Shot Handedness in the NHL

[Dennis Reynolds]

I remember watching an interview of Kovalev, Bure, or Fedorov, one of those guys, who said that when kids were growing up in the CCCP and just starting out playing, the director of athletics or whatever would hand the kids a ball and ask them to throw it. Whatever hand they threw with, they got the opposite-handed stick. You threw right? You were given a left-handed stick.

 

[tantalum]

The biggest difference for me being a lefty in the U.S. is that my teammates constantly pass it to me as if I'm a righty.

Damned annoying that is. Every damn game.

 

[Neil Racki]

My brother and I are right handed.
Store only had a R and L junior stick (late 80s, all wood baby)
I took the L bc I was the better player and figured I could handle it better

I sniped.

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Putting in golf .. sometimes helps to switch if youre in a rut

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Passing leftie in lax - always had better proper form switching hands

 

[Golden_Jet]

I never understood how right-handed dominant folk could play hockey with a left-handed stick...

You have more control over the stick with your dominant hand in the middle of the shaft, and you can also generate more power on shots

A good friend of mine growing up was right-handed... he threw with his right arm, he batted right, he swung a golf club right-handed... but when it came to hockey, he played lefty... and he was really good! It just never made sense to me...

Dominant hand should be at the knob end of the stick.

 

[Canadienna]

I never understood how right-handed dominant folk could play hockey with a left-handed stick...

You have more control over the stick with your dominant hand in the middle of the shaft, and you can also generate more power on shots

A good friend of mine growing up was right-handed... he threw with his right arm, he batted right, he swung a golf club right-handed... but when it came to hockey, he played lefty... and he was really good! It just never made sense to me...

The way I see it, your dominant hand being at the top of the shaft allows for greater control over the roll of the stick.

Any hockey coaching I've ever had explained that the hand on the shaft should be fairly loose when handling the puck. I've even done one handed stick handling drills to learn to primarily use the top hand when puck handling.

OTOH, when you look through the NHL, it feels like a lot (not all) of the guys with deadly accurate or insanely powerful shots have their dominant hand on the shaft of the stick. Perhaps in the process of shooting a puck, having that extra control and power on the shaft is beneficial.

Obviously there's no right or wrong way, but as a right handed guy who shoots left, I thought I'd throw my 2c in.

 

[GeoRox89]

They were both left shooters dawg

Yes but Daniel writes as a lefty while shooting lefty and Henrik writes as a righty while shooting lefty

Edit: Notice which hands they are holding their pens with

 

[Dust]

Handedness really just kind of depends on the activity you're doing.

I write with my right hand so I'm "right-handed." I feel like we just go with that.

Meanwhile, I play hockey left-handed, and I batted left-handed in baseball even though I throw right-handed. People say "oh, well, the baseball thing is normal and shooting LH in hockey means you're actually right-handed."

Ok, but here's the thing: I also golf left-handed. There are fewer left-handed golfers than left-handed people by percentage. Why is that? Is it not the same motion as hockey? I don't know, that's weird.

You wanna hear something even weirder? I speed-solve Rubik's cubes competitively (I know, what a nerd, but that's not the weird part); the weird part is I'm violently right-handed when solving with two hands (yes, two hands, stay with me). I will make extra moves to put the layer I'm working on in my right hand. It's terribly inefficient and it's one of the weakest parts of my game.

When I do one-handed solves (yes, that's a thing), I do them exclusively in my left hand. I can't one-hand solve a cube in my right hand. Can't do it. It's like a turtle trying to drive a car.

And who's to say holding a hockey stick left on the bottom and right on top is "left-handed" anyway? Why isn't that the other way around? It feels arbitrary.

TL;DR: it's all bullshit and we just base everything on what hand you hold a pencil with.

You're as broken as me when it comes to various activities

I'm left-handed since I write left, but I throw right-handed, bat right-handed, hockey right-handed, golf right-handed, yet soccer and martial arts my left foot/leg was the dominant one.

