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Would you influence Your son's Handedness

Wake

Wake

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Yes, I made up that word.

So the scenario is, you have a very young son who wants to start playing golf with daddy. He is naturally left handed, but hasn't played baseball, so doesn't know the feeling of swinging a club. Would you track down a set of little guy LH clubs, or just buy him a righty set and let him try to become a righty.
 
I shoot left in Hockey and I'm a righty in Golf and a righty in Baseball! I believe my dad said he wanted too too be a RH golfer so he could pass his clubs down and i don't think anything of it.
 
When I become a father, he's becoming a righty, my dad taught me to be a lefty because of baseball. I great up ambidextrous though so I'm a pretty weird kid, write righty-shoot a basketball leftie-play golf leftie-bowl lefty
 
When I was little and learning to play baseball, my dad was righty but I was just more comfortable lefty. He let me stay lefty instead of switching me to righty. I'm glad he did. Lefty pride. If my kid is more comfortable righty, so be it, he can play righty. Maybe he'll copy me and be lefty. Who knows. I wouldn't influence it though.
 
I would try but I wouldn't force it too much. If he is more comfortable one way then that is what would be best. Honestly I feel bad for lefty golfers since its harder for them to find certain clubs.
 
I'm kind of weird, I bat lefty and golf righty. Even though I bat lefty I am terrible at golf lefty, like very uncoordinated.

Personally, if I could influence I would say RH. There are many more options out there for RH golfers, especially in used clubs (which I assume is what most juniors use because they grow out of things so quickly).
 
c0ncept said:
I would try but I wouldn't force it too much. If he is more comfortable one way then that is what would be best. Honestly I feel bad for lefty golfers since its harder for them to find certain clubs.
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Exactly my thought, buying clubs is just so much tougher for lefty's.

My buddy's son is a lefty, and wants to golf. They have a fisher price golf club they let him play around with, and he swings it both righty and lefty. He wants to buy his son a set of clubs, but was having a hard time finding lefty. I told him just to let him try right first. If it works, its better because he can find junior clubs for cheap, and as the son grows up, he has more options. If it doesn't work, hunt down a set of lefties. His wife blew up at the idea, said it was wrong to influence him like that. But she is a "free spirit" anyway.
 
I was very ambidexterious as a kid, I did most things either hand. In fact till I was a young adult I could write and throw righty or lefty. As I have gotten older I settled into to righty and didn't work the left as much and don't have the same control over I used to.

I would let him go with which ever developed naturally.
 
I wonder if it can be influenced. I have a son who was left-handed. I remember buying him a LH 7 iron when he was little to see if he had a preference one way or the other. He always chose the RH club. I don't know if that's just because that's what we always had around the house or if that was just natural for him. He does almost everything LH except golf.
 
I'm a lefty who golfs righty. I think golf as a lefty playing right is not too bad or as difficult as other sports. I play right handed bc I learned off my moms hand me down right-handed club. Because golf takes both hands/arms, I think as a lefty you can still let your left hand/side really participate. Does that make sense? My husband taught me to bowl right handed. I bowled that way for a year and sucked. I changed to the left and immediately was better than I had ever been with the right. Because only one hand was involved, I wasn't as good coordinating my movements. Sometimes I wish I golfed left (lefty pride) but as a woman finding lefty clubs would be terrible do I'm grateful that I play right. And I've tried to ply left, but it just feels too weird.
 
KellyBo said:
I wonder if it can be influenced. I have a son who was left-handed. I remember buying him a LH 7 iron when he was little to see if he had a preference one way or the other. He always chose the RH club. I don't know if that's just because that's what we always had around the house or if that was just natural for him. He does almost everything LH except golf.
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I have known of more than one parent who has forced their child to take up a particular sport left handed. Todd Marinovich comes to mind. Also had a friend who's dad trained him to be a lefty pitcher from the time he was 4. He ended up having Tommy John surgery in college.
 
wakeriderof87 said:
Yes, I made up that word.

