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Walter & Group...
[GH] Much to consider ... from Gary Eaton :
Gordy,
You might hold this back until some weigh-in on my comments.
It may surprise many to discover that I am left-handed! I learned many years ago, that my right eye is dominant (The Orvis Shooting School provided the venue in the 1970's). Also, as the third brother, I used my older siblings' baseball gloves that fit on my "dominant" hand. So, I learned some rudimentary throws with my non-dominant, right hand as a pre-schooler.
I always "shot" with my right eye over the rear sight or with my right hand drawing the bow. My mind knew to use my dominant eye, despite my handedness.
As I stated, lefties inherently experience more required adaptation to use of the non-dominant side than right-handers. My developmental experience being illustrative, I was among the first group of elementary students that the nuns did not force to quit using their sinister,(left) hand to write in school.
After 45-years of fly fishing, I cast and teach right handed. I can describe many methods to help lefties learn from righties. Many more right-handers see left-handed casting as "strange" and confusing than lefties see right-handed casting as unusual.
I see hand dominance being a non-issue in teaching fly casting. Likewise, a knowledgeable, and sensible male casting instructor should be able to teach females AND female instructors with knowledge and sensibility should certainly be accepted to instruct people of either gender. If we fail to quash divisions of gender and hand-dominance, eventually will we divide our casting classes into conservatives and liberals, or agnostics and believers?
Competence and sense need be our united concern. Distractions of segregation on non-issues waste our finite time on this earth when we could be fishing.
Gordy,
I suspect if we provided proper anonymity, and thorough investigation, we might find as many in disagreement with the expectations of Task 20. Good examples of a personal nature contributed from those involved. Their experience does not include the severe 'hard-wired" side dominance that many, many people experience. Whether someone chooses to believe or not, based upon their own experience, is immaterial compared to the reality across a population of all individuals attempting to cross-over complex, psychomotor skills.
Two-handed "Spey" skills do not directly apply to this task. Neurologically, bi-dextrous skills engage much different complexities of coordination than disconnected, single-handed skills. The fact that both THCI and non-dominant MCI tasks involve fly-casting has scant bearing on the delicate neurological activity controlling their action.
When a limb injury or amputation institutes demand for cross-over skills, that is entirely peripheral. Peripheral injury cross-over dominance never achieves native levels except for the less than 1% of the population that possess true ambidextrous capacity in their central nervous system. This is supported by the incapacity of 99% of peripheral cross-over skills to completely penetrate the range of motor skills and delicate capacity, speed, agility, etc. of the native handedness.
The development of a smaller skill-set in cases like arm immobilization does not usually equal 35% (as near as I recall) of the range of skills unless amputation exists. Further support for this position arises when the original limb dysfunction is restored. Post-recovery, fewer than 1% of people routinely rely on the newly, force-trained limb after one-year. This is seen in automatic responses, reflexive actions, complex manipulations involving more than two joints, and operations performed without visual feedback. This reality cannot be contradicted by individual self-reports. Self-reports remain subjective and unverifiable as retrospective data carries no weight versus prospective, criteria-driven measurements subjected to statistical analyses.
Individuals trained in bilateral single-hand skills from the beginning of their casting development, probably will cross-over these skills easier than those who developed unilateral dominant abilities. That has been the case for injured factory workers performing the identical operation with either hand in their usual occupation.
As you have observed, the older a person is when the demand for cross-dominance begins, the smaller the percentage of people that successfully adapt. The same is true when central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) impairment causes the cross-over, at any age. Complete denervation at the peripheral level (outside the spinal cord and brain) leaves the affected area completely non-responsive.
In summary, any individual anecdote has no bearing on the neurological facts across the population. As fortunate as many inherently cross-dominant individuals may be, the expectation that all-participants demonstrate cross-dominance casting skills at a proficient level defies rational reality. My perspective makes the task difficult to defend despite my capacity to perform them, or not.
Respectfully,
Gary Eaton
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