Clockwise Spinning

[Bunny Hop]

I can't remember which is my dominant eye. I did find out once, when I did an Archery course, but they tested me wrong at first, and it was only corrected in the final lesson - at which point I finally started hitting the target! Similarly, when I did Learn to Skate, the coach decided I was a CCW spinner and jumper, so that's how I learnt.

When I came back to skating as an adult, my coach decided to try me spinning CW, as I was having so much trouble with spinning. Turned out I found it easier to spin CW (I've never actually learnt to spin, but CW is easier). I was unable, however, to re-learn jumping CW. think this was latent muscle memory from when I skated as a teen, when I could jump but not spin. So technically I spin and jump in different directions (although in reality I do neither, so it's basically irrelevant).

[Orianna2000]

I believe I'm right-footed. When I do one-foot glides or edges-on-a-circle, it's easier to balance on my right foot, but much harder on my left foot. And when I do half-swizzle pumps, I have a lot more trouble using my left foot. With practice and strength training, I've gotten to where I can easily do forward half-swizzle pumps on either foot, but my backward half-swizzle pumps are still very awkward and graceless when I use my left foot.

So, I'm right-handed, right-footed, and right-brained, but left-eyed. And somehow that all adds up to being a clockwise spinner.

[learning_as_i_go]

Interesting.  I just tried it with my 3 kids - all right handed  but 1 clockwise spinner and 2 counter-clockwise.  The CW is left eye-dominant and the 2 CCW are right eye-dominant.

[platyhiker]

OT: I love the term "goofy footed" in snowboarding.  That's when the boarder keeps the left foot forward on the board instead of the "regular footed" right one.

Actually, if the left foot is forward, that makes the boarder regular.  (See http://www.abc-of-snowboarding.com/learn-snowboarding/snowboarding-stance.asp)  Goofy riders have the right foot in front.

[Rachelsk8s]

I just took the eye dominance test, and I had to change my vote lol I thought being right handed, and a CCW skater I would've have definitely been right eye dominant, but I was wrong!!  I'm left all the way hahah!!  That's an interesting test Thank you for sharing!

[kiwiskater]

I just took the eye dominance test, and I had to change my vote lol I thought being right handed, and a CCW skater I would've have definitely been right eye dominant, but I was wrong!!  I'm left all the way hahah!!  That's an interesting test Thank you for sharing!

haha pretty hard with my crap eyesight to tell & then I had to redo cause I ticked the wrong box

[AgnesNitt]

I'm cross dominant. Left eye dominant. Right hand dominant. Watching me shoot a bow and arrow creeps serious archers out.

I don't know how it affects my skating.

Oh, I have no depth perception either. I have to make all my depth calls based on size estimates.

[Orianna2000]

I have trouble with depth perception, too. Certain kinds of 3D movies, I can't watch. Like IMAX 3D, there simply is no 3D there for me, it's mostly flat. I always figured it was because one of my eyes is extremely nearsighted and the other isn't. I wear glasses to correct this, but my eyes still don't work together well enough to accurately pick up on 3-D. Wonder if being left-eyed or cross-dominant has anything to do with it, as well?

[Bunny Hop]

I have trouble with depth perception, too. Certain kinds of 3D movies, I can't watch. Like IMAX 3D, there simply is no 3D there for me, it's mostly flat. I always figured it was because one of my eyes is extremely nearsighted and the other isn't. I wear glasses to correct this, but my eyes still don't work together well enough to accurately pick up on 3-D. Wonder if being left-eyed or cross-dominant has anything to do with it, as well?

Hmmm, I'd never thought about that. I am also extremely short-sighted in one eye, but the other is not so bad. I can see the 3D in 3D movies, but I've never been that impressed by it - now I'm wondering if that's because I'm not seeing it properly, which is why I don't understand what the fuss is about (though my main problem with 3D films is having to wear two pairs of glasses).

[Sk8Dreams]

I don't know which eye is dominant, but I'm slightly ambidextrous, and can spin equally badly in both directions. 

[sarahspins]

Watching me shoot a bow and arrow creeps serious archers out.

My husband is left handed and bought a left handed compound bow several years ago... only to find out he's right eye dominant and should have gotten a right handed bow!

I am left eye dominant and I've always been.. my vision is better with that eye and my own theory is that because I never wore glasses regularly until my mid-20's, I always tended to use that side because I could actually see stuff!

