There are many common traits that the world’s finest athletes possess.  Ambidexterity is one of these traits. There is a tremendous advantage in all sports to have the ability to use both hands or swing both ways. The greatest basketball players, tennis players, pool players, baseball players [switch hitters], volleyball players, boxers, martial artists, bowlers, soccer players, even ping pong players, all benefit from mastering the skills required to become ambidextrous. 

You must have not only the intelligence but the courage to learn new skills. Courage to be different is one of the most important factors in any great athlete’s developmental process.  As a basketball player, I was always looking to add shots to my repertoire. I became an ambidextrous basketball player by practicing my dribbling, passing, and shooting with my left hand. I wasn’t born ambidextrous, but I acquired the skills through practice and repetition.

The game of golf is a very right-handed and a very close-minded sport. The boxes that most golfers exist in only seem to include the right-handed options. Rolling the ball back-handed or left-handed is so easy anyone from the age of 5 to 95 can do it reasonably well within the first 10 minutes, but many people say “I can’t putt left-handed.”    

What they really mean is they haven’t chosen to learn to putt left-handed. Anyone who is smart and bold enough to take some time to learn to putt left-handed will be rewarded many times over with more made putts and scores you only dreamed of shooting.

One of the most surprising discoveries we found was the effect of peer pressure on golfers. Peer pressure coming from your foursome has a profound effect on the size of your box. Stepping out of the box takes brains, courage, and personal fortitude. Most golfers would seemingly rather consistently miss the putt right-handed than be embarrassed by putting it left-handed. The forces of peer pressure to conform is very strong in the game of golf, especially at private country clubs.

I personally valued my commitment to what I believed made me a better player over whatever static that may come from any other golfer. I dared to be different. It has been such a giggle watching other peoples reaction to switch putting. It is just more fun to make more putts and to shoot lower scores. Ask Notah Begay.

 The area of the game that can be helped tremendously by learning to be ambidextrous is on and around the putting green.