… Brain, That is!

Printer Friendly Format Send to a Friend RSS Feed Tweet Shared 5 timesLefty or righty? Brain, that is!by Kendell Hale, USPTA

June 2013 -- Have you ever started a lesson andrealized that you gave that same lesson the weekbefore to the same student? Or while doing a baseline-approach-volley drill you notice that the approach shotneeds a lot of work. What do you do? Continue thelesson? Stop and do approach drills or follow yourlesson plan? These are just a few questions that ifanswered honestly could determine if you are a leftyor righty.

What do I mean by lefty and righty? Im talking aboutthe side of the brain that is most dominant in themajority of your lessons and organization. Im notsaying that we are always dominated by one side of the brain, but we do tend to use one side morethan the other.

In addition to the characteristics listed at right, a few questions you can ask yourself that nail downwhich side of the brain is dominant are:

Do you go the grocery store with a list of five things and come out with 30? You are a righty.

What does your desk look like clean and organized? You are a lefty. Cant see your desk,but when asked for something you know exactly where it is? Righty.

Do you forget things easily if not in front of you? Righty. (Righties have a tendency to getoverwhelmed with a bunch of little things, because of their global thinking.)

Each side has different strengths and weaknesses. What we can do better is realize which side ismore dominant and improve on weaknesses to become more balanced.

On-court characteristics of a leftyLefties have great drill progressions; they are organized and know exactly the time each drill willtake place and have great structure to their lessons. They might get upset when structure isdisrupted by late attendees or anything that interferes with their lesson. They may be less personaland not too spontaneous. Remember these are generalizations!

Complaints of being taught by a leftyLefties tend to be more controlling, concrete, critical, insensitive, rigid, impatient or boring.

On-court characteristics of a rightyRighties are great with personal relationships. They add humor to the lesson quite often and will becreative and spontaneous. Students will sometimes wonder what the goal to the lesson is becauserighties will jump around a lot. Righties use analogies and illustrations more than a lefty. Sincerighties are more people-oriented, they tend to read reactions of students to see if they are havingfun. A righty can improvise if necessary (e.g., somebody does not show up, drill isnt working, etc.),may appear to be high energy and upbeat, and will vary voice pitch when working with smallchildren.

Complaints of being taught by a rightyRighties often cant handle complaints, may start something and not finish it, become easilydistracted or speak without thinking. Remember that their thought pattern is Emotion Response Analyze. Lefties will analyze their thoughts and comments, then respond, while righties will havean emotional response and then feel bad about it after they analyze.

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Other tipsRighties to become more organized, keep things visible (i.e., sticky notes, wall calendars, etc.).But beware of spending too much time organizing with creative ideas that you will not followthrough with! Since righties look at things globally (whole picture), its hard for them to break itdown into parts, for instance cleaning the house. It may seem overwhelming, and they might getdistracted or get so frustrated that they procrastinate or do not do it at all.

As a righty, I would start cleaning the bathroom and I see that there is something that needs to goto the bedroom. So I take it to the bedroom and find something that needs to be done there andusually jump from room to room and in the end no room gets completely finished. Lefties are muchbetter at completing tasks because they are linear and can take one room at a time until their goalis met.

Lefties break off from your set ways, and do something you would not normally do. Before long,it might come naturally. Also, dont get caught up in too much detail you can take it too far.

Another thing: dont discourage your righty colleagues if they have an idea, but instead help themfollow through with it. Treat it like a partnership and work together to make up for deficiencies.Righties are so creative that they can get things done in the weirdest ways that might seem foreignto you.

In conclusion, it is great to have a good balance between left- and right-brain functions, but inreality thats pretty hard to do. What we can do is be aware of our characteristics and continue tobe the best professional we can be.

Characteristics of a lefty and righty Lefty (Left-brain)

Linear thought patternVery organizedVisualLogicalDisciplinedGood attention to detailStructuredFollows through wellFollows the planThought sequence: Analyze, response, emotion

Righty (Right-brain)

Global thought patternVery creativeVerbalHumorousOutgoingGifted in interpersonal relationshipsResponsive to emotional appealsGood interpreter of body languageSpontaneousThought sequence: Emotion, response, analyze

Kendell Hale is the head mens and womens coach at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He wasthe 2010 USPTA National College Coach of the Year and a Missouri Valley Past President.

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