Shot Handedness in the NHL

[Norwegianoiler]

Dominant-hand-on-bottom-4-lyfe

Bottom? Who can even fit both hands on the shaft at the same time anyway?

 

[Toby91ca]

As you quickly found out by yourself, each individuals hockey stick handedness comes down to personal preference, and they only wrong way is the one that feels wrong to you.

But to answer your question, numbers show that playing with your dominant hand on top is the most common way.

This may be technically/mathematically true, it certainly isn't significant from a numbers perspective. 90% of the population is left-handed, but in the US, the split is about 50/50 for hockey players shooting left vs. right. In Canada it's 60/40 left vs. right. So you are still going to have a pretty healthy percentage of right handed people that shoot right in hockey (me being one of them). I don't buy into pretty much any of the stuff on this either....like dominant hand at top....bottom hand really does nothing, etc. That's BS. Both hands needs to be working, if they aren't, you aren't a very good player. The other thing about dominant hand lower is better for shooting and the other way is better for stickhandling. I totally disagree with that. Not that necessarily think it's the opposite, I just think it's what you naturally do better or what you've practiced more. I was a superior stickhandler, I scored a lot of goals, but not because I was a sniper with a great shot. I don't think one way is better than the other, I think it's just what you are used to and if you've never played a sport in your life and pick up a hockey stick for the first time, I don't think you'd be comfortable either way.....just pick one and get used to it....maybe give both a try for short period.

 

[SEALBound]

Bottom? Who can even fit both hands on the shaft at the same time anyway?

God has favored me in more ways than one, my friend.

 

[NJDevilsFan21]

Always cool to know I learned backwards. I never had any issues with stick handling - I feel like most of it just had to do with wrist strength. I guess over time my left just became good at the fine precision aspect of it as well. It would also explain why the few times I tried lefty it felt that difficult, at least not compared to say batting lefty or kicking a soccer ball with the off leg, or even just throwing a ball with the offhand.

 

[PB37]

I never understood why players, especially jags looking to make one of the final roster spots, don't learn how to switch shot handedness during play depending on where they are on the ice so they can become highly adaptable to the situation.

 

[JianYang]

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 sound just like me although I can't speak for the rubik's cube

 

[Norwegianoiler]

God has favored me in more ways than one, my friend.

Bulging ego, nimble hands and blissful ignorance of standard metrics?

 

[Figgy44]

I never understood why players, especially jags looking to make one of the final roster spots, don't learn how to switch shot handedness during play depending on where they are on the ice so they can become highly adaptable to the situation.

I self train ambidexterity on occasion due to boredom. I just heard once that those with ambidexterity (natural or self taught) would be less likely to lose full motor skills if they have a stroke later in life.

Swapping left and right shot on a whim isn't really possible (at least for me) in the same way as swapping batting or golfing (I can do both sides in both, but slightly better at one side than the other). The sudden changes in body mechanics is kinda jarring. If you get 3-5+ seconds to ground yourself before swaps, then maybe. But you don't get that type of time in a hockey game.

I'd say the balance and momentum shifts is harder to adapt to than the actual mechanics of play. It's not like other sports where you have more time to adjust and recalibrate. In hockey you're constantly going. Soccer is a similar sport where I'd say it's really hard to find someone capable of playing both sides equally without really messing themselves up and confusing themselves due to constant movements and shifts in momentum/balance. Maybe you can do 90:10 or 80:20 at best and if you're 60:40, that's amazing. I'll also say that playing left and right in hockey, my play style is totally different and it's not intentional.

I'll put it this way, I'm right hand dominant and I prefer playing defense:

Stylistically, when I play lefty, I'd say it's like a Kris Russell. More speed, more ability to disrupt play with my active stick, but you can probably hem me in, so I'm more likely to dump it than succeed at a stretch pass, but I'm more able to figure out how to get in front to block as well. I'm basically not much of a liability in either direction.

When I play righty, I'd say it's like a Dion Phaneuf. I'm slower, I can't do most basic movement mechanics or stick mechanics well, my decision making slows while my brain struggles with basic movements to avoid tripping on my own feet. My physical and shot power suddenly feels like it almost doubles with accuracy dropping to zero. People want to fight me because I cranked their teammate standing nowhere close to the net with an errant shot. It wasn't intentional! I have no aim! I'm now a liability in both directions, but I sure feel stronger!

Basically playing left or right handed for me is distinctly different with severely different pros and cons. It's not just a strong and a weak side.

 

[Hazy Little Thing]

An analysis of hardest shot by handedness (both normal life and hockey) would be interesting from a perspective of absolute maximum power generated.