Left handed vs. Right handed - Kids

[MThockeydad 469]

The snow shovel rationale made good sense to me. Think about how you hold a shovel: The bottom hand is the fulcrum, and the top hand controls the shovel.

I played pond hockey for a long time and thought I was a righty...but found myself switching hands to reach and poke check. A friend told me the shovel analogy, and I switched to lefty when I started playing more, and it feels much more natural (and I never played much baseball nor golf). Not like I was going to get an NHL slapshot anyway with a powerful right.

OP, watch your kids shovel snow.

[third man in 0]

I shovel and rake with my strong hand (right) up top, but I'm a RH shooter. I grew up playing baseball and could switch hit so it's interesting that I decided on RH for hockey since I always felt slightly more comfortable batting lefty. It's funny, I never questioned why I shoot RH in hockey until I read discussions like this.

[notquitedeadyet 13]

Something that is often overlooked, but also very important, is to consider which EYE is dominant in relation to stick-handness.

Players that have their dominant eye on top (head tilted when holding stick) tend to see the ice better, while those with the dominant eye on the bottom tend to do better in tight spaces.

I am not in the camp to let them decide for themselves when very young. Our job as parents/coaches is to help them do what's best for them overall, & that's not always what feels good now.

[default user 3]

I'm RR and my buddy is RL for hockey and golf. With baseball, bowling, tennis, and mostly everything else ( shoveling) he's RR. He always says playing lefty just feels better for him on certain things.

With baseball it is also a little easier to be opposite handed since your hands are on top of each other and not spread out like they are when you are holding a hockey stick, A baseball swing and a hockey shot/stick handling are two completely different mechanics in body motion. I had a lot of friends in school that played baseball and they could switch hit like it was natural, but you put any other style of stick/racket in their non-dominate hand and you would think they have never played any athletic activity in their life. This is just my experience with this so take it as you want.

One thing to also consider is hand preference based on different cultures. With most western cultures and more right handed but still have high left handed numbers compared to eastern cultures where conformity and tradition are emphasized have very low left handed numbers.

I'm also curious as to how many NHLers or really anyone that is RL or LR are completely ambidextrous in their day to day lives.

I'm 50/50. When I coach and I see a kid struggling with his handedness choice I have them do drills with different sticks and let them decide for themselves.

[joshy207 15]

I had a thought this afternoon on my way to work, and I'm hoping we have some older members who can shed some light on this:

So, prior to the late 50s, when Mikita/Bathgate/Hull (not getting into that argument) started curving their sticks, everyone played with a neutral stick.

Were they labeled LH and RH then? Or just neutral?

So, who made the determination that a stick that curves to the right when you look at it from the top down, is a left-handed stick?

Is it based on hand position, relating to baseball, where a left-handed batter's lower hand is the right, which is the top hand on a left-handed hockey player's stick?

My best guess is this: LH sticks, the blade is on the player's left side, RH sticks, the blade is on the player's right side. LH batters are on the left side of the plate (from the pitcher's view) and RH batters are on the right side of the plate. And I'm pretty sure there were no LH/RH designations before curved sticks. Straight goalie sticks were never marked L/R, either.

[Larry54 243]

I'm RR and my buddy is RL for hockey and golf. With baseball, bowling, tennis, and mostly everything else ( shoveling) he's RR. He always says playing lefty just feels better for him on certain things.

With baseball it is also a little easier to be opposite handed since your hands are on top of each other and not spread out like they are when you are holding a hockey stick, A baseball swing and a hockey shot/stick handling are two completely different mechanics in body motion. I had a lot of friends in school that played baseball and they could switch hit like it was natural, but you put any other style of stick/racket in their non-dominate hand and you would think they have never played any athletic activity in their life. This is just my experience with this so take it as you want.

One thing to also consider is hand preference based on different cultures. With most western cultures and more right handed but still have high left handed numbers compared to eastern cultures where conformity and tradition are emphasized have very low left handed numbers.

I'm also curious as to how many NHLers or really anyone that is RL or LR are completely ambidextrous in their day to day lives.

I'm 50/50. When I coach and I see a kid struggling with his handedness choice I have them do drills with different sticks and let them decide for themselves.

