Why is There a Left-Hander’s Advantage in Elite Women’s Épée? Insights From Match Performance Analysis of the 2017–2019 World Championships

Both innate superiority and negative frequency-dependent advantage (NFDA) hypotheses have been proposed to explain the left-hander advantage in interactive sports such as fencing. However, empirical evidence on the specific technical and tactical patterns potentially underlying this advantage remains limited. Therefore, this study analyzed match performance of elite female épéeists at the 2017–2019 World Championships using notational analysis. We examined the prevalence and winning rates of left- and right-handed fencers across tournament stages, as well as the distributions of performed and scored actions in terms of technique, target area, and piste zone. Results revealed that left-handers were consistently overrepresented relative to population prevalence, and their winning rates increased up to the semifinals (80%) but matched right-handers in the finals (50%). Technique use was highly consistent across all handedness matchups, with attacks being the most frequent action. While the inner upper body remained the primary target overall, asymmetrical matchups (left-vs.-right and right-vs.-left) were associated with a shift toward the outer upper body and lower body; this pattern was attenuated in left-handers facing left-handers. Crucially, left-handers consistently demonstrated a more invasive spatial strategy across all matchups, showing a greater tendency to operate and score in the opponent’s middle zone. Taken together, the left-hander’s advantage in elite female épée appears to be underpinned by an interplay between context-dependent target adaptation, aligning with the NFDA account, and a generalized proactive spatial exploitation, as proposed by the innate superiority account.