Lots of things for me that require "choosing" a foot/leg are skewed for me, because of the ACL repair I had at almost 16, I strongly favor my "good" leg, which is the left... it's more stable.  Prior to then, it may have been my right, I'm not sure.

Incidentally I can write with either hand.. right is easier/faster but my handwriting left handed is not that bad (better than any of my kids!)... I can even write in cursive.  I cannot however, manage to write with both hands at the same time

I skate CCW.. my DD shows a strong preference for CW, but she's right handed.  My youngest (4), who looks like he may be a lefty (he writes entire words backwards if he tries with his right hand!), seems to have a preference for CCW.

[Skittl1321]

I didn't do an eye dominance test, but I am right handed, CW spinner- but very right side dominant.  The muscle mass on my right side of my body greatly out measures it on my left side (it is very visible in my calves, but every major muscle group the PT measured is larger on the right.)

I think this is why I struggle so much with my loop- I lack the strength.  I can do it off ice CCW, but I lack the ability to turn well enough on the ice to do it there.

I can spin for a very long time CW without getting dizzy, but only about half as long CCW.  I think as a kid I could have learned CCW, but not now.

[aussieskater]

Incidentally I can write with either hand.. right is easier/faster but my handwriting left handed is not that bad (better than any of my kids!)... I can even write in cursive.  I cannot however, manage to write with both hands at the same time

Like you, I can also write with either hand (right is stronger/better, but I suspect that's got a lot to do with many decades of practice), so I just tried writing both hands at once - I can do it but it's awkward to say the least.  To avoid over-writing the right hand with the left, the hands have to be quite far apart or one hand has to be below the other.  And I wouldn't call the result exactly neat, although to my surprise it was sort of legible! 

I actually suspect that I should have been allowed to learn to write left-handed.  Even now, after decades of writing right-handed, having a pen in the left hand feels quite natural.

[fsk8r]

aussieskater - I thought you were about to say that the eye dominance theory doesn't hold south of the equator and you all spin clockwise like the water going down the plug hole. Australians must then relearn to spin when they travel to the northern hemisphere... I know a coach who teaches all the children this theory just to see how gullible they all are.

Interesting aside on handedness. There's a great book Left Hand, Right Hand (has a website as well) where he describes handedness as being a spectrum, with some people being strongly right handed, some strongly left, and others more in the middle. Given that you seem rather ambidextrous you're probably somewhere in the middle.

I would imagine that there's a spectrum as well with rotational direction.

[aussieskater]

aussieskater - I thought you were about to say that the eye dominance theory doesn't hold south of the equator and you all spin clockwise like the water going down the plug hole. Australians must then relearn to spin when they travel to the northern hemisphere.

You're right fsk8r - that's absolutely correct.  We also have to work harder to stick to the earth as we're always falling off the underside of the globe.

[fsk8r]

You're right fsk8r - that's absolutely correct.  We also have to work harder to stick to the earth as we're always falling off the underside of the globe.

LOL! I'm assuming the falling off bit makes jumps easier but the landings harder.

[Bunny Hop]

Interesting aside on handedness. There's a great book Left Hand, Right Hand (has a website as well) where he describes handedness as being a spectrum, with some people being strongly right handed, some strongly left, and others more in the middle. Given that you seem rather ambidextrous you're probably somewhere in the middle.

I suspect I'm more in the middle. I'm left handed for writing, but can perform a lot of other tasks with  my right hand. That's partly a left handed thing though - you pretty much have to learn to do a lot of things right handed, because a lot of objects are designed with right handers in mind. My mother taught me to knit right handed, because she couldn't do it left handed.

I once took over a job from someone who was VERY left handed. She had a left handed computer keyboard at her desk (meaning the numeric keypad, arrow keys etc were on the left instead of right). The job involvued a lot of use of the numeric keypad and despite being left handed myself I could not use that thing! I swapped it for a 'proper' keyboard at the first opportunity.


And LOL at the whole southern hemisphere discussion.

[jjane45]

LOL! I'm assuming the falling off bit makes jumps easier but the landings harder.

New training centers where quintuple jumps become reality!

[kiwiskater]

LOL! I'm assuming the falling off bit makes jumps easier but the landings harder.

So what does that mean for those of us further south LOL