How many of you right handed player shoot left handed?

kingscourt26

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Jul 19, 2010
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I am right handed but I play hockey left handed...as well as bat in baseball and golf. Personally, like most right handed people, I figure the stronger hand should be at the end of the stick. It's what's comfortable to me and makes sense when you're moving the puck or defending with one hand.

How many of you are like that? Anyone know the reasoning behind why 2 right handed people could play so differently?
 

AIREAYE

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Jun 7, 2009
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Same boat as you kingscourt, I don't know why it's like that, but almost everyone I know is the same
 

theguru

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Mar 17, 2010
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Toronto, ON
i'm all the way right and can't figure why you wouldn't want your power hand to be the low one for shooting power. clapper, wrister, snap shots all the power is generated from your lower (right) hand.
 

#66

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Dec 30, 2003
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i'm all the way right and can't figure why you wouldn't want your power hand to be the low one for shooting power. clapper, wrister, snap shots all the power is generated from your lower (right) hand.
Righty that shoots right. I don't get it either.

I'm also a right that plays LW so power hand in the middle of the ice.
 

Frankie Spankie

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Feb 22, 2009
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Dorchester, MA
Righthanded and only play hockey lefthanded. Everything else is righthanded.

This. It's pretty much whichever way you pick up a hockey stick for the first time. I would play street hockey as a little kid and was just given a stick with a flat blade, I happened to pick it up as a lefty. Solid reasoning to why somebody would go either way, I never really cared too much because frankly, it doesn't matter.
 

YNWA14

Onbreekbaar
Dec 29, 2010
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It's actually because kids are taught to use their strong hand on the top of the stick for control. Ultimately a shot is getting most of its power from your weight transfer and technique not from which hand is on the bottom. The top hand does more work overall and that's why people that are right handed are taught to have their right hand on the top of the stick.

If you look at the NHL a vast majority of the players shoot left, but everyone knows that most people are right handed.

For the record I am right handed and I shoot right. I was never taught the other way but I can see where the logic comes from.
 

Skarjak

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Sep 8, 2010
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With your right hand closer to the blade, shouldn't you have more control over the whipping motion of your blade when you shoot, allowing you to get better accuracy?
 

SuburbanArgyle

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May 4, 2010
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i'm all the way right and can't figure why you wouldn't want your power hand to be the low one for shooting power. clapper, wrister, snap shots all the power is generated from your lower (right) hand.

I feel like it's the opposite actually, and it's better to have the strong hand on top. Doesn't really matter I guess, to each is own.

For the record, I'm in the same boat as the OP.
 

mbeam

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Jun 8, 2008
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kr580

Who knows.
Aug 9, 2009
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Righthanded and only play hockey lefthanded. Everything else is righthanded.

Same here.

theguru, that's not true at all. As mentioned before, it's the technique that matters, not brute strength. Plus I see the bottom hand as more of a pivot point more than the source of the power.

And Kings, I've seen plenty of people say (people as well as articles) that Canada is about 70% left-handed in hockey while the US is about 70% right-handed. Seems to me that since hockey is rarely a first sport for anyone in the States, everyone seems to think you play the same as other swinging sports (namely baseball and golf). Once you play for a short while I doubt it matters, you'll be just as good either way with practice.
 

ponder

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Jul 11, 2007
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In general people say that your dominant hand should be on top for control, so righties should shoot left and lefties should shoot right. However, a lot of people just figure that right handed = right handed shot, so go with that and just get used to it. I started hockey when I was real young, my parents bought me a right handed stick figuring that was the way to go for a right handed boy, obviously I'm used to it now and a left handed stick feels super weird. Really I don't think it makes a big difference, you will learn to use whatever you stick with.
 
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Analyzer*

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I write right handed, throw right handed bat either way and golf either way. I shoot left handed, but I play goalie either way. Though, I'm better catch with my left hand than with my right.
 

Crede777

Deputized
Dec 16, 2009
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As others have said, top hand on the stick ought to be the dominant one. This gives better overall control.

It's the opposite in baseball and golf, where right handers usually hit with their right hands on top. This has more to do with the wrist and elbows than it does with the hand itself (just as hockey has more to do with the shoulders and waist than the arms).

If you're right handed and shoot right like me, it's fine if you practice and weight train so that your shoulder/hand can control the stick. I can pick up and wave the stick around with my left just as well as my right.
 

silkyjohnson50

Registered User
Jan 10, 2007
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Kind of funny that i was the only left-handed hockey player that was actually left-handed.

