left or right stick?

[Larry54 243]

By "stickhandling much better" do you mean you have more control? If so, I'd go with that. You can build up strength relatively easily with repetition, but having more coordination is a huge plus. Especially if that's your dominant hand.

Have you tried shooting with both sticks?

yeah. when im using LHS, as my dominant hand on the bottom, my shot is a lot stronger then when i used my RHS. ohh...im sooo confused. almost all of hockey player here in indonesia uses RHS. i dont know why. but they are right writer. and thats absolutely not using their dominant hand on the top. but they are very good players.

is it easy to train my right hand strength? or hv anyone had the same problem as mine?

Your right hand can become stronger. I write right-handed and play RHS and can handle my stick quite well with only my left hand. Raphael Nadal writes with his right hand and started playing tennis right-handed until his uncle/coach convinced him to use his left hand instead. Need I say more?

[jazz4all 9]

traditionally, the top hand is meant to do the stickhandling but i've noticed the ones that are righty's and shoot right they use that right hand to stick handle too...now i don't know if there's any real difference between the two but that might explain why their still not bad players

yeah thats what happened to me. my left hand also stick handle too. does it hv a great effect to the game? any comments?

[chk hrd 164]

What I noticed was of the players who have scored 700 goals in the NHL, 4 shot right (Hull, Dionne, Howe, and Gartner) and 2 shot left (Gretzky and Esposito) plus Mike Bossy, who I think it's fair to say would have been in the club, also shot right. Also, Mario Lemieux and Steve Yzerman both finished just shy of 700, and both shot right, but then again so did Messier and he was a lefty. I'm too busy (read: lazy) to pore over the entire 500 or 600 goal clubs and make a list, but I would be curious to see how that would break down.

Ovechkin is right handed, Crosby is left. I don't think it really matters what hand you are.

[Jarick 5]

I think it's more important you play the right side of the ice for your game compared to your hand. If you are a shooter who gets a lot of one time chances, the off wing might be better as it gives you a favorable angle on the goalie. If you're a passer, you want to play your handed wing so your passes are on the forehand.

I'm left handed and like to play right wing. That means when I'm coming down on the goalie, I have more net to shoot at, since the puck is at the middle of the ice and not the boards. When I play center, typically I stay higher and/or left of center when my wingers are down low so my passes are on the forehand.

As for stickhandling, from what I've read you want your top hand to do most of the strength and agility, and there's even a drill where you put an empty toilet paper roll on the stick and grip it with your lower hand so your top hand is forced to do more work. However, I typically stickhandle with both hands since my wrists have a tendency to go out and that ruins me for several weeks.

[Wallzy41 9]

I'm an American, and favor my right hand in most daily activities(throwing, writing, eating). I throw a frisbee left, and have my stick left on bottom(Leftie for all intents and purposes). However, my friend who i'll call "Cameron", favors the right hand on bottom(Rightie) in hockey, and favors the right side, like me for most daily activities. He's also an American. Is this proving that I'm a weirdo by the Non-American standard of most Everyone plays righty in the US? Question pertaining to this: Would it make more sense to play left or right point with a right on top(leftie) stick?

[jazz4all 9]

ah! i think im sticking with my current hand ( being lefty). i keep practicing my right hand and now i have more power on my right hand. when it comes to the game, the different between both hand became unnoticeable. i choose to play with what feels good to me.

[xaero604 0]

When they say you stick handle with only the top hand, that's not entirely true. Unless you're like an elite level player like Kovalev (man, that guy has freakishly strong forearms), you need both hands to stick handle. It's just that the top hand does most of the fine work such as rotating the wrist to cup the puck and making slight angle changes of the blade for moves like a toe drag. The bottom hand is necessary for adding the lateral force needed for quick stick handling movements, especially when you're deking side to side. As a result, your top hand grips hellishly tight while your bottom hand is loose. I noticed that during my training based off that USA hockey video. For reference, I'm righthanded but I shoot right. I started hockey later in life and have always played ball sports with my right hand/side. I actually tried stickhandling with a LH stick and while stickhandling easier to pick up, I couldn't get the puck up for a shot.

The point I'm trying to make here is that comfort largely plays into which shot you use. Ovechkin is a righthanded writer (I've noticed he signs his autographs that way) and shoots right. Crosby is a right handed writer but shoots left. Different folks, different strokes.

[jazz4all 9]

When they say you stick handle with only the top hand, that's not entirely true. Unless you're like an elite level player like Kovalev (man, that guy has freakishly strong forearms), you need both hands to stick handle. It's just that the top hand does most of the fine work such as rotating the wrist to cup the puck and making slight angle changes of the blade for moves like a toe drag. The bottom hand is necessary for adding the lateral force needed for quick stick handling movements, especially when you're deking side to side. As a result, your top hand grips hellishly tight while your bottom hand is loose. I noticed that during my training based off that USA hockey video. For reference, I'm righthanded but I shoot right. I started hockey later in life and have always played ball sports with my right hand/side. I actually tried stickhandling with a LH stick and while stickhandling easier to pick up, I couldn't get the puck up for a shot.

The point I'm trying to make here is that comfort largely plays into which shot you use. Ovechkin is a righthanded writer (I've noticed he signs his autographs that way) and shoots right. Crosby is a right handed writer but shoots left. Different folks, different strokes.

yeah you right ^^ most of players here also put comfort on number one. love hockey!

[Larry54 243]

ah! i think im sticking with my current hand ( being lefty). i keep practicing my right hand and now i have more power on my right hand. when it comes to the game, the different between both hand became unnoticeable. i choose to play with what feels good to me.

I think that says a lot. I believe that whatever hand that you practise will become your stronger or dominant hand. So there's no point in switching to right-handed and starting from zero to obtain the comfort level that you already have left-handed.

[jazz4all 9]

one thing that i noticed lately when i tried RHS is my body position is sooo awkward. while im at my best when i use LHS. is this also the common issue when picking the right stick? there're some kids that keep asking me about it.

[shotty 7]

Lefties are suppose to be right, righties are suppose to be lefties in hockey goes the theory.

never heard that before.

i'm a righty at everything. i think it has most to do with how you're taught and a little to do with neurology.

phil mickelson is a leftie because his dad forced him to learn that way so he could mirror his dad's swing mechanics (dad was a righty)