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Sinister... That old superstition towards the left-handed is due to religions, and catholics never were the last for persecuting them.
Education in France and many Western European countries was monopolized by clergy for centuries and centuries - from the early middle-Ages to most of the 19th century... Treating left-handedness as devilish was just part of the general obscurantism they would spread on every single part of people. I won't talk about Inquisition, I would be off track...
Bullying kids for non-existent (religious, then superstitious) reasons even survived in state primary schools until the late 1960s. You could still wind up at the mercy of a religious zealot as a schoolmaster, who was an adept of public (in class, that is) corporal punishment in general, which was frequent, and against left-handed pupils in particular...
My own father had such a maniac as his schoolmaster during the fifties. He was a true left-hander. He was forced to write with his right-hand, until he couldn't do otherwise - he still writes with his right hand.
He once told me about that, and how he couldn't understand why the hell it would matter that much which hand you use. That schoolmaster was the choirmaster of the church that was two steps from my father's school. The best way to disgust a child from church and school. It didn't prevent my father from graduating, though.
Left-handed tennis players, beyond the fact their gestures are triggered slightly faster than the right-handers's, have a big advantage, as they serve on their fave side, from left to right, at 40/0, 40:30 and in advantages. There's only 40/15 left for the right-handed.
Other important points, 0/15, 15/0, 15/30 or 30/15, are played on the same side.
That said, there's the same proportion of left-handed players amongst professionals as in the rest of the population.
Education in France and many Western European countries was monopolized by clergy for centuries and centuries - from the early middle-Ages to most of the 19th century... Treating left-handedness as devilish was just part of the general obscurantism they would spread on every single part of people. I won't talk about Inquisition, I would be off track...
Bullying kids for non-existent (religious, then superstitious) reasons even survived in state primary schools until the late 1960s. You could still wind up at the mercy of a religious zealot as a schoolmaster, who was an adept of public (in class, that is) corporal punishment in general, which was frequent, and against left-handed pupils in particular...
My own father had such a maniac as his schoolmaster during the fifties. He was a true left-hander. He was forced to write with his right-hand, until he couldn't do otherwise - he still writes with his right hand.
He once told me about that, and how he couldn't understand why the hell it would matter that much which hand you use. That schoolmaster was the choirmaster of the church that was two steps from my father's school. The best way to disgust a child from church and school. It didn't prevent my father from graduating, though.
Left-handed tennis players, beyond the fact their gestures are triggered slightly faster than the right-handers's, have a big advantage, as they serve on their fave side, from left to right, at 40/0, 40:30 and in advantages. There's only 40/15 left for the right-handed.
Other important points, 0/15, 15/0, 15/30 or 30/15, are played on the same side.
That said, there's the same proportion of left-handed players amongst professionals as in the rest of the population.
and all the Army lefties! 
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