To be fair i do some things right handed though, such as throwing a baseball, playing pool, pulling a bow-and-arrow. And as a left-handed person, i was forced to do/learn a lot of little things right-handed such as controlling the mouse on a computer, stick shift vehicles, guitar/drums, fishing, etc.. I also kick right-footed.

But i'm generally left-handed: writing, eating, hockey, batting (throw right-handed, bat left), golf, tennis, bowling, ping pong, using scissors, etc.
 

Ghost Face

Hull of Fame
Mar 9, 2011
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Winnipeg
Righty that shoots right. I don't get it either.

I'm also a right that plays LW so power hand in the middle of the ice.

Same here. It makes more sense to me for a right hand shot to shoot from the left side of the ice (and vice versa), I can get more power shooting away from my body rather than across my body.
 

Jules Winnfield

Fleurymanbad
Mar 19, 2010
8,919
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I'm righthanded.

I play hockey lefthanded, swing a baseball bat lefthanded but throw right handed, swing a golf club left handed.

I throw a football right handed but played defense in high school/early college and gave my line coaches fits. I would line up with my left hand down instead of my right (which with your left hand down is something a left handed person would do).

Coach: "Boy what's wrong with you? You left handed?"

Me: "No."

Coach: "Then why the hell do you line up like your left handed? You won't get your full strength to push off if you lineup like that."

Me: "I'm not sure, Coach. I'm comfortable lining up like that. I don't feel comfortable the other way."

Coach: "Line up the other way. If you're right handed, you'll get better results."

after the results leave me coming off a step later than usual

Me: "Coach. I'm just not comfortable lining up like that."

Coach: "Oh the hell with it. Do what works for you."

:laugh:
 

biturbo19

Registered User
Jul 13, 2010
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Same here.

theguru, that's not true at all. As mentioned before, it's the technique that matters, not brute strength. Plus I see the bottom hand as more of a pivot point more than the source of the power.

And Kings, I've seen plenty of people say (people as well as articles) that Canada is about 70% left-handed in hockey while the US is about 70% right-handed. Seems to me that since hockey is rarely a first sport for anyone in the States, everyone seems to think you play the same as other swinging sports (namely baseball and golf). Once you play for a short while I doubt it matters, you'll be just as good either way with practice.

i find that sort of stuff really interesting...

as i'm a right-handed person (do everything right-handed, throw a football/baseball, write, golf, etc.) and yet i also shoot right n hockey.

i'm canadian, born and raised. and my father is also canadian, right-handed, and played a lot of hockey in his youth and shoots left (as most would expect). he's the one who was responsible for my early introduction to hockey and which hand i ended up shooting i guess?

but i feel like there's more to it...bear with me...

my mother is american, from florida. where according to the 'results', the 'handedness' is reversed. of course, my mother being from florida...had almost nothing appreciable to do with my hockey development. so...seems stupid.

but the other thing...

is that my mother is also left-handed. as is my sister, and my grandmother.

and to basically ruin my case...i spent most of my years in hockey as a goaltender, playing as a natural, normal, full-left goaltender. glove on the left hand, blocker on the right.

i also do a few other random odd tasks left-handed apparently, without noticing, until people point it out. but basically right-handed for everything important.


makes me very curious about the whole thing though. always kinda wonder if i should be shooting left after all...but it just seems so unnatural to me.
 

MeltingPlastic

Registered User
Jul 1, 2010
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Outside Philly
Im righty and shoot left. As a kid my father put two sticks in my hand and said which one feels better and i said lefty and we went from there(yet my sister plays righty when she used to play street hockey with us)

I can swing a bat both ways but have to field right(throw right glove left) i feel more comfortable playing drums lefty and i skateboard/snowboard goofy footed which puts my right foot first instead of my left.

I think its just what you feel more comfortable with
 

jbennardo

Registered User
Sep 23, 2009
103
0
www.3sddevelopment.com
I'm right handed but play hockey lefty. I also golf lefty (very poorly I might add). Kick a soccer or football left footed. I can throw/catch baseball with either hand because growing up we would all share gloves. Tennis or racquet sports right hand. I'm all over the place but it looks like some others are as well :D
 

Crisp Breakout

Registered User
Jan 3, 2011
5,238
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Chicago
I think more right-handed people shoot left than shoot right. If you're ever curious about an NHL player just google them signing an autograph.
 

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