There is a 90% chance that you, Dear Reader, are right-handed.
Left-handedness has an approximate 10% distribution in
human populations.
Some research shows there is an approximate 30% of us
who delegate tasks between hands, so called ambidexterity. But if we dig deeper
on this mixed-handedness, it is not true even-handedness. This 30% still shows a
hand preference on fine motor skill work.
Disclosure:
I am a righty who boxes southpaw, signs my name with my right hand, works the Bowie
knife and tomahawk with the right hand, but finds that my left hand is more
facile in gunwork. I’m in that 30% twilight zone but…when confronted with a new
task or as skills deteriorate under stress-drills [extreme cold et cetera] the right-hand
dominance manifests more starkly. So, keep in mind ambidexterity is not a true
50/50 proposition.
For my boxing Brethren out there, even the “ambidextrous”
Marvelous Marvin Hagler was not truly so. When it hit the fan we see the shift
to the preferred side.
For our combat purposes today, let’s look to a skill
that was part and parcel of indigenous warrior ability and is still a huge part
of awareness for today’s law enforcement and wise civilian operators.
The ability to spot pechari mo’obe.
That is the Comanche for the ability to see “the Killing Hand.”
The Killing Hand, is the hand that will wield the weapon
with utmost facility, the hand that will flick into the face with the greatest
speed, the hand likely to be wound up in the uneducated haymaker, the hand that
indicates the side of the body that will show greatest facility and likely
tendency in grappling and scuffling once an altercation hits the ground.
Good
Warriors were expected to train themselves to spot handedness at a glance
and this was not merely in humans. Other species show left and right preferences
with almost the same 90/10 distribution.
A good warrior would watch which hoof the mustang
scratches the ground with to know which is most likely to strike in a forefoot
strike, and the good horseman can make a better approach to the off-side.
Toss a toy to your dog and/or cat and watch which paw performs
most of the pinning work and you now have a read of the left/right dominance.
And if your animal should ever turn feral in the coming domestic pet zombie apocalypse
you have a better strategy as to which side is the off-side for corralling and
approach for the killing shot.
As for reading human handedness…
Whenever anyone walks anywhere with anything in their hand,
they tell us what they value.
It may not be the dominant hand itself doing the
carrying but we are getting a read on value—more on hand and value in a moment.
The flip-side of the Killing Hand was Hiding your Killing
Hand.
Many warrior traditions ask that you carry nothing in your
hands that is not a weapon, a tool, or a loved one. Carrying anything else
showed weakness, insecurity, and tipped your hand so to speak.
The lesson in modern context would dictate that modern
men and women who consider themselves Warriors should walk with nothing in
their hands ready to face whatever is out there. I don’t care if it’s a trip to
the grocery store. The only things that should be in your hands are a tool you
are getting ready to use [shopping carts count], a weapon at the ready [only in
dire times or hunting], the hand of a loved one, or a burden you are carrying
to a car for someone else.
Anything else in a Warrior’s hands is a security
blanket telling a story of dependence, if it’s a phone in hand that is not
being used, well, we have a story of dependence.
If we feel the need to travel with an item in our hands,
we are signaling that we “need” it.
The Warrior tradition asks us to look at what we hold
and question our relationship with it.
Non-PC Observation:
Women are the more attractive half of our species.
Women are curves. Men respond to curves. Woman respond
to curves as well. Woman dress for curves—whether that be accenting curves you
consider of good advertising value or de-accenting curves one sees as detriment.
It’s about sleeking up the curves.
No woman would buy jeans that makes her posterior look
boxy. They would be selected from the rack, tried on, glanced at in the mirror,
and re-racked asap.
And yet there is zero compunction for many about
throwing that boxy phone into the back pocket and throwing off the curvature. This
signals the phone is valued over the presentation. That signals something
pretty significant—you are gonna be dealing with that phone.
Watch for this phone-in-pocket signal and tell me I’m
wrong.
Handedness Signals
A few fairly hard rules for detecting handedness.
·
The presence of firearm on hip and butt-positioning
is a rather obvious tell.
·
Which front pocket carries keys is fairly certain
for men. Look for the key bulge in the dominant side pocket.
·
Women primarily carry purses over the
non-dominant shoulder, so the dominant hand can pry into to extract contents.
·
Men usually place billfolds in the non-dominant
back pocket, so the non-dominant hand can remove the billfold and the dominant hand
can pluck contents.
·
Phones in rear pockets of either gender often
the same rule as billfolds. Non-dominant pocket so extraction can be done with
the non-dominant hand and the dominant hand can swipe, poke, and prod to its content.
·
The hand that reaches for an item, more
often than not, is as useful a signal as watching your pet pin a toy to the ground.
·
An infant is often carried in the non-dominant
arm, so the dominant can attend with finesse.
These few should get you going.
The
Assignment
For the next week attempt to mentally call the Killing
Hand of any and all you see.
With a little bit of practice if becomes second nature
and you can wander a crowded public square with the mental tally running of “Right, right, left, right, could be left…no
right he just stopped to tie his shoes giving me a definite right signal.”
Also…
For the next week, each time your place something in your
hand consider your relationship with it. Is it a tool for immediate use?
Is it an interaction with a loved one?
Or is it a dependency gesture that gives away your own
Killing Hand easily to other eyes wide-open warriors?
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