Ambidexterity and Hand Matching

This article will cover ambidexterity and hand matching and their usefulness and how they can help you become a better fighter. Enjoy...

Not everyone has been gifted with the ability of growing up ambidextrous. Most of us use our dominant hands for everything and the off hand is left hanging around like "hey, what about me?". Not only is this true in the mundane world of everyday life, but also in our fantasy world of Dagorhir. Most fighters do all of the fighting with their dominant hand and never learn how to fight with their off hands. There is nothing saying that you have to be fighting ambidextrous, but it certainly has its advantages and can really take your fighting to the next level.


Ambidexterity

For those reading this that are newer to the game and just starting out, I would recommend that you first learn proper weapon control before learning to fight with your offhand. If you can't properly control a blue sword with your dominant hand, it will be even more difficult to do with your offhand. For most people, the motor skills in their offhand are significantly lower than that of their dominant hand. Low motor skills and poor weapon control don't make for a good pairing.

Moving on, allow me to discuss the advantages of becoming fighting ambidextrous:

Say you're a Sword/Board fighter and you lose your sword arm. While the shield is a useful tool and can keep you alive, it won't get you any kills. And a Red fighter can come along and break your shield, then what do you do? If you learn how to fight with your offhand, you'll have a chance to stay alive and keep fighting. Now, in a team scenario, that shield can still be beneficial, but in 1v1 combat you would be better off with the sword than the shield.

Learning how to fight with your offhand will also help you to better read opponents who's dominant hand is opposite of yours because you will have fought from the perspective of a fighter of the opposite dominant hand. As I stated in my previous article, found here, "Becoming The Obstacle" can help you overcome it, and learning how to fight with your offhand can teach you how those fighters fight. You'll know what shots they throw and how, and you'll be better able to visualize where their attacks will come from so that you're ready to defend and counter because you'll already be a step ahead of them. Being able to read and predict what an opponent is going to do will go a long way in defeating them, and learning to fight with your offhand is one way to achieve that.

On the other side of the coin, learning to fight with your off hand can give you an advantage over those fighters who may not be expecting it from you. Say you're a right handed Sword/Board fighter and you decide to go lefty, it will throw people off, even more so if they're not used to fighting left handed fighters. If your opponent is also a Sword/Board fighter, your sword is now on their sword side and you won't have the shield to contend with as much, and shots that may not have been available before now become an option.

Being fighting ambidextrous will also go a long way when fighting with two handed weapons(Reds and Spears/Polearms). You'll be able to vary your shots and shot locations so that you don't become predictable, and this will be especially helpful if you're fighting next to someone who fights opposite handed to you or if you're positioned on a certain side of your team's line. If you're positioned on the left side of the line, it would be better to throw shots from the left side, and vice versa. The bottom line is, you won't be as limited if you can fight equally well with both hands.

Training Tips

We may not all be ambidextrous, but luckily there are ways to teach yourself to become so:

Pat Your Head, Rub Your Belly: Remember when people would ask you if you could pat your head and rub your belly at the same time? Well as silly as it may seem, it can help you to coordinate both hands. You'll likely find that you can do this pretty easily with your dominant hand patting your head and your offhand rubbing your belly, but will likely find it more difficult to do if you reverse it. Yes it's a silly exercise, but it will get both hands moving at the same time, operating independent of one another. Do this exercise everyday if possible for as long you can stand. The longer you do it the better.

Offhand Day: This was a concept taught to me by a friend and fellow Dagorhirian. Start off by choosing one day a week that should be a day off of work or school, and do everything you normally do but with your offhand for the entire day(this includes eating, brushing your teeth, etc.) Do this for an entire month. Then, the following month, take two days a week and do the same thing for the entire month. Continue this process, adding a day each month until you can do things with your offhand everyday just as well as with your dominant hand.

Play Drums: If you can afford it and won't get in trouble, try learning to play the drums. Again, this will get your hands both working at the same time, but independent of one another.

Study Boxing: Watch boxing matches and boxing training videos. Obviously boxing requires the use of both of your hands, just like a couple other things on this list. Not only will you learn to effectively use both hands, but you'll also learn how to throw combos in the process.

Muscle Memory: Please refer to my first article about drills, found here, and search for the Muscle Memory drill. This will go a long way in building up your offhand.

Fight Armed: Another way to build up your offhand is to fight at practice as if you lost your dominant arm, so you have no choice but to fight with your offhand and every shot is a kill shot. Not only will this help build up the motor skills, weapon control, and fighting ability in your offhand, but it will also sharpen your defense as you'll have to really fight to protect yourself and stay alive.



Hand Matching

Hand Matching, or "mirroring", is a very useful strategy. Not only does it provide you with more options, but it also takes away any advantage your opponent may have had over you by fighting the opposite to your dominant hand. To hand match or mirror your opponent, think of it just like a mirror: if their sword is in their right hand, yours should be in your left hand, and vice versa. Doing this will make it so less movement is required to defend that side of the body. You won't have to cross your center line to block a shot, which would leave you far more open. Doing this can also throw your opponent off and make it more difficult for them to read and predict what you're going to do if you're constantly switching hands. This isn't as necessary with Sword/Board as it would be a slower process with switching the sword and shield, especially if you fight with a strap shield, but this can be done in 1v1 duels. You won't always be able to hand match, but when possible, I encourage it. Again, if you're a new fighter starting out, focus on weapon control first.

A good way to train hand matching is by doing the Block/Strike drill. You can watch a video of how to do the drill here.

As always, thanks for reading and I hope this article was helpful.

Until next time,

Durrok Thunderaxe