Write With Your Opposite Hand
It is certainly possible to write with your non-dominant hand –– it takes practice and determination though! In this article, you'll learn some techniques to help you write better with your non-dominant hand; moreover, in mastering this skill, you'll also find it becomes a lot easier to paint your nails, use scissors, or do other things with your non-dominant hand, which can really come in handy if you have a broken arm or wrist.
Steps
- Practice writing with your non-dominant hand for a month or more. Every day, write out the alphabet using your non-dominant hand in lowercase, uppercase and cursive (if you know how). At first your hand will be shaky and the letters won't be nearly as neat as with your other hand. However, keep practicing and your writing will start to get better.
- If you're a lefty attempting to write with your right hand, turn the page 30 degrees counterclockwise. If you're a righty attempting to write with your left hand, turn the page 30 degrees clockwise.
- Do not "claw" your hand. It may be tempting to grasp the pencil as tightly as possible, causing your hand to ball up like a claw but this will stop you from writing effectively and can end up hurting. Take note of how your hand is positioned and loosen it up now and then as you write.
- Strengthen your non-dominant hand. Try lifting weights with your opposite hand to help strengthen the muscles. Start with light weights and as you get stronger, use heavier and heavier ones.
- Throw a small ball, such as a tennis ball to develop hand-eye coordination. Throw it higher and higher, but don't break anything fragile! This is a good excuse to get involved in juggling!
- Write with your good hand in the mirror to see how it would look writing with your other hand. This gives you a clear visual cue to the method and helps your brain to picture the same action for your non-dominant hand.
- Talk to and observe people who write with the hand that you don't write with. Ask for some tips and you might be surprised!
- Do your daily activities with your non-dominant hand such as, brushing your teeth, buttoning up your shirt, turning handles, opening doors, or turning on the tap. Swap sides with the mouse at your computer so that your non-dominant hand is doing the mouse work––this is actually a good occupational health trick to help prevent repetitive strain injury and it can balance your visual coordination on the screen too.
- Practice these techniques daily for at least a month, maybe longer. Soon you'll be writing fluently with your non-dominant hand, with very few mistakes.
- Use your opposite hand to write "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The lazy dog decides to wake up and be non-lazy", or similar for practice. (The sentence suggested is a good one for practice because it is a panagram, meaning that it's a phrase that contains all of the letters of the English alphabet.)
Tips
- Also, playing sports using the opposite hand for things that your dominant hand normally does can help a lot.
- Find a small paragraph and practice writing the paragraph over and over again. Look letter formation and focus on improving the deficient ones
- The confusion from writing with your non-dominant hand stimulates creativity, causing you to "think outside of the box".
- Use a pen that flows easily to aid the letter formation.
- Try using the mouse with the opposite hand too.
- If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!
Things You'll Need
- Writing tool
- Paper
Related Articles
- Practice Your Handwriting Daily
- Write With Your Left Hand (if Right Handed)
- Become Ambidextrous
- Strengthen Your Nondominant Hand
- Improve Your IQ