 

[Machinehead]

My brother and I are right handed.
Store only had a R and L junior stick (late 80s, all wood baby)
I took the L bc I was the better player and figured I could handle it better

I sniped.

-------

Putting in golf .. sometimes helps to switch if youre in a rut

----------

Passing leftie in lax - always had better proper form switching hands

Oh, don't get me started on lacrosse.

Shoot better lefty, cradle better righty.

 

[Toby91ca]

One thing that’s never made sense to me is people who shoot left in hockey but golf right. It’s super common for some reason.

Well it’s super common because more than 50% of hockey players (actually 60%+) shoot left (different depending on where as I think it’s different Canada vs Us for some reason) and less than 5%.

The why? If you buy into dominant hand being on top, you’d suggest that in hockey, unlike other sports like baseball and golf, you play quite regularly with one hand on the stick, so that would be your dominant hand.

That said, I shoot right and I’m guessing almost everyone that shoots right is right handed and almost everyone that shoots left is right handed, so it really doesn’t matter in my mind. I think it comes down to how you learned to play.

What I find really interesting is when fathers shoot opposite of their sons as you’d thinks he father would be showing the son from a young age how to do it.

 

[TLEH]

I golf right, write right, shoot right. Definitely seems like an easy correlation to see the best shooters having their dominant hand as their bottom hand.

Bedard shoots right and is right handed. Ovechkin also right handed and shoots right.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Well it’s super common because more than 50% of hockey players (actually 60%+) shoot left (different depending on where as I think it’s different Canada vs Us for some reason) and less than 5%.

The why? If you buy into dominant hand being on top, you’d suggest that in hockey, unlike other sports like baseball and golf, you play quite regularly with one hand on the stick, so that would be your dominant hand.

That said, I shoot right and I’m guessing almost everyone that shoots right is right handed and almost everyone that shoots left is right handed, so it really doesn’t matter in my mind. I think it comes down to how you learned to play.

What I find really interesting is when fathers shoot opposite of their sons as you’d thinks he father would be showing the son from a young age how to do it.

More right handed people shoot left.

 

[GreeningOil]

Yes but Daniel writes as a lefty while shooting lefty and Henrik writes as a righty while shooting lefty

Edit: Notice which hands they are holding their pens with
View attachment 812564

I understand now. That’s interesting.

What’s weird, is that I am right handed and shoot left. But when I try to imagine shooting right handed or play EA NHL games, It feels unnatural.

I think I would probably benefit from having my dominant hand on the mid stick! It’s just impossible to imagine for me

 

[Toby91ca]

More right handed people shoot left.

I don't think that's necessarily true....it depends on where you grew up. For example, don't quote me on this, but I thought in Canada it was 60/40 that shoot left vs. right and in the US it was the inverse of that. But either way, it's not simply a dominant handedness thing at all since such a small percentage of the population is left handed. Also, the golf vs. hockey thing, the vast majority will swing right in golf, but at least half or more of those will shoot left in hockey.

I get the thoughts around dominant hand and best placement, but that's all theory and I don't think it plays into why a player shoots left vs. right at all. You can potentially suggest why they may be more natural at stickhandling if their dominant hand is "x" for example....not necessarily sure about that either, but what I'm fairly sure about it is the determination of whether you start shooting left or right

 

[Russian_fanatic]

Both Sedins shot left

Both shot left but Daniel wrote and did his activities left handed, while Henrik did everything with his right.

Conversely Daniel was more of a goal scorer than Henrik, as his dominate hand was on the bottom of the stick. The Sedins are probably the litmus test for this argument IMO.

 

[Russian_fanatic]

I remember watching an interview of Kovalev, Bure, or Fedorov, one of those guys, who said that when kids were growing up in the CCCP and just starting out playing, the director of athletics or whatever would hand the kids a ball and ask them to throw it. Whatever hand they threw with, they got the opposite-handed stick. You threw right? You were given a left-handed stick.

