Is He a Righty or a Lefty?

what fun to be ambi!
being a lefty will be an advantage in baseball. i suppose there are times it's a PITA to be a southpaw, but most of 'em seem to get along okay.
my husband's brothers needed a left-handed hitter for their alley pick-up stickball games, so taught my husband to hit leftie when he was little. he's right-handed but still bats left-handed.
i doubt you've confused him. i think it's cool that you're letting him sort it out for himself. i like elaine's idea to get him cheap gloves for both hands and test-drive 'em both for a while. it's never too early for baseball!
:) khairete
S. (former little league mom extraordinaire)

Only 10% of the population is truly left handed, while 20% is ambidextrous. Eventually, he will decide which side feels right for which things - he may eat and write with his left hand but play sports with his right. Only time will tell.

Maybe just have him throw the ball to you and see what comes to him naturally, same with batting. My oldest son writes and eats lefty, so we automatically bought him a lefty glove for t-ball and told the coach he was a lefty only to realize he's more natural throwing right. I honestly don't remember how he bats. My husband bought him a guitar and strang it for a lefty, but he prefers to play righty. Just observe him and don't force anything.

Our son kept us guessing till he was about 7 yrs old then he settled into right handed.
For archery he uses a left hand bow - he's left eye dominant and that would mess up his targeting if he tried to shoot with a right hand bow.

G.,

My oldest son is Ambidextrous - just like me.

He bats left and throws with both left and right. In regards to baseball gloves, there wasn't much of selection for Lefties so he went "right" for baseball. However, we did find a catchers mitt for a lefty - so since he LOVES the catcher position - we bought that...it IS confusing!!

Writing is right.
LAX is Left
Baseball catching LEFT
Baseball throwing RIGHT
Bowling Right.

I wouldn't stress over it. I've not. He's now 14. He adapts to the situation. He won't be confused...promise!

I think it's pretty common at this age to not know which hand is dominate. I write left handed but do everything else right handed. I'd get him an inexpensive glove for each hand and just work with him on figuring it out.

At this point you have probably messed him up. I don't mean that in a negative way. All four of my kids were probably born to be left handed but three of the four do everything right handed. The one who writes left had been messed up so much by the time she played sports that she still did everything right handed. We started her left, oops.

So when I say messed her up, I just mean treated like a righty not knowing.

Anyway I do somethings right and some left, a lot of things I can do both. It isn't really messing them up but we do have a used once left handed glove if you need it! :)

If he's ambidextrous, I would give him a mitt for a lefty. In baseball, it's better to be left handed than right handed.

And you are not alone. My son (4) will pick up a pencil and start writing a word on the left side of the page with his left hand. As he crosses the middle of the page, he switches the pencil into his right hand, and finishes writing the word as a righty.

My feeling is probably that he's really a lefty. But that since his preschool teacher is a righty, and demos writing using the right hand, my son is imitating the teacher by writing with his right hand also.

And so, all this said, my 4 year old uses a lefty baseball glove. And a lefty set of kids golf clubs :)

None of my girls are lefties--but I'm ambidextrous & when I write with my left hand it is always SO much neater. But I write slower left handed & since I'm always in a hurry, I'll switch hands, just to get it all out. It's harder to read tho! When I put my mascara on, I use my left hand on my left eye, right hand on my right eye. I never knew that was different until my girlfriends saw me put my makeup on. I have know idea how to do it the other way & when I tried I about poked my eye out! When I roll up the garden hose, I do it the opposite of my husband, so that's a pain for him, but we've gotten used to it.

When my BasketBall Girl is practicing shooting, I always make her try with her left hand, because just being able to switch it up, gives her an edge in games.

With your boy, buy or borrow both types of gloves & let him use them. Being a "leftie" in baseball can be a tremendous advantage! Let him practice with both & he'll naturally figure out what feels "right" to him.

And you won't confuse him for life, but there will be times when the hand he chooses to use for any particular task will switch up, maybe even every other time he does that same task. Good Luck!

If he can use either hand, it is more valuable to your team to play baseball left handed. So, I would go with that. My brother played at that age and can play either way. I think he picked lefty. But he can still bat and throw righty.

Ask the Coach.
Buy him 2 gloves.
Just observe him and see which side HE bats with, without your telling him which hand to use.

Many people use either hand for certain things.
I'm right handed, but I also do a lot of things with my left hand. I do it unconsciously.

Your son, will NOT BE confused for life.
He will know, which hand/arm is which and per what he is doing.

My lefty softballer started at five years but it was pretty clear by then she was a southpaw. When you throw a ball back and forth what hand does he use most often? What hand does he draw/write with?

Don't focus on the catching hand focus on the throwing hand and then buy the opposite glove. Being comfortable batting either way is great for baseball. Just have him do what he wants for now and he'll figure it out.

Have fun, baseball/softball are great team sports to start them early.

Odds are he's a righty.
Right glove, bat right.
"Ambidexterity" is not uncommon with kids.
By 5, he should have a dominance.
Which hand does he throw better with?
Have him throw to you with each hand a few times
Alert the coach.
My kid was solidly righty by 5.

Here's a simple test that was given to one of my daughters at a pre-school screening.....

We had one daughter that was right handed, and one that was left handed.. and I am also a lefty...

Anyway, the screener put a line of blocks in front of my daughter, from left to right, going across in front of her..... she then asked her to build her a tower.

My daughter picked up a few from the left side with her left hand, and then switched hands and picked up the rest from the right.

The screener said that if she crossed the mid-line with either hand, that would show preference or dominance for one hand or the other.

(As it ended up, she is right-handed.)

I don't know if that helps you make the decision, but you might run that test on your son. Not sure how definitive it is, though.

Our daughter played hockey at 6 years old and became goalie. She used a right handed stick for a while until they decided to try a left equipment and you could see the difference.

Buy him two cheap gloves and let him figure out which one works best. Don't encourage him to use either hand.

Not all lefties use their left for everything. Another left handed player tried her left handed equipment and missed every time.

Tell him to bat how ever he feels like batting. Get him a glove for each hand. He'll figure it out. Being able to bat with either hand is cool. You can always re-sell the glove he decides to not use.

I think you should wait to try baseball. It is a difficult, complex sport that requires some dexterity and definately knowledge of which hand to use. We had the exact same issue actually, and chose to hold out on sports a little longer. We didn't know what glove to buy either and it frustrated our son that neither one felt right (gloves are just awkward at first anyway). Our son is left-handed for writing, and probably for thinking, but right-sided for some things. When he was 5 he would always say he was "both-handed". He is 6 now and we have just started soccer. I'm not sure what everyone's hurry is for team sports, but I think waiting until their coordination can allow them to experience success is the way to go. In a year it will become more clear what hand to use.