What is the difference between shooting Left and Right in Hockey?

Have you ever wondered if shooting right or left in Hockey, may actually change the way you play? Why right shooting defensemen are so coveted in professional Hockey? Or why there are always so many more left shots than right in the NHL? Answers to all that and more, in this edition of District 5.
#nhl #hockey #sports

[@estellegrignon]

Ain't no way this video was done by someone with less than 2k subscribers. This was not only a great quality video, but it also was an in-depth analysis on a topic I've never really thought about before, no matter how many thousands of videos I've watched on this platform about hockey. Amazing, you won a sub

[@paulgoral6630]

Me too, well said!

[@JeremysPointOfView]

Couldn’t say it better. Content is great and this video is legit well thought out. Keep it going you have something here. Got my sub!

[@marting1984]

Agreed

[@celticstephenhill]

Got my sub.

[@Danglechuk]

Agreed!

[@dustinmarlow2801]

My dad always said "Goal scorers shoot left" when I was a kid. When I became an adult, I noticed some of the most prolific goal scorers were actually right handed and the best playmakers\stick handlers were mostly lefties. I finally looked up the top 10 goal scorers and had a lot of joy telling him that 6 of the 10 were righties. With a league average of 37% righties I think that is statistically significant that righties tend to be better scorers.

[@jamesharvard703]

I was a lefty because of my dad always saying Bobby Orr was the best and his favorite. It’s the only thing I can do left handed. Golf and baseball both right handed.

[@DDDDdJagr]

@@jamesharvard703So is yours.

[@dan3307]

Then daddy saw Ovi or Stammers on the powerplay!

[@RRaquello]

@@dan3307 Maybe even Dads nowadays are too young to have seen Mike Bossy & Guy Lafleur. But they could have seen Brett Hull.

[@easymac24]

For me it is way easier to shoot accurately with power righty and skate and move with the puck lefty, (I still suck at it) but the movement is more in rhythm with my feet

[@danielgertler5976]

I never considered it was weird i shot right as a right handed person until I was older.

[@bobantoniuk3953]

Probably the influence of baseball

[@Smart-Towel-RG-400]

I swung left in baseball played right in hockey right handed it was hit or miss for me how I played sports

[@Zenkka]

It’s also crazy how inconsistent people are with shooting/batting in different sports. It doesn’t matter if I hit golf, hockey, baseball or whatever I’m a righty and swing from right to left. However I feel like most people play golf for example as righties even if they shoot left in hockey

[@DDDDdJagr]

@@Smart-Towel-RG-400Yeah, I think you’re just bad at sports. Loser.

[@user-ub1yl6vp5u]

Mine was an influence from golf but same

[@Tony-Gunk]

This is actually informative & excellent hockey content. Unlike 95% of these newer, completely lazy "hockey" channels that churn out completely uninspired daily videos using the most egregious clickbait titles. Because, well, they're lazy & uninspired. You've earned my loyalty & subscription. I hope other hockey channels start putting in a fraction of the work, research, and passion you did for this video. Thank you sir.

[@bullshark3771]

Only thing I’d say is he says the dominant hand was on top when it’s actually on bottom. Your dominant hand being on bottom gives the power to your shot.

[@KrachBone]

couldn’t agree more!

[@hellinterface6721]

Your strong hand is at the top of your stick. You can play right or left position. That's up to you and your coach.

[@holliefitzzz]

i grew up playing in the uk, where the main hockey sport is played on grass and every.single.stick shoots right (it's even illegal to use the back of the stick) so yeh pretty much all us british kids who are right handed shot right

[@tarnthamuaapithorn9161]

Ok

[@aseltzer22]

Hardest wrist shot in the All-Star game, great idea! Hell yea let’s get the NHL onboard.

[@gawdat3859]

Should be hardest wrist/snapshot

[@jamieaspinall5716]

Burnaby” Joe solos at 54 with the ol Easton twig! 😂

[@Rindiculousfun]

This video made me respect Nathan Mackinnon so much more. He’s a freak of nature.

[@boltinabottle6307]

Him and Kuch are on another level this year. No one else is close.

