Left handers?

[twoblink]

I'm left handed, but almost all my training is from right handed people. It makes for seriously strange training. That said, I've noticed that I train somewhat differently than others.

Most stand to the side of the instructor, and do what they see in parallel. I stand in front of the instructor, and act like a mirror. His stance is right handed, my stance is left handed, exact mirror. I throw right handed jabs, he throws left handed jabs.

When I do spar a little though, I've noticed this TOTALLY confuses everybody. But since I've only fought right handers all my life, I'm curious (other left handers out there) those who have fought other left handers, was it confusing as well? Are both left handers confused in those situations? How do I train to compete against left handers if there are no other left handers? (BTW, right handers pretending to be left handers, don't work. I can tell a righty pretending to be a lefty)

 

[phenomfan1529]

At my gym there's only two lefty's and I'm one of them. Though I'm comfortable with orthodox stance as well.

Yeah, at my gym as well people get totally confused sometimes when I spar with them. When I spar with the other lefty at my gym I get confused someimes as well. Being used to circle away from right handers in all.

 

[fdupnct]

I'm the only lefty at my gym. It's strange because growing up I learned how to do everything with my right because everyone kept on insisting that I use my right hand. That being said I'm more comfortable with a southpaw stance but I can hold my own orthodox as well. When I spar southpaw it's easy for me to catch people off guard with certain shots because they're not used to it. The other thing is if you control the tempo and the circling you will have them circling into your rear hand. Most guys are happy that I'm lefty otherwise they wouldn't get any experience against a southpaw.

 

[TapDG]

I fight left but Im a righty..so I can easily switch it up..Thats always been the problem with Southpaws..Throws righty's timing way off

 

[TheHighlander]

Because we are in a world dominated by right handers, us lefties usually learn to transpose (copy with our lefts what they do with their rights) pretty well. You have two choices going up against another southpaw...switch to orthodox or stay southpaw. Basically you have to change either leads or styles. I play a bit of both, but have been leaning towards the orthodox switch recently.

If you switch to orthodox, you will need to transpose all of your combinations. The good thing is that this keeps you at the same range that you are used to fighting. Regular southpaw training will help a lot, provided you do a fair bit of pad work in orthodox. Sparring orthodox against a natural orthodox playing southpaw might help a little, but is more likely to hurt you.

If you maintain the southpaw stance, the fight is equivalent to two orthodox fighters going at it. This is going to be at a completely different set of ranges than you are used to. To train this you'll want to spar orthodox a lot. You'll still have to transpose, but it is workable.

 

[Hockeyfight]

I can fight both ways and it really messes with and opponents mind to switch back and forth, however to me an orthodox stance is more comfortable

 

[twoblink]

I switched my golfing to right handed; because in reality, you PULL with the left hand.

I am a switch batter. More control batting left handed, more power batting right handed.

I can stand conventional, and southpaw. I feel I have an advantage..

 

[TheHighlander]

Ok, then for you I would definitely consider standing orthodox against a southpaw. It will let you play the southpaw game. That said, if he's picking you apart, switch up and fight him from southpaw (which against another southpaw is really an orthodox game). I don't think one is inherently better, just depends on your preference and skills.

 

[SmashiusClay]

I'm a left handed fighter and have always found it messes up other people's timing (as long as they dont train with a whole bunch with a southpaw), I used to find it very awkward to fight other left-handers until I spent a while training with one, unfortunately its the only way to get comfortable with fighting them.

I would'nt recommend switching to orthodox as you are now out of your more natural stance and the other guy is probably more used to fighting right-handers anyway so he'll have more trouble fighting you as a southpaw.

 

[Henry Swanson]

I'm right handed but my first coach trained me as a southpaw. I've trained orthodox as well but I'm just a lot more comfortable using the southpaw stance. I'm really dependant on the lead right hand because of it though and as a result, I throw my left quite sparingly!