I promise you it's mostly a mental hang up.
When the teacher would say,"...now the left." I used to feel like the picture above; completely out of sorts! Lol!
In the last little while I've been really intrigued with why the left is such a scary place and how we can over come it.
It all started with teaching on Zoom...
When teaching on Zoom I would start on the left all the time because I was reversing everything so the dancers could follow along and mirror me. After a couple of weeks the left felt WAY more natural. Even though I was still doing the right as well, I was just starting with the left then doing the right.
When we got back into the studio and didn't have to start with the left anymore I found that I would now naturally demonstrate on the left, that was my first instinct.
Now I'm no spring chicken .
You CAN teach an old dog new tricks.
My point is you can change this stigma around the left!! It's not too late!!!
Recently I took an Acro Course with The Acro Teachers Association and I was reminded how important it is to train on both sides: your dominant and non-dominant.
If you notice in a lot of classes weather it's dance, yoga or otherwise you always start on the right. And quite often you spend more time there. When we finally get to the left we give it 1/2 the attention and time.
Let's flip it!!!
Let's start on the left side, then do the right. So in warm up and progressions start with the left side first.
I've been doing this lately in my classes and it's been quite interesting. It is such a mental thing!!!
This last week I taught at one of my favorite studios in the area, Shuswap Dance Center . We did progressions across the floor starting on the left side every day. By the end of the week the dancers got used to starting on the left and even found themselves questioning which side was their "goto".
Not only is this good for our bodies to stay balanced and to prevent injury but it's amazing for our minds!! They say even eating with your non-dominant hand once a day forces your brian to create new connections between neurons.
And just think, if you get great on your non-dominant side and are able to put both right and left turns/jumps in your cometitions dances how impressive would that be!!! As an adjudicator myself, I would be totally impressed!!!
So here is my suggestion. For a full month start on the left and see if/how it changes things for you. I have to say for someone who wanted to run away from turning on left side during my proffessional career doing this simple flip has made such a huge difference for me. And I definitely see a difference in my students!