[@thomasjohansson6759]

​@@boltinabottle6307 its becouse mcdrai dont focus on scoring for ones and focus on team play and cup 👍

[@DarthAnimal]

One thing to mention is that in America, kids are taught "right hand right shot", so I feel Right shooters are more common coming from the states, where as in Canada its the opposite

[@railfanningwithtom6453]

I agree with this statement but I also swap my hands while I play

[@Jd-ks6go]

This right here. On my team in California there are 3 lefties, everyone else shoots right. When I went to visit family in Alberta a few years ago, we played a quick street hockey game. They had a wall of maybe 100 sticks of all shapes and sizes available, but not a single one was right-handed. They looked at me like I was an alien when I asked for one

[@JamesSmith-mw8xy]

Makes sense . And I've heard that in Canada for average recreational players about 60 % or more of Players sticks sold are for left shooters.. Sort of opposite in the USA where it's 60 --percent ot more Right shot 😅. May also have something to do with other Sports that were played first 😊 at an early age like Baseball.. if s kid played ball first may tend to use a hockey stick with the same side they swung s bat

[@waynejohnstone3685]

Canadian here. We’re not taught anything, we just grab the stick that’s most comfortable and run with it. I coached tyke and kids would sometimes flip what side they shoot but after that it’s pretty set. I shoot hockey and golf left. Suck at golf tho lol.

[@crazycatlady1988]

Is this a new thing? I'm in the US and my dad and all 8 of his brothers shot opposite of what hand they write with. Also, my hockey playing cousins did the same. I seem to be the unicorn of the family that writes with my right hand and shoots right as well, but I'm pretty ambidextrous (In baseball I bat right, but throw left). This also seemed true for gym class floor hockey. Most kids shot left-handed.

[@michaelshields6326]

I've always noticed this because it seemed to me like all the best shooters were right handed shots. Ovechkin, Semin, Kovalchuk, Stamkos, Laine, Bedard, Weber, Jeff Carter (he had a crazy wrist shot in his prime). Of course there are still great left handed shots like Matthews, Tarasenko, Sakic, Gaborik etc but it seemed to me that right handed shots represented a disproportionate amount of the top goal scorers for a while.

[@peteroberts3377]

The greatest goal scorer of all time shot left..

[@michaelshields6326]

@@peteroberts3377 I'm talking recently as in the last ten to fifteen years. And I'm talking about players known for having heavy wristers and slap shots, not just goal scoring so if your talking about Gretzky outside of having a really accurate slap shot he doesn't fit the bill. Also debatable if he's the greatest goal scorer. By numbers sure, but Lemieux and Ovechkin had better longevity as elite goal scorers into their 30's while Gretzky wasn't really elite outside of his early to mid 20's.

[@DankSandwich]

Yeah no that’s just confirmation bias. Crosby, McDavid, Austin Matthews, Wayne Gretzky, etc. etc.

[@peteroberts3377]

@@michaelshields6326I agree Gretzky wasn’t the greatest pure shooter, or even pure goal scorer throughout his career - both Bossy and Lemieux were better at the time IMO. Considering the fact that handedness, as the video covers well, doesn’t really correlate well to shooting preference - I’d say shooting, positioning and timing/vision are all important skills for goal scoring, and Gretzky excelled at all these with longevity(that bossy/Lemieux lacked), which is why he’s the greatest goal scorer if not the greatest shooter.

[@estajosue]

The reason why right handed shots are usually the best goal scorers is explained in this video. The likelihood that you’d play hockey and be any good at it and be one of the best in the game is such a small percentage that adding “and shoot left handed” just drops that number even lower. Such a small group of people.

[@YodaBVL]

I honestly have no idea which hand is my dominant hand. I eat, use my phone, write, etc with my left but I throw, hit, and overall have more strength with my right hand

[@davidbratt8210]

You’re left handed

[@Airjonny1623]

Same!

[@rustysalmonella7681]

I’m the same except the other way around. Sports-wise, you’re a righty. But the term for what you are is: mixed-handed

[@snakesstuff9077]

Holy shit. I thought I was the only one

[@carlosrobertson8265]

What hand do you write with?

[@dannotwalruslarkin9324]

Your dominant foot plays a gigantic role in your ability to do everything on the ice for your puck handling and shot, left or right handed. It's important to train a dominant foot out of your skating.

[@PuckHead00]

THIS … here’s a person that really gets it!! 👌🏼

[@GizmoBeach]

I'm right-handed but left-footed and to me it feels more natural to be a right-shot just as when shooting baskets I use my left-hand and not my right.

[@jamespraestegaard6081]

I think a huge piece of this conversation that is missing is the factor of dominant sides for more than stick handling. The brain bridge develops more pathways (or something that I don’t understand and maybe is fake) for each trait. So left foot but right hand. Or right handed writing but left handed hockey - these all impact the bridge between the two lobes allowing more avenues of input and output of information. Or faster processing of information inputs. Again - not sure if completely true but I was told something along those lines.

