What is Dual Dominance and MMD (Mirror Movement Development)?
What’s the difference between Dual dominance and Ambidexterity?
What are the benefits of practicing Dual dominance?
What is Manual Transfer Learning (MTL)?
How did Learn Lefty start?
Can Dual dominance training help decrease back pain and increase spinal alignment?
What relevant books can Learn Lefty site to back up the beneficial claims of developing Dual dominance?
What famous people are Dual dominant?

What is Dual Dominance and MMD (Mirror Movement Development)?
When it comes to handedness/footedness, you can be Righty, Lefty, Mixed or Dual-Dominant (aka, ‘Ambidextrous’).

Righty and Lefty is the exclusive practice of one of these two, respective, sides. To date, 90% of humans identify as Righty. 10% identify as Lefty. Many Lefties are actually Mixed; prefering some activities left sided while other activites right sided, mostly due to right-handed design or social pressure. Less than 1% identify as ‘Ambidextrous’, a term which, literally, means, “right handed on both sides.” A more accurate name for this is “Dual dominant”. Developing dual dominance is all about choosing to practice daily activities from your non-dominant side.

MMD (Mirror Movement Development) can be the same as Dual-dominance, but with added specification of being mirror-directional. For example, a traditional righty writing left-handed ‘normal’ is Dual-dominant, but isn’t engaging MMD until their lefty writing goes from ‘normal’ to reverse. MMD produces neural creativity, body alignment and peak performance.

What’s the difference between Dual dominance and Ambidexterity? 
Ambidexterity and Dual dominance are the same. So, why the different name?

When Columbus discovered the Americas, he believed he landed in India. Therefore, he called the locals ‘Indians.’ Now that we understand geography, we know the word ‘Indian’ isn’t most accurate to describe the Native Americans. The same goes with the word ‘ambidextrous.’

‘Ambidexterity,’ literally means, “Right-handed on both sides.” It is a right handed way to attempt to explain the “other-worldliness” of a person who can use either hand or foot for all activities. Throughout history, many people have worked to develop ‘ambidexterity,’ referred to more accurately here at Learn Lefty as Dual dominance.

Dual dominance can be developed by anyone. It is practicing a daily choice that, over time, develops ‘ambidexterity.’ It’s unlikely that the majority of Dual dominant people throughout history were born with an equal affinity for using both sides without making a conscious effort at working to develop the non-dominant side, whether resulting from a rehabilitation-based necessity, curiousity, inspiration from another ‘ambidexter,’ or innate sense that our bodies are optimally designed for dual-dominant development.

What are the benefits of practicing Dual dominance?
The simple practice of developing your non-dominant side produces increased proficiency in general activities, balances your cerebral hemispheres (increasing the size of the corpus callosum) and is associated with various benefits: heightened spatial awareness, high-precision balance (less misalignment-associated body aches), memory recollection, endosteroidogenesis and increased reaction time. This an ideal practice for athletes, creatives, life-long learners, self-improvement ‘junkies’ and anyone who wants a “new lease” on life.

What is Manual Transfer Learning (MTL)?
MTL is the increase in ability your dominant side ‘acheives’ after you work to develop your non-dominant side. In layman’s terms, the more you practice your non-dominant side, the better your dominant side becomes.

How did Learn Lefty start?
Learn Lefty was born out of the personal experience of developing Dual dominance by Founder, Jim Houliston. Skateboarding has marked Jim’s life since the age of twelve. This was a purely asymmetric activity for him since all tricks, pushing and falling happened from one side. By age 22, after multiple visits to various chiropractors, Jim was convinced he had to hang up his skateboarding for good.

After a heartbreaking year of no skateboarding, Jim realized there was one thing he hadn’t tried: skating switch. ‘Switch’ is the reversal of your position, similar to writing with your non-dominant hand. As frustrating as this was, with no immediate ability to do any of the tricks he was able to do before, Jim was, technically, skateboarding again!

