LHS D on right side and RHS D on left side

[rent free]

this maybe off topic, but how come there are more lhd in hockey than rhd when there are more rh people in the world?

 

[Sojourn]

this maybe off topic, but how come there are more lhd in hockey than rhd when there are more rh people in the world?

It’s more common for your dominant hand to be at the top of the stick.

There are different trains of thought here, but that’s really just how it goes. A lot of righty’s shoot left, and vice versa. It’s not a hard rule, but it’s more common.

 

[Michael Farkas]

Top hand controls the stick, most people are right handed...therefore, they are LHS hockey players.

Note quality of fringe RHS d-men in the league vs. LHS. Explains how valuable the handedness is to coaches/GMs league wide...

 

[rent free]

It’s more common for your dominant hand to be at the top of the stick.

There are different trains of thought here, but that’s really just how it goes. A lot of righty’s shoot left, and vice versa. It’s not a hard rule, but it’s more common.

ok thanks. was kinda wondering for a long time

 

[Tweed]

The concept there is fascinating, but there are two BIG issues:

1) For all the work that appears to have been done writing the article itself, the data is pulled from: 10 hockey defensemen who were males aged 14–16 involved observation during an ice rink’s 2-hr open “puck-n-stick” session.

That's an incredibly underwhelming source of data for something this ambitious. You'd almost have to go out of your way to find a less adequate sample of hockey activity, than a tiny group of teenaged amateurs messing around at open hockey.

2) The tasks measured were all offensive in nature (holding the puck at the blue line, making passes, taking one-timers) which leaves the majority of the defenseman's job un-measured.


I like the level of detail that they explore to illustrate their findings, but I have serious reservations about the findings themselves. If someone does a more robust study, I'd be interested to see the results and I expect they will be quite different than what we see here.

There is actually a more comprehensive report and dataset somewhere, I didn't try too hard to find it when I was posting that back in June though, but I threw it on there because at a quick glance it seemed to echo the sentiments of what I had found in the past... I remember looking into this topic several years ago, and was also reading up on the Russian systems and style, just for kicks, because I wondered the same thing as the OP.

IIRC, the Russian studies and POV on it was that it's marginally better to play on the correct-hand, on the defensive side of the puck, but the advantages gained by playing on the off-hand on the offensive side of the puck far outweigh the former.

 

[Bandit]

It’s more common for your dominant hand to be at the top of the stick.

There are different trains of thought here, but that’s really just how it goes. A lot of righty’s shoot left, and vice versa. It’s not a hard rule, but it’s more common.

I've heard this a lot and I'm sure it's probably true, but as a right-handed person in life, the thought of trying to play hockey with a left-handed stick is so foreign to me that you might as well tell me to ride a pogo stick upside down on a glacier.

 

[Sojourn]

I've heard this a lot and I'm sure it's probably true, but as a right-handed person in life, the thought of trying to play hockey with a left-handed stick is so foreign to me that you might as well tell me to ride a pogo stick upside down on a glacier.

I've always felt the best rule for most people(us) is that you should go with what feels comfortable.

 

[Michael Farkas]

IIRC, the Russian studies and POV on it was that it's marginally better to play on the correct-hand, on the defensive side of the puck, but the advantages gained by playing on the off-hand on the offensive side of the puck far outweigh the former.

Needs context of Soviet development history. Note use of LHS on Soviet national teams and how their breakouts and defensive structure were adapted going back through the 1970's. Naturally, given their roster assembly and style of play, their studies - to whatever degree they are studies - are likely rooted in this philosophy based out of need.

One quick example...

Count the RHS in this video...

 

[Kalamazoo Wings]

Have a look at Alex Tuch's first career NHL goal against Boston last Sunday. If that's a lefty on the left side Tuch doesn't snipe his first.

 

[insomniac]

The other thing to consider is that it's tougher to keep the puck in the offensive zone when your opponent clears along the boards if you're on your backhand..

 

[IPS]

Niklas Hjalmarrson plays his offside extremely well as a defensive D-man.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I've heard this a lot and I'm sure it's probably true, but as a right-handed person in life, the thought of trying to play hockey with a left-handed stick is so foreign to me that you might as well tell me to ride a pogo stick upside down on a glacier.

I feel the same way, and fail miserably when I try to play with a LH stick even though I'm definitely right-handed.

This is apparently common among Americans... often blamed on the early influence of baseball for a lot of American kids.

 

[Tweed]

Needs context of Soviet development history. Note use of LHS on Soviet national teams and how their breakouts and defensive structure were adapted going back through the 1970's. Naturally, given their roster assembly and style of play, their studies - to whatever degree they are studies - are likely rooted in this philosophy based out of need.

One quick example...

Count the RHS in this video...

Yeah, I have no idea. I've never watched their system closely enough to make note of the ratio of LHS to RHS. The clip was too hard to follow because it was a scoring summary/highlight reel, and I couldn't discern one guy from the next in order to do a proper count. I'm just going by what I read about Tarasov's philosophies, and his rationales for his philosophies. Some good anecdotal stories too.

One of the main things I took away from my readings back then, was that his player's positions were pretty fluid and interchangeable, intentionally. I don't remember any mention of necessity playing a factor, but you could totally be right for all I know. I'm pretty sure Tarasov was a student of the game, so in that way, I took his observations and remarks to be studies. I forget whether the actual data I saw was his, or was somebody else using theirs to support his arguments for off-hand dmen.

My post was really more about bringing attention to the fact that a highly revered coach disagreed with the overwhelming sentiment that it's advantageous to play guys on their on-hand. I can see the logic in both strategies/deployments, personally.

An interesting aside... after I made another weak-attempt at seeing what I could google-up, with no luck, but I came across a study that showed how much better RHS's are at scoring goals than Lefties. (They used NHL players in their data).

Honestly, at the end of the day, if you were watching the Russians in the 70s, I'd defer to your knowledge... because I wasn't.

 

[Tweed]

The other thing to consider is that it's tougher to keep the puck in the offensive zone when your opponent clears along the boards if you're on your backhand..

FWIW... it's not, because players are more inclined to use their whole body against the boards to jam the path of the puck, than a player who has his stick between himself and the boards, thereby increasing their chances of keeping the puck in.

Again, I'm just regurgitating what I read Tarasov say (IIRC).

 

[Tweed]

I feel the same way, and fail miserably when I try to play with a LH stick even though I'm definitely right-handed.

This is apparently common among Americans... often blamed on the early influence of baseball for a lot of American kids.

Yeah me too. I never understood RH people who shoot left, and bat right, golf right, and throw/punch right. That just boggles my mind.

I do think I saw some data some time ago showing RH/LS is more of an American thing, and RH/RS is more of a Canadian thing.

I'd be interested to know how many LH dominant people shoot Righty, versus Lefty.

 

[Beautvillier]

Yeah me too. I never understood RH people who shoot left, and bat right, golf right, and throw/punch right. That just boggles my mind.

I do think I saw some data some time ago showing RH/LS is more of an American thing, and RH/RS is more of a Canadian thing.

I'd be interested to know how many LH dominant people shoot Righty, versus Lefty.

I know a few guys who are LH but shoot right.