life and was worried that I had caused serious damage. However, I conclude now that I just pulled some muscles that I never had need to use before. Fortunately, at that point the valve seal in my pistol failed and I was forced to stop shooting for over a month while getting it fixed. When I started again, my shoulder was still stiff but less painful. I started doing more shoulder exercises in the gym, as well as more stretching and warmup exercises before shooting. Now, 2 months later I don't feel any problem with my shoulder nor shooting a 60 shot match. In fact, if the first 60 feel good, I sometime shoot another 60, which is how I scored my personal best last week.

So while I can't speak to the issues of cross dominance, I don't think strength is a barrier to switching hands as long as you take the same precautions that someone with previous shoulder injuries probably already knows about.

[Ricardo]

I had to switch to LH shooting for a shoulder issue as well, and for me the biggest problem has been that my left index finger is significantly stupider than my right. I play guitar so I thought this wouldn't be an issue but the left and right hand do significantly different things, and perhaps my left fingers only know how to press down with the tip. Still, it's doable.

[Wodin]

Thanks fhorrigan & Ricardo - that's great feedback.
I'm hoping that my left finger is not so stupid that it can't be told to move slowly and purposefully for precision shooting. It might be different story when I'm shooting Rapid!