How many of you right handed player shoot left handed?

[Beville]

I do EVERYTHING with my Right, except shoot...

I'm completely kack-handed trying to play with my right hand

 

[Nalens Oga]

I wish when I was a kid, someone told me that I should start left-handed instead of right because it'd be easier to stick handle.

 

[biturbo19]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/sports/olympics/16lefty.html

--
“The top hand on a hockey stick has to be able to handle the torques of a stick while the bottom hand just has to handle the weight with no torques,†he wrote. He theorized that American children, who tend to take up hockey when they are older and bigger, can afford to put the stronger hand, generally the right, on the lower part of the shaft for more precision.
--

i agree with this. growing up, i played street hockey with about 15 immigrant kids, all of who have picked up the game at an older age, let's say over 12

everyone shot right except two naturally left handed guys and one kid's younger brother

so i do think if you begin playing hockey at a younger age, you're more likely to shoot left (or right if you're naturally left handed), because the stick is easier to control if your dominant hand is on top.
if you're older and able to control the stick with the left hand, you'd tend to focus more on trying to obtain more power from your lower hand, thus you'd shoot right.

I don't really buy into this entirely, as a right-handed Canadian who shoots right. But to add an extra layer of curiousity to it...does it not then, seem fairly unusual the plight of the upcoming Canadian Olympic hockey team? Having a surplus of RH shooting D-Men, with relatively scarce elite LH-side guys?

 

[Thesensation19*]

Their a ton of lefty hockey players, basically your top 10 players all are lefties lol. Yet isnt right the more dominant used hand in the world.

I think Canadians were taught to use dominant hand up high and shoot lefty for many of these guys. But i dont understand why, i dont do this but I cant knock it since it proves to work

But I would think your dominant hand down low, gives you more control for shooting and puck control. I feel the top hand is used for only positioning the stick for your bottom hands. For control of the puck or shooting u really only need your bottom hand while the top of the shaft can be positioned on ur body and things can still be done.

So idk why, but o well....

 

[Jarick]

Top hand is used for puck control. Bottom hand can be used for power on shots but shouldn't be the main hand for controlling the puck. I.e. the old drill of stickhandling while gripping the toilet paper tube on your bottom hand so you focus on top hand power and control.

Now if you're right handed shooting right you probably have to use more of the right hand when controlling the puck. But it's not ideal. I mean, if you only have one hand on the stick, are you going to have the top hand or bottom hand?

Again, my kid was holding his hockey stick as a lefty since before he could walk and he's right handed. I was the same way.

 

[Stickchecked]

But I would think your dominant hand down low, gives you more control for shooting and puck control. I feel the top hand is used for only positioning the stick for your bottom hands. For control of the puck or shooting u really only need your bottom hand while the top of the shaft can be positioned on ur body and things can still be done.

My understanding is that the top hand is supposed to most of work when stick handling, the lower hand is supposed to remain looser. This leads to "softer" hands. That's the idea behind slipping an empty toilet paper roll onto your stick for your bottom hand.

I've also been told a tighter bottom hand leads to very noisey stick handling.

 

[Jarick]

Haha stickchecked, great minds

 

[McBrom7]

Me! PM9 Total One left handed. Right handed for everything else.

 

[Jarick]

Solid user name.

 

[Malarowski]

My understanding is that the top hand is supposed to most of work when stick handling, the lower hand is supposed to remain looser. This leads to "softer" hands. That's the idea behind slipping an empty toilet paper roll onto your stick for your bottom hand.

I've also been told a tighter bottom hand leads to very noisey stick handling.

That's how I decided how to do it. Just imagining myself reach for a puck one-handed with my left hand was not pretty. So complete right-hander playing left here too.

 

[McBrom7]

Solid user name.

I try, I try

 

[Jarick]

I was the other way. Always the only left handed kid growing up even though I am right handed. Had no idea why and then as an adult the dominant hand thing came out and it makes sense.

I wonder though, why are so many left handed hockey players right handed golfers?

 

[xdl1]

I was the other way. Always the only left handed kid growing up even though I am right handed. Had no idea why and then as an adult the dominant hand thing came out and it makes sense.

I wonder though, why are so many left handed hockey players right handed golfers?

I grew up in golf - simple answer is that your dominant hand is your handedness in golf in 99% of players. I personally know cases where that isn't the case, but it's incredibly rare.

The mechanics in a golf swing are somewhat similar to hockey, but the torque and power creating the speed in the club head largely come from the ability to unload your weight transfer into a generation of centrifugal force. For me, the power is mostly generated from the right leg, core, arm (right handed) and control is less a function of the body and more centered around technique. Perhaps in hockey, its easier to learn to shoot on the non-dominant side, than it is to learn control your stick with extreme precision.

