I have been attempting to convert my left hand into a usable hand over the past three days. I think that I have made significant inroads. Although my left hand remains something like 1/3 the speed of my right hand, it can write reasonably legibly and has gained the ability to execute curves. I have unfortunately hit a few roadblocks that have taken time to correct, lest they become permanent crutches to performance:
1. Hand smoothness. This is a very silly thing, but it has huge effects. Basically, the surface of my right hand that touches the paper is flat and extremely smooth – not bumps whatsoever. I wish my facial skin were this smooth… . In any case, this is an adaptation because rough skin, such as that on my left hand’s edge, tends to catch the paper, and when I shift the hand to move to the next word, or try to slide while writing a word, the paper is caught and crinkles or, worse yet, moves with my hand. Thus, I have been doing a lot of large-line marks in order to get a “sandpaper effect” going. I have also rubbed the skin a lot to shed off the uneven cells. The mobility has improved, but is still not quite up to snuff.
2. Moving the arm vs. moving the fingers. When I write with my right hand, my hand moves solely in the x-axis. The y-axis movements necessary to create letters is actually performed solely by my fingers. I noticed that even though I was writing letters correctly with my left hand, it was actually moving the entire unit – which is highly inefficient and which causes a lot of stress and tightness. The insufficient flexibility and strength in the index finger and the thumb seemed to be the problem, so I have knocked the speed down a notch in order to train my fingers to move with more flexibility.
3. Pencil posture. I hold the pencil “correctly” in my lefthand, resting atop my middle finger. I do not hold it correctly in my writing hand (right hand), and the pencil rests atop my ring finger. The consequence of the latter is that one grips the pencil at a lower point and therefore has greater control; however, a smaller range of movements is permitted. This posture is ideal for doing small details. The left hand is inclined to hold the pencil at the same point as my right, but this does not work because now I have an extra finger below that is in the way. I don’t want to teach my left hand the wrong way to hold a pencil, as it is already accustomed to the proper way, so I have been testing out different positions for the pinky to go in order to reduce the height, while also moving the gripping point farther from the tip of the pencil in order to meet the problem halfway from both ends.
My ultimate goals are to have my left hand capable of writing in case my right hand suddenly fails or is damaged (or is simply too tired to write, eg. on long essays). I also wish to experiment with thought-splitting. I currently have a single-channel system that only allows one pen-output at a time. However, it might be possible to split the channel such that I can take notes with one hand and doodle with the other. This possibility is very intriguing and I wish to explore it further to test its feasibility.
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