So the scenario is, you have a very young son who wants to start playing golf with daddy. He is naturally left handed, but hasn't played baseball, so doesn't know the feeling of swinging a club. Would you track down a set of little guy LH clubs, or just buy him a righty set and let him try to become a righty.
Click to expand...

Very interesting as I am in the same dilemma. My 4 year old will not swing his older brothers righty clubs the correct way. He will stubbornly try and hit them lefty.
 
I'm right handed and bat left, play hockey left and golf left. Just see how he grabs a club and run with it, it should feel natural to him.
 
I golf lefty but if I had the choice, honestly, I would have my son play righty. Its frustrating being a LH with the lack of equipment options etc.
 
ripper said:
I golf lefty but if I had the choice, honestly, I would have my son play righty. Its frustrating being a LH with the lack of equipment options etc.
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That's changing though, there are a few clubs you can't have in LH but it's not like we're really hurting for choice anymore
 
lcsmrtn said:
That's changing though, there are a few clubs you can't have in LH but it's not like we're really hurting for choice anymore
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Most clubs can be ordered, but finding them in the store or grabbing a good deal used is much harder it seems.
 
lcsmrtn said:
That's changing though, there are a few clubs you can't have in LH but it's not like we're really hurting for choice anymore
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There are a lot really, a ton of putters, especially half mallet types do not come in LH, the NC line is a great example. Also lofts are very limited, the 17 degree 3W Hawk games for instance is not available to me. Pretty much everything Bridgestone is out of the question. Plus if you go to Golfsmith they will always have limited options, just the most popular.
 
wakeriderof87 said:
Most clubs can be ordered, but finding them in the store or grabbing a good deal used is much harder it seems.
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I suppose they're a bit more prevalent in Canada, especially at Golf Town. Deals can be had, you just need to be patient. Don't get me wrong it'd be cool to be right handed for gear, but IMO it wouldn't be worth having to do something that doesn't feel right to me. When I play baseball when I was younger, I could switch hit, but from RH it never felt right.
 
As a lefty who plays righty I would encourage you to stick with lefty,if I could have my time again I would play lefty. My reason is I struggle with getting the transfer of weight from right to left foot,like skimming a stone some say well I skim with my left and my weight transfers nicely,can't skim for toffee with my right and my weight stays on my back foot.Has caused me all sorts of problems.
 
I don't think I would try to influence it. But I understand where you're coming from. I don't think it would necessarily hurt to try RH first - there probably isn't a right or wrong answer here. Good luck and let us know what happens!
 
wakeriderof87 said:
Yes, I made up that word.

So the scenario is, you have a very young son who wants to start playing golf with daddy. He is naturally left handed, but hasn't played baseball, so doesn't know the feeling of swinging a club. Would you track down a set of little guy LH clubs, or just buy him a righty set and let him try to become a righty.
Click to expand...

I seem to remember reading that PM is a natural righty (writes RH'd) and that TW is a natural lefty. Seems to have worked for them either way.
 
Tough one. I'd say try to give him both and see which one he likes better or does better with.
 
My son is natural lefty.He writes,eats and does most things left handed.When he was young,I let him throw baseballs and footballs with either hand to see which he was better at and felt more comfortable with.He now throws right handed,shoots basketball mostly right handed and plays golf right handed.I think it is better to let the kid use the method he seems to be better with and most important,feels better with.
 
God blessed me with both a righty and a lefty. Both boys do things with both hands, but golf wise, the lefty is a lefty. I didn't ever think about trying to make him play right. Let the kid decide on his own. I'm sorry for the lack of equipment and the possibility of used equipment, but in the end what if they'd played much better as a natural than a forced issue.
 
I wouldn't try to change his handedness, it really sucks when you're a kid and people try to make you do things the "Right" way. Had nuns in school slap the crap out of my knuckles trying to force me to write right handed. It's a big enough PITA being left handed in a right handed world without having your dad try to change you into something you're not
 
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