I know quite a few really good left-handed pool players, and I'm wondering if others here believe that left-handers make better pool players. I'd like to start a list of left-handed pro pool players - Miz, Sigel, Rodney Morris - others?
About 10% of the population is left-handed, and in my experience it seems that more than 10% of the accomplished pool players are lefties. (I'm a righty.)
Apparently it's common for competitive athletes to have an over-representation of lefties. For example, far more than 10%, and probably the majority of the top baseball sluggers have been lefties, according to this.
One possibility is that, because left-handers are so much more rare, right-handers are not as used to competing against them. So pitchers learn how to pitch to right-handers but aren't as good at pitching to left-handers. But lefties are used to facing righties, so they're familiar with the situation in which their opponent is unfamiliar.
That would explain a lefty advantage for direct head-to-head sports like baseball, boxing, and tennis. But it really wouldn't explain a lefty advantage in other, non-interactive sports, like golf or pool.
This is where the more interesting theory comes in, an evolutionary-based theory called The Fighting Hypothesis. The idea, as I understand it, is that lefties have been more likely to be warriors, and this roughly translates into competitive athletics in today's less-violent world.
It was this Radiolab podcast episode that got me thinking about this stuff:
http://www.radiolab.org/story/whats-right-when-youre-left/
About 10% of the population is left-handed, and in my experience it seems that more than 10% of the accomplished pool players are lefties. (I'm a righty.)
Apparently it's common for competitive athletes to have an over-representation of lefties. For example, far more than 10%, and probably the majority of the top baseball sluggers have been lefties, according to this.
One possibility is that, because left-handers are so much more rare, right-handers are not as used to competing against them. So pitchers learn how to pitch to right-handers but aren't as good at pitching to left-handers. But lefties are used to facing righties, so they're familiar with the situation in which their opponent is unfamiliar.
That would explain a lefty advantage for direct head-to-head sports like baseball, boxing, and tennis. But it really wouldn't explain a lefty advantage in other, non-interactive sports, like golf or pool.
This is where the more interesting theory comes in, an evolutionary-based theory called The Fighting Hypothesis. The idea, as I understand it, is that lefties have been more likely to be warriors, and this roughly translates into competitive athletics in today's less-violent world.
It was this Radiolab podcast episode that got me thinking about this stuff:
http://www.radiolab.org/story/whats-right-when-youre-left/
