Odd "survival training" I've been doing.

J

JackBauer24

Joined
Mar 13, 2006
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850
Well, I was thinking about the stupid problems you could have. Take for example Les stroud cutting his hand and that other point finger nail guy who just cut his hand. Basically what I've been doing is learning to be left handed. I swaped my clip to the other side of my BM710, and I"ve been doing everything this side of writing left handed. It's taken a few weeks but I almost naturally do it. I realize this isn't exactly trapping or firemaking but still something to think about.

What are some of the off parallel things you guys do?
 
damn

watchit that u dont cut ur right hand now!

the way i see it, i can almost only cut my left hand using my right with the knife
 
nephildevil said:
damn

watchit that u dont cut ur right hand now!

the way i see it, i can almost only cut my left hand using my right with the knife
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I'm not sure I understand that last statement. lol. The way I see it, if something happens to my right hand, being able to use my left already will put me ahead, not to mention I'll be more likely to leave my right out of operations which should help it heal faster. Maybe I'm just wierd.
 
JackBauer24 said:
Well, I was thinking about the stupid problems you could have. Take for example Les stroud cutting his hand and that other point finger nail guy who just cut his hand. Basically what I've been doing is learning to be left handed. I swaped my clip to the other side of my BM710, and I"ve been doing everything this side of writing left handed. It's taken a few weeks but I almost naturally do it. I realize this isn't exactly trapping or firemaking but still something to think about.

What are some of the off parallel things you guys do?
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My dad, who worked with his hands for a living, did this as well. The hands were never equal but he could get by quite nicely.
 
Work on the writing, too. I broke my right wrist and HAD TO learn to write left handed. Statistics and Probability teacher was a motor-mouth, too...:thumbdn:
 
Not survival training but... When I was younger I worked as a carpenter's apprentice. The guy who taught me was a lefty. I learned a lot of stuff left handed. Some of it I translated to right handed, but I still do a bunch of stuff left handed.

Then I did it. I got married, my wife is a lefty.

I worked in the Medical device industry for a bunch of leftys who just happened to set up the production line for leftys. So by default, I learned to do many things left handed.

In high school, just to mess with my frieds, I worked on writing in mirror image with my left hand. When friends asked if I could write with my left hand, I'd show them and write in mirror image. They'd ask me why it's backwards and I'd tell them "well its my left hand"

Other odd stuff I've done, I pick stuff up with my toes. I can throw things fairly accurately too.

Ric Lee
 
Along these lines, those of you that carry a gun should get a left handed holster NOW and practice using it, left hand only.

This brings up a sidebar........what gun is BEST for 'weak hand only?'

.
 
David E said:
Along these lines, those of you that carry a gun should get a left handed holster NOW and practice using it, left hand only.

This brings up a sidebar........what gun is BEST for 'weak hand only?'

.
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The classic double action revolver. The original point-and-click interface. ;)
 
I disagree that it's "best".....

But if you would, please repost this at the new thread.

I did not intend to hijack this one.

.
 
I'm a lefty and have had to adapt to a right-handed world so I've gotten pretty good with both hands. I shoot rifle and handgun from both sides as well as bow. I can cast/retrieve with a spinning or baitcasting rod/reel and use most power and hand tools ambidextriously.

I'm much more confident and comfortable with the Left hand, so if I have an option, I'll go that route.

My favorite is having my computer mouse on the Left side at work. Whenever a student or co-worker tries to use it, they spend a while trying to figure it out... (My wife won't let me put the mouse on the Left at home, tho...)

J-
 
I think that you are doing what everyone should do. Most of my gear is ambidextrous and one hand oriented. How I got here is that my Dad was born a southpaw back in the 20's in OK., but the schools didn't allow left handers, so he learned to do everything with his right hand, including write. He passed this onto me, but being right handed naturally and right eye dominant, it took me awhile to get some of the finer points of tool use down and I'm still working on shooting a bow left handed.
 
It's called being ambidextrous. Some of the most intelligent people in history were born being able to use both hands equally. DaVinci could write two different things in two different languages at the same time, or write with one hand while drawing with the other.
 
Longbow beat me to the terminology.
 
i tried to do kendo using the left hand as dominate hand, and man was that hard. in case of martial arts, not only do you have to switch hands, you'd most likely have to invert your foot work as well. im still working on it, trying to learn to use a bunch of different weapons with the left hand and inverted foot work.
 
David E said:
Along these lines, those of you that carry a gun should get a left handed holster NOW and practice using it, left hand only.

This brings up a sidebar........what gun is BEST for 'weak hand only?'

.
Click to expand...

that's kinda what started me on this. I was taking my CCW class and the instructor noticed I was left eye dominant as a righty. It's actually what spawned this. I decided to learn to shoot lefty first in an attempt to "start with no bad habits" and it's gone from there.
 
At the Dallas Safari Club show in January, I saw a presentation by Peter Kummerfeldt, who grew up in Kenya before moving to America and joining the Air Force. He was the head survival instructor at the Air Force Academy for over a decade before retiring.

Anyway, the talk was great and he talked about doing things with only one arm. He said that while shows like Survivorman are nice, the host is under no actual stress (think life and death situation) and is in great shape and health. Kummerfeldt stated that in a lot of situations, you will be injured in some way and will be extremely stressed out. His techniques were fairly simple and straight forward, but they were set up so that you could perform them under adverse conditions.

One example: He is of the belief that survival blankets are pretty useless, because they are fragile and easy to tear, and suggests using thick orange trash bags instead. He attempted to prove his point by having a volunteer come up, stick his dominant hand behind his back and then open a backpack to get the blanket out, before attempting to remove the blanket from the small ziploc bag they come in and unfold it with only one hand. The blanket was pretty tough to unfold and get setup one handed because it would stick together, something that wasn't the case with the trash bag.

All of the techniques he showed could be done one handed, such as using your good arm and one of your feet to start a fire with a ferro rod/metal match and Vaseline soaked cotton balls. Regardless of how you feel about the blanket/trash bag debate, the point he made about using your offhand and having techniques that can be done with an injured arm are smart and should be considered by everyone.
 
My mom messed up her hands pretty well when I was a kid so I always had an appreciation for disabilities. I would try to walk around sightless as much as possible, only use one hand or try no handed life- (got pretty good at fridge work handless, as well as doors and lights.

For the next 2 months at least I will be surviving legless- well at least without functioning legs. I can say after one day at home that the shepherds hook Pat and Wes Crawford Survival staff has been my saving grace- I need much longer arms!

Thanks for starting a thread like this. Only days before my accident I was discussing my "adaptability training" as I like to think of it- and detailing the types of things that I have done in order to be better prepared for the unexpected. And now I am living it. I feel like this has helped me prepare for easily adapting to new challenges. Well, that and being a pessimist as pessimists are never dissapointed- thus I was able to joke with paramedics as they showed up to fix me legs. I expected something bad to happen, for once it did- so I was able to accept it, move on and start assesing my injuries. By the time I was found (skydiving accident) I was sitting back with my legs ready to get splinted, with a full report for first aiders of all of my ailment.
 
CUTS LIKE A KRIS said:
cept it, move on and start assesing my injuries. By the time I was found (skydiving accident) I was sitting back with my legs ready to get splinted, with a full report for first aiders of all of my ailment.
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Man that's sucks. I expect tragedy every day but I'm one lucky S.O.B. so far. I don't fear it, just expect it I guess. What went wrong in your acciedent? if you dont' mind my asking.
 
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