The Wallet Game

[atomicbrh]

This may be better suited in the Zen section.

Carried my wallet all my life in my left rear pocket. I am right hand dominant. Always wear pants with a button on the pockets to keep from losing stuff.

Just as a mental exercise switched wallet to dominant hand right rear pocket a few weeks ago. First few days, no skill at manipulating the button with the dominant hand and removing the wallet. Always thought the dominant hand was better at everything.

I was wrong. It has taken several weeks to adapt to the wallet in the "wrong" pocket.

Try this exercise. It realy messed with my mind. Now I am thinking about switching everyday stuff around like key carabiner, cell phone and so on to develop more dexterity with both hands.

Bobby

Edited March 9, 2012 by atomicbrh

[ZoomZoom]

Your brain is programed to deal with it the old way. What your brain will be doing is reprogramming its self to the new position, it's constantly reprogramming its self and changing its internal wiring when encountering new information. I coach that helps me in a different sport has me working to do many things more symmetrically just to better keep my body in balance. Watch people walk around a bit and you'll notice how asymmetrical their movement is......the older they are the more asymmetrical they are.

[CZinSC]

You want to try something even more weird? Sit in a hard bottom chair with your wallet in your back pants pocket. Now, stick your arm ( the one on the wallet side ) straight out parallel to the ground. Have someone try to push your hand down while you resist the force. Now do the same thing without the wallet in your back pocket. See any difference? My chiropractor did this to me years ago when he saw my wallet in my back pocket. My result....without the wallet i was able to resist no problem. With the wallet in, trouble resisting him. What it comes down to is your spine is slightly crooked with the wallet in your pocket. Sitting on your wallet all day tends to shift your spine out of alignment. Not huge, but it was enough to convince me though to switch to a front pocket wallet.

Now don't get me wrong, my wallet wasn't a George Costanza wallet, it was fairly thin, or so I thought.

Just my two cents....sorry for the thread drift.

[atomicbrh]

CZinSC, That reply was not a thread drift. It was right on the mark. My wallet and everything else in my pockets are going in my range bag at the matchs from now on. Your chiropractor's demonstration makes me think that the human might move faster with more strength and precision without unneeded items. I never had anything in my pockets playing tennis.

Bobby

[DyNo!]

CZinSC, That reply was not a thread drift. It was right on the mark. My wallet and everything else in my pockets are going in my range bag at the matchs from now on. Your chiropractor's demonstration makes me think that the human might move faster with more strength and precision without unneeded items. I never had anything in my pockets playing tennis.

Bobby

Every ounce slows you down.

[Shawneeboy87]

CZinSC, That reply was not a thread drift. It was right on the mark. My wallet and everything else in my pockets are going in my range bag at the matchs from now on. Your chiropractor's demonstration makes me think that the human might move faster with more strength and precision without unneeded items. I never had anything in my pockets playing tennis.

Bobby

Every ounce slows you down.

I'll take more weight in my wallet any day of the week

[theycallmeingot]

I'll take more weight in my wallet any day of the week

For me, that weight usually comes in the form of gun related sales receipts... not greenbacks, unfortunately.

[dart368]

And I thought i was silly for taking everything out of my pockets before a match and turning my cell phone to silent.

Of course, I carry two wallets, one for each back pocket so hopefully I am balanced out.

[rhett45acp]

The Wallet Game, Something I have been wondering about for years...

When I shoot I dump everything off my body. Wallet, keys, change, phone, watch, rings, ect...It's just junk and weight. BUT, at first my mind was screaming "somethings wrong". The odd feeling all day that you left the coffee pot on. After a little time, I adjusted and now it's the reverse, if I leave something in a pocket, my mind is telling me "extra stuff".

Which makes me wonder why some top shooters walk around with the knife clipped in the front pocket. Is that just something to get in the way? Or, are they bringing a knife to a.... :-)

[PistoleroJesse]

Which makes me wonder why some top shooters walk around with the knife clipped in the front pocket. Is that just something to get in the way? Or, are they bringing a knife to a.... :-)

I don't want to put this thread into no-no land, but most people carry a knife in case of a gun grab situation. So it's just a habit that they carry into competition because it makes the mind itch if you don't. Left front pocket for righties so you can clamp down on your gun, pressing into the holster, with your dominant hand and get to your knife easily with your weak hand. Now it only takes your mind about 2 weeks depending on how much you use your knife, before you'll be able to draw your knife better with you left hand than your right. Be sure to switch the clip if you do this.

[Graham Smith]

It realy messed with my mind. Now I am thinking about switching everyday stuff around like key carabiner, cell phone and so on to develop more dexterity with both hands.

I can see some pros to that and some cons.

Pros:

--We are creatures of habit. We constantly do things the same way. As a result, if for any reason we cannot do something one way, it can be difficult to impossible to change. Put your dominant arm in a sling sometime and see how difficult even easy things are to do. By frequently changing how we do things, we become much more ambidextrous which makes it easier to swap hands if we have to.

--Going right along with that, we usually have much better dexterity in our dominant hand, this improves the non-dominant hand. Movement can be good for the joints and the muscles.

--This can also reduce the stress on the dominant hand by switching some of the work we do every day to the other hand.

--Switching hands improves the neural pathways and perhaps even builds new ones. That can't be a bad thing can it?

Cons:

--This is a bit more conjecture than fact but... Things we do on a regular basis are often done without really thinking about it - so called muscle memory. If we start breaking patterns on a regular basis, will that condition us to stop and think about what we do? Is that necessarily a good thing?

[AlamoShooter]

You want to try something even more weird? Sit in a hard bottom chair with your wallet in your back pants pocket. Now, stick your arm ( the one on the wallet side ) straight out parallel to the ground. Have someone try to push your hand down while you resist the force. Now do the same thing without the wallet in your back pocket. See any difference? My chiropractor did this to me years ago when he saw my wallet in my back pocket. My result....without the wallet i was able to resist no problem. With the wallet in, trouble resisting him. What it comes down to is your spine is slightly crooked with the wallet in your pocket. Sitting on your wallet all day tends to shift your spine out of alignment. Not huge, but it was enough to convince me though to switch to a front pocket wallet.

Now don't get me wrong, my wallet wasn't a George Costanza wallet, it was fairly thin, or so I thought.

Just my two cents....sorry for the thread drift.

+1 from an Older guy that has greatly diminished my Back Pain. At the begging of the day on the drive to work you spine is being pushed. And at the end of the day your body is relaxing on the drive home= pushing your spine over. Also a thick Leather belt is punishing to your back on a long drive.

Edited April 23, 2012 by AlamoShooter

[benos]

This may be better suited in the Zen section.

Carried my wallet all my life in my left rear pocket. I am right hand dominant. Always wear pants with a button on the pockets to keep from losing stuff.

Just as a mental exercise switched wallet to dominant hand right rear pocket a few weeks ago. First few days, no skill at manipulating the button with the dominant hand and removing the wallet. Always thought the dominant hand was better at everything.

I was wrong. It has taken several weeks to adapt to the wallet in the "wrong" pocket.

Try this exercise. It realy messed with my mind. Now I am thinking about switching everyday stuff around like key carabiner, cell phone and so on to develop more dexterity with both hands.

Bobby

I like it!

Also nice additions to the attention games.