Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Bozek
Rather than derail this worthy thread, maybe the mods could move this to a new thread - “Why are Left shooting players more common than Right?”
When I started playing hockey (too many years ago) Right shooting was the usual choice. Most people are right handed, and the dominant arm and hand are usually the strongest, as well as the best for fine motor skills such as writing or stick-handling. Timbit points out that “ The hand on the top (knob)of your stick is your STRENGTH or POWER hand.”, and therefor a right handed person should have a more powerful shot.
Timbit undoubtedly knows more about hockey than I do, but it seems to me (recalling my junior high school physics) that a hockey stick is a third class lever, with the top of the stick being the fulcrum and the force being applied at the middle of the stick. Therefore, leaving aside the likelihood that the dominant hand would be better in the middle of the stick for control of stick-handling, the stronger arm should be the one for applying force in the middle of the stick.
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Truth be told Steve, its actually known in most training and hockey development circles that it is better to have your dominant hand at the top for stickhandling control. I know from a young age, in all my hockey training, one was always taught to not grip the middle of the stick much at all when practicing. One old method was taking a toilet roll/pvc pipe and slide it on the bottom of the stick when doing drills, so as to lightly grip the middle.
The bottom hand is literally used for guide purposes, rather than a dominant grip. Whereas the top is used for control and touch. Since you have the most strength and dexterity in your dominant hand, the argument goes, placing that hand at the top of the stick gives you more control during stickhandling.
I find most danglers are lefties (who are right dominant) and shooters righties (dominant hand on the bottom).