MOST ARE WRONG ABOUT THIS! (left or right hand hockey sticks) 

This is extremely fascinating to me as I've played hockey my entire life, I'm 38 and I've never heard this, not even once. So it must be a Canadian thing to "teach" a player to play with their dominant hand on the top. Every person I know was just given a straight blade stick when they start, for the first year or two and whatever way they naturally grabbed the stick was the way that they chose to shoot. I have actually been watching a lot of videos and reading on this since I discovered this concept a few days ago and it appears that in Canada its about 70-30 left shot to right shot but in the US its about 50/50. I wonder if that is because in most cases hockey isn't introduced until older ages? Really no clue. on theory I read is that kids in Canada are given hockey sticks much earlier on average and its nature al to grab the top of the stick with your dominant hand a young age and in the US its more common for a kid to grab a bat before a hockey stick and in baseball you almost always have your dominant hand on top. This is really fascinating stuff. My 6 year old son writes and eats left handed but plays all sports except for disc golf right handed. So his dominant hand (writing hand) is on the top but he wasn't taught to do that it just happened.

Thanks for the explanation! Has helped clear up stick selection for a newbie!

You might find it fun to grab a used stick with the opposite hand from what you usually use, just to stick-time around with occasionally to make yourself more ambidextrous, even if you never switch to the other shot side. Teaching doctrine for a long time was to ask a kid which hand was stronger and then assign that as the top hand. If you did that strictly, you would have much more that 66% of the NHL shooting left, so obviously that is not followed. Player position tends to matter more than anything else, so you would have left defense and wing shoot left, right defense and wing shoot right, center shoot right or left, but skew left for advantage to goalies blocker. This would give you the distribution of approximately 3/5 of players left, and 2/5 right, which is closer to what you see. I bat right and golf right and played for many years before I picked up a hockey stick, but I tried both right and left when I started hockey. At the beginning, I had a bit more dexterity stickhandling left but much more accuracy and power shooting right. I had to decide whether to develop puck handling deftness with a right shot, or power with the left shot. Since I didn't have much dexterity yet on either side and would have to develop that whichever side I decided on, I chose to shoot right and work on touch and feel. It came pretty quickly and I haven't regretted shooting right at all.

The great Andy Bathgate preached bottom hand control and when told that Gordie's strong hand was at the top, Bathgate said his numbers would be even greater than they are now. I'm a righty and played bottom hand dominant because it felt more natural and I had a wicked accurate wrister too. I'm not ambidextrous and shooting left felt totally weird to me.

this is exactly the info I was looking for! thanks!

I'm right handed, shoot left. Shooting right would be like throwing a ball with my left hand. Just feels backwards. I knew when I was 7, the first time I picked up a hockey stick. Weird that some people can handle a stick with their non dominant hand on top.

i've been wondering about this for ages and got this video randomly recommended - so glad i did ! really helpful - and such a well made video :)

Thanks for the information. New to playing.

Very reconcise about which hand to shoot with load the video.

This was immensely helpful. My daughter is really getting into hockey and this is going to help us pick her first stick.

I am left handed and always thought I should shoot left. It even felt more natural. However once I realized it was about control over power, I switched to shooting right. Plus, it makes sense to have my left hand on the stick at all times.

Before i got into hockey, I swing a baseball bat & golf stick on my left side. So I didnt hesitate to purchase a left hand stick and as my skills developed and improved I realized that it only makes sense that I stick handle and shoot on my left side

Is it bad to train with both hands? I grew up with both handed sticks and honestly I'd just go with what I felt like. I honestly love shooting right handed and stick handling with my left. I've been getting back into hockey and have a left handed stick. Honestly, when I visualize myself it's with a right handed stick and I do miss shooting with a right handed stick but when I hold a left handed stick it feels just as natural. I was thinking using both sticks, would it not have provided an advantage in strengthening both hands? Would it help with your backhand? I play football and using both feet is such a huge advantage, I wish I practiced with both feet as a kid like I did both hands in hockey.

I’ve never played organized hockey before, but have played pond and roller hockey as well as just shot around and practiced, my whole life. Shooting right as a right handed person felt natural to me. However I realize that the top hand should be the control hand and so I have trained my left hand at the top to do most of the control for stick handling. I also taught myself how to shoot left (as a right hander) too.

I haven't played much hockey at all, but when I do, it always felt natural to put my dominant hand (right) on the bottom. I think it may be because of how much golf I played when I was little, since that's how I hold a club. What confuses me is the broom/shovel test. If I'm shoveling snow or something, my right hand is on top. If that is a way of knowing how you should hold a stick, should I try that way as well? Still very new so I feel like I could switch it up.

It's true. If I sell 100 trigger 7 pros in my shop 70 will be lefty... It's a right handed world but not in high level hockey..

Thanks for the explanation. I'm originally from Brazil and we live in Vancouver now. My 6 years old son is into hockey and I have no idea about this stuff. 😂 ❤

Right handed and shot right ever since I picked up a stick in PE. It just felt comfortable, used the ol’ stick handling with the TP roll on the bottom hand to strengthen the control hand. Then got Jagr mindset and taped hockey pucks to the blade to give it that weight. 😂

Picked up a stick at a store, said the curve is wrong, and ended up with a dominant hand on bottom stick. Defense kind of sucks when playing one handed with my non dominant hand, but everything else seems to be okay.