The Russians had a very very different philosphpy. They liked their wingers to have the sticks in the middle of the ice, for example a RW who shoots left, and a LW who shoots right.

It's one of the reasons why they had such a high powered offense but limited defense. It much quicker for the center to get the puck to his wingers, but it has a disadvantage defensively, because the defenseman had their stick in the opposite hand that the forward had the advantage.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Dominant-hand-on-bottom-4-lyfe

I’m something a bottom/dom myself

 

[Russian_fanatic]

My brother and I are right handed.
Store only had a R and L junior stick (late 80s, all wood baby)
I took the L bc I was the better player and figured I could handle it better

I sniped.

-------

Putting in golf .. sometimes helps to switch if youre in a rut

----------

Passing leftie in lax - always had better proper form switching hands

I had an opposite situation.

I'm right handed, and was given a right handed stick by my coach, but I'd want to shoot left for some reason? It just didn't feel natural to shoot right, so I switched to a left handed stick.

Anyone have an explanation for this? Why do right handed people gravitate to shooting left? The only guess I have is, I was a defenseman(LD) growing up and it felt more natural defending on the left side using my right hand on the stick to protect the middle of the ice, while using my body to control the boards.

 

[krutovsdonut]

Both Sedins shot left

that's as may be but the sedins are identical mirror twins. one is lefty one is righty and it continues like that in all their physical characteristics down to identical birthmarks on the opposite side of the body. when daniel looks in the mirror he sees henrik and vice versa.

 

[doublechili]

Honestly when you look at shooters like Matthews/Bedard, the top hand is applying more force on the shot by acting as the opposite end of a lever, and the bottom hand is just a fulcrum.

Thank you! I've been saying the lever/fulcrum thing for years and people always act like I'm nuts. While it's true that both hands work together, the hand on top snapping back generates way more power than the hand in the middle of the stick. And if you're strong enough to hold your hands closer together, the power is magnified (because the fulcrum is further away from the blade end of the stick).

 

[Neutrinos]

Another aspect of this that I haven't seen talked about is the torquing of the body...

As someone who bats right, it just makes sense that I would also shoot right in hockey as turning from right to left is what feels natural...

Just look at the similarities in body position from swinging and shooting:

 

[SheldonJPlankton]

Handedness bias is the last major acceptable discrimination. Nobody cares if cars, microwaves and power tools are all designed for righthanders.

Historically, at least, it was rare for lefthanders to find lefty baseball gloves, golf clubs, etc...so old-school lefties learned to adapt to righthander gear. Especially in a pre-internet, rural setting.

 

[kaiser matias]

I don't think that's necessarily true....it depends on where you grew up. For example, don't quote me on this, but I thought in Canada it was 60/40 that shoot left vs. right and in the US it was the inverse of that. But either way, it's not simply a dominant handedness thing at all since such a small percentage of the population is left handed. Also, the golf vs. hockey thing, the vast majority will swing right in golf, but at least half or more of those will shoot left in hockey.

I get the thoughts around dominant hand and best placement, but that's all theory and I don't think it plays into why a player shoots left vs. right at all. You can potentially suggest why they may be more natural at stickhandling if their dominant hand is "x" for example....not necessarily sure about that either, but what I'm fairly sure about it is the determination of whether you start shooting left or right

The inverse is true, or was, for BC players. There it mostly followed one's dominant hand (right handed, right shot).

 

[super6646]

I write with my left hand and “shoot” with my right (mostly cause I can’t play hockey for shet).

 

[Seanaconda]

Dominant-hand-on-bottom-4-lyfe

I'm a top

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

I’m a righty in everything (including lacrosse) but can play hockey pretty well with both hands. RH on bottom definitely better for bigger harder shots and facing off. LH on bottom is better for stick handling, backhand, and passing in my experience. I can play either way but prefer LH on bottom.