Destin Sandlin form Smarter Every Day talks about his experiences with what he is calling The Backwards Brain Bicycle. Do you think it would be easy to ride a bike where the steering is reversed? where if you turn left, the wheel goes right.
The idea seems simple, but like Destin explains in his video, "its harder than you think." Rather, if you think to hard you will fail. Riding a bike is a complex thing for humans to do mentally. That is due to our brains having to be wired to ride. As soon as their is a change to the way the bike steers, that neuron network is no longer firing is the same way.
This episode of Smarter Every Day resonated with me because I see this functioning in a similar way to being ambidextrous. I have spent a lot of time being ambidextrous, or at least trying to be. I've brushed my teeth, drawn with pencil and written words with my left hand. The biggest reason I try to be ambidextrous is for use in parkour. See more about my parkour stuff on my blog and videos linked there.
In parkour there are lots of moves that are specific to one side of the body. For example, when I jump... I roll off my left foot (Called a skip step), this allows me to keep my momentum from the run-up through the jump. It can be difficult to jump off my right foot in a similar manor. I have learned to use my opposite side in many ways in parkour. This makes me more rounded and gives me more potential movements I can put into lines and capture on video. Being able to roll, jump, Side flip etc.
The only downside of learning movements on both sides is that it takes me longer to learn new moves. This is where the backward bike come in... Destin had to learn how to ride in a completely new way, which effected his way to know how to ride normally. This is similar to what I have experienced with learning to be ambidextrous. One side is usually easier to learn to do a movement, and when I work to learn a move on the other side I forget how to do it on the other.
A perfect example is with side flips. I originally learned how to do side-flips off my right foot, rolling over my head and shoulders to the right. I learned how to do them on my left around the same time as well. over the years since I have been doing them, I have realized that I now naturally do side flips off my left foot and I do them better on that side too. I believe this is partly do to how I jump better off my left foot.
Learning in this way is definitely possible. It just takes some time. I'm sure if Destin were to work at the backward bike more, he would eventually be able to switch back and forth between normal and backward riding, just as I have with some of my parkour movement, or brushing my teeth.
Eric Higgins
Home of Sheepish
Cover Image from Smarter Every day Video. 0:45
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