[@baiqi44]

Thanks for this. I'm right handed and right footed and I used to play soccer and hockey. I always shot right in both soccer and hockey even though people said if you're right handed, you need to shoot left in hockey in order to maximize your power. I tried this and never felt comfortable shooting left and my shot was weak compared to my right handed shot.

[@Katorb]

Struggling with dominant foot skating issues was one of the reasons I was never able to elevate my game from tier 3-2 player into tier 1. Kinda sucks but I got super into snowboarding around midget and quit playing competitively

[@sailrvee]

excellent quality video. really hope this channel grows. awesome clip selection and explanations, excellent editing

[@District5-YT]

Thank you! I have quite a few more sort of niche ones like this in the works, just need the time to edit aha

[@cuff02]

9:32 - My wife grew up in Russia in the early 90s before she moved to Finland aged 8, she's left handed and at school she was still forced to write with her right hand so definitely possible that Ovi had the same treatment as a kid!

[@danhartley2136]

Very interesting. I'm right-handed, shoot right, and always wondered why I'm in the minority. It just feels natural to have my dominant hand, my power hand, lower on the stick. I compare it to driving a stick-shift, it'd just feel wrong to shift with my left hand and steer with my right. I also swing a baseball bat right handed, and I think the vast majority of mlb players swing right as well, so not sure why they'd be so different from hockey. I think the majority of golfers swing right as well. Btw, when I think of great shooters in NHL history, they're 99% right shots: Brett Hull, Bossy, Kurri, Lemieux, Ovechkin, Shanahan, Stamkos, etc. Only exceptions I can think of are Bobby Hull, and some new generation players like Matthews and Draisatl.

[@Konanan]

I'm the same. Started playing baseball before moving to hockey, and it just felt natural to swing from that position.

[@hollowmade]

Great vid! Myself being right-handed, I still shoot right. I feel that I "steer" with my weak hand on the top and use the force for shots on my lower hand. I also used to play goalie where I learned to shoot left but I also flipped the stick to shoot right backhands or simply stop the puck depending on which side it came. I have seen Curtis Joseph do the same quite often.

[@lasagnagaming6209]

Im a right handed righty ad well and ive tried to teach myself to catch with my right for a more comfortable shot/pass. Its probed difficult having played baseball for almost 16 years.

[@readingrapunzel5092]

"Rare to see a defenseman play on their offside" as you show Miro Heiskanen who does exactly that. Nice touch!

[@bullshark3771]

I was a right handed defenseman and preferred playing left defense. It made it easier to shoot and do one timers as well as wrap the puck around the boards. I felt very comfortable doing poke checks and sweep checks with my non-dominant hand on top.

[@MatusMonis]

@@bullshark3771 to this day, i'm right hand shooter (and right hand writer) and i love being on left side - one-time shots + throwing puch outside the zone with very high backhand (i'm using P88 curve)..... but i was weird kid, because 30% of my team was right handed, but i was only kid who also wrote with right hand.... our PP was deadly with 4 RH players, nobody knows what to do :D

[@ultimatespacefruit]

ive been spending months trying to find docu/commentary videos on hockey. i’m so glad the algorithm brought me to this page. can’t wait to see this channel grow!

[@tomperzz]

I think someone else mentioned about the geographical differences, but for me growing up in finland majority of the players were lefties as dominant hand on top = better stickhandles, but when i moved to the states at one point i was the only lefty on the team as they were taught ”strong hand on bottom for harder shot ” as kids

[@Kenpoman999]

Excellent video! I love a well done break down on the finer points of hockey with out all the new "techno-jargon", just good ole fashion analysis. Keep up the good work and with that, I'll hit subscribe.

[@evann-t2915]

Cannot understate how amazing of a video this is. I want to add a note about “backwards face-off” that you showed Bonino doing. As a right-hand shot if I need to win the face-off left I use that strategy probably 75% of those situations It’s really worked well for me because I can basically just punch out my right (dominant) hand like like a left-shot would, and I also get the benefit of having the curve to cup the puck more.

