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The advantage of lefties in one-on-one sports

Author

Listed:
  • Fagan Francois

    (Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Columbia University, 500 W. 120th Street, Mudd 315, New York, NY, USA)

  • Haugh Martin

    (Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Columbia University, 500 W. 120th Street, Mudd 315, New York, NY, USA)

  • Cooper Hal

    (Imperial College Business School, Imperial College, London, UK)

Abstract

Left-handers comprise approximately 15% of professional tennis players, but only 11% of the general population. In boxing, baseball, fencing, table-tennis and specialist batting positions in cricket the contrast is even starker, with 30% or more of top players often being left-handed. In this paper we propose a model for identifying the advantage of being left-handed in one-on-one interactive sports (as well as the inherent skill of each player). We construct a Bayesian latent ability model in the spirit of the classic Glicko model but with the additional complication of having a latent factor, i.e. the advantage of left-handedness, that we need to estimate. Inference is further complicated by the truncated nature of data-sets that arise from only having data of the top players. We show how to infer the advantage of left-handedness when only the proportion of top left-handed players is available. We use this result to develop a simple dynamic model for inferring how the advantage of left-handedness varies through time. We also extend the model to cases where we have ranking or match-play data. We test these models on 2014 match-play data from top male professional tennis players, and the dynamic model on data from 1985 to 2016.

Suggested Citation

  • Fagan Francois & Haugh Martin & Cooper Hal, 2019. "The advantage of lefties in one-on-one sports," Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, De Gruyter, vol. 15(1), pages 1-25, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:jqsprt:v:15:y:2019:i:1:p:1-25:n:2
    DOI: 10.1515/jqas-2017-0076
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Mark E. Glickman, 1999. "Parameter Estimation in Large Dynamic Paired Comparison Experiments," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 48(3), pages 377-394.
    2. Raymond Stefani, 1997. "Survey of the major world sports rating systems," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(6), pages 635-646.
    3. del Corral, Julio & Prieto-Rodríguez, Juan, 2010. "Are differences in ranks good predictors for Grand Slam tennis matches?," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 551-563, July.
    4. Frederick Mosteller, 1951. "Remarks on the method of paired comparisons: I. The least squares solution assuming equal standard deviations and equal correlations," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 16(1), pages 3-9, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Fabio Mariani & Marion Mercier & Luca Pensieroso, 2023. "Left-handedness and economic development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 79-123, March.

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