Rights and lefts

Does anyone else out there have trouble with their rights and lefts? I'm an Air Force cadet and we do a shitton of marching every week to practice for field training, and a few of the marching commands are column left/right's and right/left flanks. When the command is called, you only have one step to get your bearing and know which way to turn, and I'm absolutely terrible at remembering which way is which is such a short amount of time.

So my question is for anyone else who's had this problem; how do you remember which way is right and left in a split second? Usually if I have to think about it, I hold up "L"'s on both my hands with my pointer and thumb and whichever L is facing the correct way, that's left, but we're at attention when marching and therefore can't move our arms/hands other than swinging "6 to the front, 3 to the rear" when we're moving.

 

When I was very young I did what you do with your hands, just remember that the correct the L is on your left arm and turn that way when ever left is announced. All it is, is remembering..

 

"When you hold up your hands look for the L, that is your left"
"But they're both L's, one just faces the other way!"

Na but all in all the best way would just to be practice. You could set yourself up at home with a recording of the commands or something and just practice a bit for yourself.

 

Pretty sad but I learned my left from right by playing Mario Kart on my N64 haha. Playing a console with, for example, R1 or L1 etc. helps me to imagine which way is which - just to throw an alternative out there.

 

I could give it a go, but after 20 years of lefts and rights, you'd think that if I were mentally capable, I would already have my lefts and rights perfectly memorized and nailed down as a second nature :c I'll try to actively memorize the directions though and see if that helps

I've been practicing nightly with the commands commonly given during LeadLab, and I can get them down pretty well, but once I'm actually there where it actually matters-- where, if I turn the wrong directly, I run right into the three cadets who turned the opposite way-- the practice goes out the window. I can recognize the commands instantly as they're called, but then when I think about which way to turn to execute the command, I clam up and hesitate. I've been digging my nails into my right hand as we march, and sometimes it helps, but more often then not, I think it forces my mind to turn right more often than is actually commanded if you know what I mean. I psych myself into hearing "COLUMN RIGHT, HARCH" sometimes.

I wish I could look at it that way, but instead of memorizing R1 and L1, I memorized "shoot" for my right and "zoom" for my left as that seems to be the pattern on 99% of all shooting games. It would take much too long to train my mind to translate right and left into "shoot" and "zoom", and THEN translate that into the actual direction I need to turn..... just an extra step that I'll never be able to keep up with under pressure

 

Maybe if you learn that the right hand is dominate over the left. Using your right hand to do things is the right way to do things. It is pretty obvious that in today's society the majority of people are right-handed. Why? Because using your right hand is the right way to do things (not really but for the sake of learning this)

Try visualizing what it actually looks like when right-handed people look like when they perform tasks. Like a right handed writer or a right handed basketball shot.

Or think of yourself as a math scale. The higher the number the more correct it is (or the more right it is). Since your right arm is to the right of your left arm when held out, your right arm represents the higher number. Think of the higher number being the right number (correct number). Or pretend that your mid chest is set to 0 on a scale. To the left (left arm) represents negative number and to the right (right arm) represents positive number; think of positive as right and negative as wrong. From there your right is right and your left is wrong, then go from their to deduct that your other arm/direction is left.

Maybe if you can prioritize one of the directions (I suggest right) you can easily remember that direction, then from there you just go "well if it isn't right it must be left).

 

Well in high school i was a 2lt. and i was a drill commander the way i remembered is Flanks step on the same foot as the calls and columns on the opposite, its also good to remember that you always put your right hand over your heart. Usually it takes a load of practice try standing stationary and having your friend call your drill card out to you, the objective is to memories your drill card this is high school our drill cards for competitions were 198 commands to im sure your is way more. Just make it fun play last man standing, another thing you can try to do if you dont remember and your not a column leader or squad leader is to keep an eye on the squad commander in your preferential vision step where he steps show your pivot and you'll be ok.

Also remember to show your pivot's when your doing columns and flanks, and don't sway, keep your shoulders square and dont fk up the column of files lol....

x3 State Champions (Robert E' Lee) Silent and Armed Exhibition Drill (San Antonio Division Marine Corps Academy Central Catholic)

 

personally, my hands feel different

 

I remember that my right hand I write with, so I automatically use my right for most thing. This is when I'm driving etc, I just pull my right hand down for right, and push it up for left, as this turns the wheel the way I want to go. Easy to learn, hard to master. Same as east/west

 

I quickly imagine Im holding a glass of whiskey (right hand) and a cigarette (left hand)

 

Are you right handed? If so, if they call RIGHT, it's "write" & if they call LEFT, well yeah that's all I got. Practice practice practice. In my mind, it's either right or not, so if they don't say right, you don't "write"!