Just getting into hockey. I write with my right hand, but throw with my left, so I’m still trying to workout which side is best for me. Someone told me to pick up a boom and use that hand at the top

Good vid!

I’ve been a goalie my whole life (I’ll be 34 soon). I’m right hand dominant (catch with my left) and have used a left handed stick as a goalie. But I also shot right handed when playing road hockey. I’m trying to train myself to shoot left handed now when I skate out. Wish me luck

Im right handed and use a left handed stick it really depends on what hand is dominate, my strong side is always my right not left, but its more comfortable to use a left handed stick

When I started playing hockey in the 60s, most sticks were straight. My dad would NOT let me used a curved stick until I was 11 or 12. I'm right handed but shoot left.

I played baseball all my life and into college. Picking up hockey at 30 and it only feels natural to have a right handed stick when my body is so used to hitting from the right side of the plate.

I played as a kid and I'm getting back into the sport after 15 years. I was just in playitagain and learned for the first time that I'm supposed to be shooting a left stick. I never knew that was a thing and had to look it up to see if it was true. Now I don't know if I should go into retraining with a left stick or not. I'm not sure what would be best 😫

I 100% agree with this.

I don't know if this is true, but I heard that players who start younger tend to use their dominant hand on top and players who start playing older tend to have their dominant hand on the bottom.

I started playing ice hockey and could do with full gears :)

I got a right-handed stick it curves left. This is where I got confused you said the curve is on the weak side. Why would I get a left handed stick being right handed if the curve ends up curving right on a left handed stick? 🤔🤔🤔

I kinda wish I'd shot left (as a right hander). I primarily play goalie but I also skate out and for goalies, right is top hand and I'm just worthless with a goalie stick. However, I've gotten used to shooting and stick handling right so I can't do it.

I'm just so confused. Maybe it's because I'm comparing this to any other sport involving a stick, club or bat. All of them, it only seems natural. That you want your strong side/hand being the one putting on the power. Because you are stronger on that side. Maybe it's also to do with the fact that I'm kind of Ambidextrous. I shoot a gun left handed and a Bow right handed. I write left handed, eat, weld and smoke left handed but I throw with my right hand. It seems counterintuitive, to setup and shoot from my left side. I couldn't imagine trying to swing a golf club or a baseball bat left handed. Which is why I am having a hard time believing that I'd be better with my left in hockey. I've played floor hockey a decent amount back in the day. And was quite good, so I'm extremely confused. I noticed this at a Redwings game yesterday when I seen a bunch of players sticks for sale and the majority of them were left handed...🤷💯

Weak hand on top means you will shoot off your weak leg. This is a huge deficit.

I’m having this debate with my wife about my 8 year old daughters handedness

I'm right handed and shoot left. I know so many people who are right handed but shoot right. It's so strange to me and feels so off

RH Shtick pls 😅

I am right handed but shoot right. I tried shooting left and it doesn't work for me lol

Where was this video 23 years ago 😂. I was never taught dominant hand to be on top.

Very helpful! Hook me up 😁

I started playing with a right stick because when I started playing hockey that is the only stick I could get my hands on, I literally had no choice.......😀

yoo i need a new helmet pls

Once & for all let this sink in : THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO ADVANTAGE TO PLAYING HOCKEY WITH WEAK HAND ON TOP AND THERE ARE 100 DISADVANTAGES.

This is all wrong. The hand closest to the bottom of the stick is the hand that controls the wrist-sensitive movements of shooting and passing. The hand holding the top of the stick is the guide hand, which in all sports is your non-dominant hand. In basketball, your dominant hand is the wrist action hand, and your off hand is the guide hand. I’m right handed and although I could play and have played left handed in games as a fun challenge, my wrist shot was just trash because my left hand is not coordinated enough. Although this issue of handedness in hockey is a completely mind boggling phenomenon, I don’t think this explanation in this video explains it. I believe there are two reasons: 1) Left handed players are scouted more vigorously because most goalies are right handed and therefore a left handed shooter is open to the blocker side, similar to how left handed batters have an advantage in baseball. 2) Because of the history of left handed dominance in hockey, kids learn to play with whatever stick they can find, and generationally this got passed down inadvertently. My uncle for instance is right handed but plays left handed. This is because his father was a right handed goalie and all of his sticks had a left handed curve as goalies do, so my uncle played around with my grabdpa’s sticks as a kid and developed his hockey skills as a toddler before handedness was really established.

Goalies ?

Am I dexterity ?

your editing is good but you should manage the space between your face and microphone better. i think in your current recording space using a microphone with a more constricted polarity, positioned in front of you (since you don't have a great deal of props and forward momentum in your current position it won't get in the way) would be beneficial as opposed to your current setup. this was a really good video thank you for making it i hope you continue to make videos and scale in quality