I totally agree with your approach. Other than many "expert" opinions, there's no scientific evidence that the dominant hand should be on top. So if a child is more comfortable on the supposedly "wrong" side, there's no point in forcing them to play on their less comfortable side, and risk frustrating them, causing them to lose interest and quit playing.

[Coldclay 53]

I do EVERYTHING right handed, except in hockey, I shoot left. I have a 9 yo squirt who is the same way. I coach the squirts and I noticed that out of 15 kids, only 3 of them are lefties...

For right or wrong, I never gave my 2 boys (9yo and 5yo) a choice when comes to sticks. We had a bunch of lefty sticks at home and thats what they started playing with. The 9yo is now a very decent stick handler and being a lefty is second nature to him...

My BIL (shoots left but everything else righty) who coaches bantams and high school has a 14yo and he once told me he wished his kid started playing with a lefty stick because he's also a firm believer that your strong hand shoud be holding the buttend...

[akravetz 29]

I have been coaching mini-mite hockey for the past five years. (ages 3 to 6). We use straight blades for the most part and the way that we find out which hand the kids want is to drop the sticks and make them pick it up. Over time, if they keep picking up the stick in the way that is comfortable for them, it seems to work out.

I have found putting a curved blade in the hands of little kids like that isn't the best and straights are better. There are a few parents who know better, rush out and get a curved blade and when Johnny or Jane want to use the other side, they force them to stick to the curve. I don't know, I say whatever happens, happens when it comes to that. With my two kids, both left-handed in writing, they shoot right. And I, who am right-handed, shoot left. I guess we do the Canadian method.

Andy in Peoria

[badger_14 601]

Something that is often overlooked, but also very important, is to consider which EYE is dominant in relation to stick-handness.

Players that have their dominant eye on top (head tilted when holding stick) tend to see the ice better, while those with the dominant eye on the bottom tend to do better in tight spaces.

I am not in the camp to let them decide for themselves when very young. Our job as parents/coaches is to help them do what's best for them overall, & that's not always what feels good now.

This is interesting, the eye connection, do you have any source for that? I shoot right, and have very poor vision in my right eye. If I tried to do things left-wise (batting, shooting, stickhandling) and my right eye were on top, I wouldn't be able to see much of anything (teammates, opponents, the puck, the boards). This seems to make more sense to me than the shoveling analogy, because I shovel either way, there's no depth perception or much vision involved beyond 'dump snow [here]' and '[x] snow is left to clear'.

[jten9 0]

I write, throw, eat, kick right handed/footed. Hockey left hand shot.

I shoot a gun right handed, but am left eye dominant (very slight disadvantage in shooting competitions, you just have to "re-train" your brain a bit).

I snowboard "goofy" (right foot forward); mountain bike when coasting my right foot is forward (these are both generally left dominant characteristics, but I kick right foot).

What's my point? I dunno, lol!

Interesting conversation though, as my 8 year old daughter is right handed and she uses a left handed hockey stick. My 5 yo son is right handed and (using a straight stick) insists on shooting a puck right handed. He also shovels left hand on top. I try to get him to hold his hockey stick left handed, but I think I might forget it and let him go right handed/left hand on top. He seems more comfortable that way...

[Nealoc187 10]

force them left. that way they can get a better selection of cheap closeout sticks when everyone is cleaning out their stock for next year's models.

[xcntracer 2]

From my experience coaching kids, the ones who used their strong hand generally learned faster. Which I think is quite logical since you'd have better feeling and control with your writing hand.

[SCOMPL 14]

I write right-handed, play baseball and golf right handed, but I'm left-handed in hockey. I can't even make contact with the ball if I try to swing a baseball bat or golf club left handed.

[iceman8310 106]

I write with my left hand, play net full right, shoot right, bat left and right. throw with my left hand, snowboard goofy. I don't think there is a science behind it, it's whatever feels better.

[stnlycup67 38]

I can tell you how I wound up being righty in everything else and a left handed shot....We used to take turns playing goalie in our driveway 40 yrs ago(we had 2 straight bladed sticks)...I throw right and catch with my left hand...naturally my right hand held the "goalie" stick so I naturally figured that my right hand should be on top. By the way, my brother is left hand dominant and shoots right..I asked him...".Its how you hold a goalie stick...its how you should hold a regular stick"..Not saying we are right...just a couple of know nothing Ohio boys reasons for why we shoot the way we do....lol