Some people are trying to make this WAY more complicated than it is.
There is no "right way" or "wrong way". It's what you feel most comfortable doing at the start, then you keep doing it and get good at doing it that way.
I might be pulling this out of thin air but I recall once reading/hearing that Canada also has a exceptionally high ratio of left handed golfers. Maybe we're just messed up.
So recently I was noticing that a ridiculous number of players in the NHL shoot lefty and I started thinking that there is no way there are that many lefties in the NHL. I did some research and found an article stating that the majority of Canadians shoot left and the majority of Americans shoot right. Is there a reason for this? As a righty myself, I could never imagine shooting lefty, yet this seems to be the norm in Canada.
If you want to see complicated, check out how CuJo caught and handled the puck.
The top hand is the control hand and the bottom hand is the power hand. That's why hockey players should have their dominant hand on top and baseball players should have the dominant hand on the bottom.
Most Canadians play hockey first and most Americans play baseball first.
how did he do both those things differently than any other goalie?
I am right handed. I am much more powerful on with my dominant hand. I also play guitar. I am much more deft with my left hand.
Having my left hand as the power hand on a hockey stick just feels absolutely dumb to me. To me
Having my right hand as the control feels like such a waste.
its just what comes natural, no science behind the decision. a 5 year old isnt going to think it through when they are handed a stick.
That's a good point about shifting your weight. Dominant hand on the bottom means the weight shift is the same as when throwing a ball, which I assume most of us did before picking up a hockey stick. I could definitely see dominant hand on bottom being the more immediately natural choice when picking up a stick for the first time and trying to shoot. As mentioned previously though, if you're learning to skate and they give you a stick (without a puck to shoot), you'd probably end up holding it in your dominant hold only (at the top).