My topic is handedness - whether in different sportsit is better to be left - or right-sided or whether amore balanced approach is more successful.I'm left-handed myself and I actually didn't see anyrelevance to my own life when I happened to startreading an article by a sports psychologist calledPeter Matthews.He spent the first part of the articletalking about handedness in music instead ofsport,which I have to say almost put me off fromreading further.But what I soon became struck byeas the sheer volume of both observation andinvestigation he had done in many different sportsand I felt persuaded that what he had to say would be of real interest.I think Matthews' findingswill be beneficial,not so much in helping sportspeople to work on their weaker side,but morethat they can helo them identify the most suitable strategies to use in a given game.Althoughmost trainers know how important handedness is,at present they are rather reluctant to makeuse of the insights scientists like Matthews can give,which I think is rather short-sightedbecause focusing on individual flexibility is only part of the story.
Anyway,back to the article.