 

[redbranch]

I've been using a righty stick (I am right handed) as I've been learning. I've been doing alright, but I tried a friends lefty stick last night, and the shooting just felt immediately right. I'm swinging by the store tonight to pick up the cheapest lefty stick I can get just to practice a bit with it and see if I want to make the switch

 

[HamiltonNHL]

Me: Right handed in everything, Shoot left in hockey.
My Son: Right handed in everything, Shoot right in hockey.

 

[JZCislesHockey]

I'm right handed everything (writing, throwing etc) and I use a right handed stick. Always felt more natural. Shoot and stick handle just fine.

 

[Bardown warrior]

I am a right handed shot as a player, but because i catch with my left and play goalie, i shoot left while in net.

 

[CunniJA]

I am a right handed shot as a player, but because i catch with my left and play goalie, i shoot left while in net.

I do the same. No good for me. I can't stickhandle for squat with my right hand on top. Also, I am right handed in writing and throwing. Right footed kicker. Left handed pool player, left handed shoveler.

 

[g04tm4n]

Interesting thread. over here it is entirely different. up to this point, I only know 3 other players apart from myself that play left. All the other players here seem to be right.

I believe in the beginning, everyone here believed in if you are right, shoot right. Now there are some guys that say if they had the chance to go back and learn to play left, they would have done it.

 

[nycpunk1]

The best theory I've heard is that baseball's dominance in young American sports is to blame for the weird American bottom-hand preferences. This is a general preference in the population, and does not predict every single person. Example: I write left and shoot left, but throw and bat right, and snowboard regular instead of goofy-foot. This is likely because I am the only lefty in the family, and my dad taught me to throw right-handed pretty early. But I could also just be an outlier. Ironically, learning to throw and bat "wrong" ended up putting me "right" in hockey a couple of decades later!

The hand functions on a baseball bat are the reverse of hockey. Because the hands are together at the end of the bat, the hand at the very end acts as a fulcrum, with the power and accuracy both coming from the hand further in. Obviously the real power comes from the legs and torso, but the last whipping motion and all the control of the bat head are coming from the right hand in a batter who bats right. This explains why MOST right-handed kids who pick up a baseball bat prefer to bat right.

In hockey, the legs and torso still generate most of the power, but the control and a lot of the power are switched when it comes to hands. The hands aren't together, so the fulcrum is the hand further in (bottom hand), not the hand at the end. The hand on the end of the stick therefore has to supply the control instead. It also supplies a lot of the active power. Yes, the bottom hand pushes forward, but because it is at the fulcrum point, it's kind of a "dumb" power. There's just more motion at the top, so a lot more room to mess up.

This theory is kind of backed up by the weirdness of hockey stick sales in USA vs Canada and Europe AND the handedness of NHL players. Americans in general are backwards on handedness, preferring the bottom hand be dominant instead of the top. But there is no statistical difference in American NHL players. NHL players are far more likely than the general American population to play hockey before playing baseball. This could negate the baseball bias.

Don't lacrosse players in Canada swing their sticks like hockey, while Americans swing them like baseball? I admit I know nothing of the sport. When I grew up in SE Mass, only the whitest of private schools had it. Now it's everywhere.

 

[Boulder Avalanche]

Hockey: Right

Golf: Right

Throwing: Both but mostly right

Baseball Batting: Right but pull to the opposite side of normal.

I shoot and stickhandle just aswell as lefties at my skill level. I have noticed I have a harder snap and wrist shot than my friends who shoot left even through I am less musclar than they are. Imagine a bicycle racer not a hockey player.

 

[Patchey*]

I shoot with my right and catch with my left. Pretty much the reason I'm **** at handling the puck as a goalie. I can't explain it, it just feels so weird compared to using a rightie shot

 

[elmariachi227]

I wouldn't even know how to start playing left handed and its more about where I put my weight, my stance, and balance.

 

[Boulder Avalanche]

I forgot to mention that I was a goalie before a skater. I caught with my left and held the stick in my right. I guess that played a major role also. I was used to maneuvering the stick using only my right hand at the bottom. Almost all the goalies that I have meet who catch with their left hand shoot right as a skater.

 

[buddhaknows]

Hockey - Left handed
LAX - Left handed
Baseball - Throw right bat left
Golf- Right handed
Tennis Left handed
Fly fishing - Right handed cast - left retrieve
Dominate hand - I write right


I'm all cockeyed