Broom Holding and Handedness

October 25, 2013 8:17 PM

The Edinburgh Handedness Inventory claims that the hand placed on top of the broom is the dominant hand and the hand on the bottom is the non-dominant hand. However, my sister and I are both right handed and hold brooms the opposite way. We can't imagine holding it the other way because the dominant hand should go on the bottom to control the broom better. Does anyone have any data on which way a broom is held for people of either handedness? Also, which way are other stick objects like spears and hockey sticks supposedly held?
posted by starfishprime to Science & Nature (16 answers total)

At our dojo we practiced aiki-ken with the sword held with the right hand further from the body, and the left closer to it (pics not from our dojo), regardless of what your dominant hand was.
posted by Tom-B at 8:42 PM on October 25, 2013

I hold the broom either way, depending on the space I need to sweep and where I need to stand while sweeping.

I am very very right hand dominant.
posted by mollymayhem at 8:43 PM on October 25, 2013

Anecdata: I am left-handed, and hold brooms with the left hand on the bottom most of the time. Those who play hockey left-handed hold it with the left hand lower. However, playing hockey left-handed doesn't map entirely with left or right handedness, so this may be something that varies with peoples preferences.
posted by lookoutbelow at 8:45 PM on October 25, 2013

I agree with mollymayhem- I hold the broom both ways, dependent on whether I'm sweeping right to left, or left to right.
posted by FirstMateKate at 8:45 PM on October 25, 2013

It depends on your technique. Your non-dominant hand is the pivot, and it stays pretty still. But you can anchor the end and and move from lower down, or you can anchor the middle and move the end. The former gives finer control, the latter gives bigger strokes.

(I swept popcorn off of movie theater floors for a while. My technique is carefully considered.)
posted by restless_nomad at 8:49 PM on October 25, 2013

Anecdotally, I'm left-handed and naturally sweep with my right hand lower. But I can sweep either way, and generally switch hands depending on what's easiest for the current area of floor.
posted by mekily at 8:57 PM on October 25, 2013

Augh, the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory! As many standard, normed inventories used in research psychology, it has parts that are absurdly out of date. But since it's "what everyone uses" and we want our results to be "comparable" to those of 40 years ago, we continue using instruments that just don't make much sense anymore.

In particular, the broom question on the EHI reliably gets the "wrong" answer from almost everyone who takes it. I've administered it to hundreds of people, most of whom were right-handed. The majority answered "always left" as to which hand is on top when they sweep. I'm almost certain that this is because no one actually spends much time sweeping anymore.

I am generally right-handed. When I sweep, I bend over at the waist and hold the broom like a hockey stick, with my right hand lower than my left.

That is not the way the EHI expects people to hold brooms. According to the EHI, you sweep standing totally upright, using your non-dominant hand to hold onto the broom about halfway up the handle, and using your dominant hand to grasp the end of the handke and propel the broom back and forth.

And that is indeed more convenient if you're using a broom to clear leaves from the sidewalk, but I usually just see people using leaf blowers.
posted by Nomyte at 9:25 PM on October 25, 2013

Dominent hand at the top is why the majority of hockey sticks sold in Canada are left handed and, as the article explains, why Canadian baseball players have a disadvantage, and why there are more left-handed golfers than the norm. That said, I know right handed people who shoot right, just like I can swing a gold club from either side.
posted by Null Pointer and the Exceptions at 9:43 PM on October 25, 2013

I'm left handed and (most often) hold brooms on top with my right hand and push with my dominant left hand lower on the broom. My left hand is stronger. I've never known anyone to sweep by pushing on the top of the broom; it seems inefficient to pivot the broom at a point lower down the handle and having a smaller angle of motion.

I use a left handed hockey stick and bat left handed, but I played baseball before playing hockey.
posted by oneirodynia at 9:59 PM on October 25, 2013

I don't think sweeping works the same way as baseball or golf. In those sports, I (and most people?) can definitely feel that there is "one way" to hold the bat or club and the other way feels "wrong".

But with sweeping, I can easily sweep with the broom on either the left side or the right side of me. I don't need my "dominant" hand on the bottom; I need the hand from that side of the body at the bottom so I can pull the broom toward myself.

My kitchen is about 6 feet wide and it has one end which is surrounded on 3 sides by cabinets. I can stand in the center of that space and put the broom on the left side of me to sweep into that left corner under the cabinets and bring that dirt toward me and then I can move the broom to the opposite side of me to sweep into the right corner. In both cases, whichever side of the body the broom is on, that hand is lower. And in both cases I am picking up the broom, putting it away from my body, then putting it on the ground and pulling it toward me. Both directions feel "right" and both work. When I am ready to sweep down to the other end of the kitchen, I am more likely to turn to the left so I use the broom on the right side of my body, but if the fridge were on the other side I might go the other way.
posted by CathyG at 10:13 PM on October 25, 2013

In lacrosse it is expected for a player to be at least competent holding the stick both ways. I suspect this was also probably the case in ice hockey before the invention of the curved blade.
posted by clorox at 10:55 PM on October 25, 2013

I'm super-right-handed, hold the broom with my right hand lower than the left, regardless of which way I need to sweep (I just move my body around to reach everywhere, like a mini-dance). I've done lots of sweeping and still do (there is not always a hoover where I am), and couldn't do it any other way - just thinking of switching hands makes me want to cry in frustration, that's how imprecise my movements get when I don't do it my way.
posted by miorita at 2:25 AM on October 26, 2013

I wonder if it depends on the type of broom? If I were using a push broom, I would use the dominant hand on top method. But when using a sweepy broom, the dominant hand goes at the bottom.

Probably because I've done a lot of sweeping, I end up being broom-ambidextrous. If I am sweeping off my right side, my right hand is lower. If I am sweeping off my left side, my left hand goes lower. Hockey stick style.

As I think about it, it seems to me there are two styles of two handed tool usage. The baseball bat or hockey stick style, and the pool cue style. I, a standard right-handed person, can't imagine shooting pool backwards any more than I can imagine swinging a baseball bat or using a handsaw backwards. But everything in between, like brooms, shovels, prybars and sledgehammers, really kind of depends on what the user is trying to accomplish more than handedness.
posted by gjc at 5:39 AM on October 26, 2013

A broom or a brush? Old Scots would once sweep the floor with an open faced broom where the sweeping was controlled by a flick of the non-dominant hand. These days a closed face brush is driven by a push of the dominant hand best employed from the top of the handle.
posted by Caskeum at 9:59 AM on October 26, 2013

Just swept some to test. I'm right handed; right hand on top for pushing, right hand on the bottom for pulling.
posted by klangklangston at 11:08 AM on October 26, 2013

I'm left-handed, at first I thought, yeah, I'd have my left hand on top, but on further consideration, I would switch hands depending on what direction I was going, or trying to reach certain spots. Also, I'm pretty ambidextrous.
posted by catatethebird at 11:52 AM on October 26, 2013