[@rustysalmonella7681]

This dude is starting to cover stuff I’ve always wondered about, but didn’t know how to approach. Good stuff 👍🏻 I agree about the right-handed d-man, it seems more lefties are Defensive D or just guys with big clappers. With exceptions of course

[@notn0t]

Great content, given that I live in Africa and can count the number of times I've ice skated on one hand; yet here I am watching all of your videos. The game is so fast my untrained eyes hardly see anything at all. The skill level of these players is mind-boggling. One minor thing: the discordant music sets my teeth on edge, and it's loud enough in the mix that I can't tune it out. That means I can't watch a full video in one go. Please consider dialing down the background music volume or switching to something less discordant and you'll have my sub. Keep on making videos! Many thanks, from a rugby-watching Saffa.

[@MaskSwabe]

Awesome comment 💜

[@nicolasp3696]

This was fascinating ! Loved what you did there with the two Alexanders, very nice move.

[@user-gj5cx9ik5m]

Dang dude. I watched like two of your vids and turned on alerts and got excited to binge watch them for the next few hrs. Only to find you dont have many! Please make more vids, this type of content is sorely needed

[@ccccc33333]

I remember thinking something about the risto one looked odd too. great vid!!

[@moseslee87]

the dahlin to theodore cut was slick

[@nextgen8888]

Great video. Best of luck on growing your channel. There is definitely a market for these types of videos, keep it up!

[@VoIcanoman]

This was a well-researched and fairly thorough video, good job! My personal opinion is that the reason right-handed defensemen are more coveted is simple - they're less common. Because even stay-at-home defensemen, and 2-way defensemen who shoot right are in higher demand than their left-shooting counterparts. As for why left-shooters outnumber right-shooters, I think this is because, when you are first learning the game, the fine motor skills that you have in your dominant hand enable you to more easily and accurately control the puck while stick-handling (as the top hand is responsible for the finesse, while the bottom hand is responsible for the power). At a young age, you're going to get about equivalent power from both hands, but your dominant hand far out-paces your non-dominant hand in _control._ Furthermore, I think this is also a situation where we may be seeing a two-tiered survivorship bias situation. The first tier is that the players who take up the game with their dominant hand at the top of the stick are more likely to have *success* in the game, and will therefore increasingly out-compete the others as they age. The second tier is that for those players who use their dominant hand on the shaft of the stick, only the ones with the most extreme levels of talent and dedication will ever make it to the NHL - only the very best will overcome the odds. Applying this winnowing process to a population that is 90% right-handed, the proportion of left-shots who make the NHL will be larger (as they don't have as much to overcome to become NHL-quality players), while the group of right shots who do make it will be of higher quality overall, having been able to defy even steeper odds against them.

[@DaBenzo923]

This is an amazing analysis! ❤ Never considered it, but always wondered. Need more of these!

[@leolattanzi1226]

Amazing hey ....far from it boring as hell

[@Nhokc35]

I was mind blown as a kid that i learned the different places teach the game different. Even in golf and baseball other countries put more emphasis on teaching methods of using your strong hand as the guide/control hand rather that the "power" hand. The ideology differences are truly fascinating. Using the stong hand on top increases release speed and stick handling, using the strong hand in yhe bottom increases powere and accuracy at the loss of touch

[@RRaquello]

When we first started seeing a lot of international players back in the 70s, almost all players trained in Europe were lefty shooters. I think there were teams like Czechoslovakia where the entire team was left handed. Every single player. It's obvious they were just trained that way. I'd be curious to look at the USSR team that played Canada in the Summit Series in 1972 to see if there were any righty shooters on the team, but I don't know where that information would be available.

[@stevenking9357]

I really appreciate the exhaustive research you did for this video. Nice job!!

[@Tridgit]

this is a fantastically composed theory/analysis video. great work! topic suggestion: dominant skating habits based on which way the player holds the stick

[@Mustang_Dan]

If your weak hand is at the top of the stick you can use your leg to help make a 1 handed shot. As you start to shoot, raise your knee up so that you can pull back with your left hand/top of the stick and lever the middle of the stick over your quadricep. Your stick/the shot basically becomes like a see-saw tipped on its side where your weak/top hand is on one side and the puck is on the other.

[@ratiquette]

You make the most interesting hockey content on youtube. Respect.

[@smithryansmith]

This is something that interested me, as my father was left-handed and shot right, while I am right-handed and shot left. He just always said you use whichever wat feels comfortable. After playing a lot of hockey, I switched from batting right to left in baseball. I have read the stat that the USA produces more right handed shots, while Canada and Europe produce more left-handed shooters. That might be interesting to explore. The best goal scored Ive ever seen was Brett Hull in his prime (with the Blues, most new fans havent seen just how good he was at that time) and he was a right shot but left-handed.