A few years into skating exclusively switch, Jim’s body started feeling a world better. It was feeling so good he decided to try a few tricks using his former, ‘regular’ stance. Not only was he able to do his favorite old tricks again, but was immediately able to do NEW tricks he’d never done before! Somehow, Jim got better at his dominant side without practicing it for years (a concept known as Manual Transfer Learning). At this point, he wondered how his body would feel if he learned everything else from his non-dominant side…

Over the next few years, Jim introduced his non-dominant side to all activities: writing, throwing, kicking, using tools, shaving… everything. He began developing proficiency and experiencing unique benefits.

With a new lease on life, being more active than ever (thanks, also, to proper nutrition) and a beautifully different awareness of the physical world around him, Jim knew he had share this lifestyle of learning lefty with the world.

Can Dual dominance training help decrease back pain and increase spinal alignment?
When it comes to writing, throwing, kicking and other asymmetric activities, your whole body (not just the immediate appendage in use) is part of the activity. When writing, your posture tends to lean in one direction. When throwing a ball, your legs unevenly distibute your body weight between hips. When swinging a bat and kicking a ball, your whole spine twists in a uni-lateral manner. Do you think all this uni-lateral movement, over time, doesn’t misalign the bi-lateral structure of your skeletal system?
Learning these movements from your non-dominant side (mirror-image from your dominant side) is harmonious with the mirror-imaged design and weight of your skeletal, exterior and cerebral systems.

A word of caution for beginners: learning lefty involves correcting uni-lateral posture, a process which involves new movements. This can cause a disruption in the way your body has become accustomed, similar to reversing a screw rusted into place after years of inactivity. You’re also working out muscles you’ve never worked out before, albeit mirror-imaged of the ones you work out regularly. If you immediately start working out your non-dominant side with equal force as your dominan side, you can easily pull your non-dominant muscles.

What relevant books can Learn Lefty site to back up the beneficial claims of developing Dual dominance?
There is much known, unknown and debatable about the inner workings of the brain, genetics and the history of handedness. Learn Lefty was born out of the Founders’ personal journey into discovering and developing Dual dominance, during which time certain books were read in an attempt to explain the Why behind experiencing such unique benefits. Those books include (completed in this order):

–Ambidexterity: Or, Two-Handedness and Two-Brainedness by John Jackson
–Whole Brain Power by Michael Lavery
–A Left Hand Turn Around the World: Chasing the Mystery and Meaning of All Things Southpaw by David Wolman
–Right Hand, Left Hand by Chris McManus
–Creative Brain Training by Diego Irigoyen
–The Complete Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci compiled by Jean Paul Richter

What famous people are Dual dominant?
Everyone has a handedness history and many differ. The ancient Greeks and Easter Islanders were wrote ambidextrously. Here’s blips from the handedness stories of a few famous ‘ambidexters:’

Leonardo da Vinci wrote both lefty and righty. In fact, he wrote left-handed, mirror-imaged inverted throughout his notebooks. This has been associated with developing his unique sense of spatial awareness, the cornerstone of his inventions, paintings and designs.

U.S. Founding Father and 3rd President, Thomas Jefferson, believed society is done a diservice by so many people using only their right hands.

Ben Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence lefty and wrote a spirited defence of the left hand—believing that choosing one dominant hand (the right) has caused all kinds of problems for humanity.

Alice in Wonderland author, Lewis Carroll, occasionally wrote mirror-imaged “looking glass letters,” presumably as an artistic device to entertain children. 

LA Lakers’ LeBron James does evertyhing left-handed…except basketball.

Albert Einstein
Mahatma Gandhi
U.S. President James A. Garfield
Queen Victoria
Michelangelo
Harry Houdini
Lord Robert Baden Powell
Adam Levine
Kobe Bryant
Nikola Tesla
Pete Rose
Gordie Howe
Luke Jensen
Ringo Starr
Maria Sharapova
Cristiano Ronaldo
Manny Pacquiao
Pat Venditte
Ronnie O’Sullivan
Rafael Nadal

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