[@tg4414]

I can answer the part about more Americans being right shots. This is probably due to how most players there will either play baseball or golf before playing hockey, and that influencing hand placement. On the flipside, I remember hearing a stat that the most amount of left-handed golf clubs/equipment are sold in Canada.

[@Milehighsnake98]

I can readily explain the US vs the world aspect. In the US, most hockey players are taught to pick up a stick the same way they teach to pick up a baseball bat (baseball being America's pasttime, after all). The idea with a baseball bat is that the lower hand (at the end of the bat) is solely for power, while the top hand controls your swing and where it goes. When you're trying to make contact with a moving, spinning ball, and hit it accurately with a round bat (so the contact area is extremely small), you need to be able to put the bat head where the ball is. So you want the dominant hand to be on top, not at the end of the bat. But hockey isn't taught like that elsewhere. In hockey, all of your stick handling control, shot release, etc. comes from your top hand. So it makes more sense to have your dominant hand on top for control.

[@smithryansmith]

@@Milehighsnake98 yeah, i think you are right. I remember my gym teacher in the US in grade school telling us all to put our "writing" hand lower on the street hockey stick. I had played hockey before, so I prefered to do it the opposite way. I hope they dont still teach that dogmatic approach.

[@MichaelJesse]

Hi, I just want to say that the level of research you did for this video is insane. As a fellow small-to-midsize youtuber, I can really appreciate how much effort you put into finding your footage and writing your script. Good work!

[@andrewwilimek8326]

You’ve quickly became my favourite account on KZbin, through just these two videos. Would love to see more and support you if possible.

[@plumpydumpy-el5gl]

great video. really surprised to see the subscriber count that low considering the quality of the vid and time put into it

[@MrFaulk-pn9ef]

This is Masterclass…wow phenomenal video. I see you took the time and displayed a specifically chosen quality example for each and every little thing you spoke about. From the mighty ducks to Semin’s wrist shot. As a kid I always wondered why there was so few right handed sticks in stores compared to left finally figured it out that there were more left handed shooters. Thanks for this video clearly. Very very top quality.

[@mikemartien]

This is a great video on a niche most might not think about. Fantastic work, best video (hockey or otherwise) I've seen in quite a while. I'm a righty but started playing lefty because I was told to "just grab a stick" having no clue the difference in the curve or being told which was right or left when I was really young. I learned years later in late middle school some of the benefits of my random choice and how to utilize it based on my dominant hand on top. Very cool breakdown and video editing work.

[@dominiktremblay411]

This is top tier analysis and editing! Subbed and looking forward to your other videos!

[@official_haden]

We need more hockey analytics like this. Top tier content, and I'm excited to see more from you!

[@CompleteChaos2]

Brilliant video. Ive talked about this with friends for years. Kudos to you for putting the time and research into it to present this video. Very well done! The best Playmakers are lefties, the best Goal Scorers are righties, minus those few anomalies.

[@user-gt3du1oo3h]

This is an amazing analysis! Never considered it, but always wondered. Need more of these!

[@SteelersSenators1994]

Dude the intro to this made me realize it's not just me out there 😂 I can tell you which way everyone shoots too, thought about calling into the local sports radio and having them speedball player names at me lol. Weird thing I've always picked up on when I have buddies who can say which junior A team a guy played for, but can't tell you which way Steve Yzerman shot lol

[@alphajkings3284]

Ive never noticed the righty one handed puck protection thing but after seeing this video I just saw Joel Armia do it against the penguins with around 3 mins left in the first. If I hadn’t seen this video I would’ve never noticed that

[@toppseudointellectual]

This is the stuff I'm looking forward to learn the nuance of the game

[@SD-dc9or]

as a lefty who shoots left this was so hard for me to wrap my head around (have barely played any hockey tho). Obviously I figured hockey players like to play with their dominate hand on the top of the stick I just never knew why. Maybe because I played lacrosse where most people have their dominate hand on the top end of the shaft, and it felt comfortable to just angle them down with a hockey stick

[@Lunar0Strain]

Great video, and great channel in general! One thing you left out is how many youth players are right or left shots to begin with. The stats I found say stick sales are 60-40 in favour of left shots in Canada, and 60-40 in favor of right shots in the US (interesting fact right there). At least for now there are still more Canadian hockey players than US-born, so overall more youth hockey players shoot left. This makes some stats you mention like 77-25 top 3 picks look a little less dramatic, it's still obviously significant but not as much. On top of that, my personal experience playing youth hockey (in Canada) was that even more than 60% of players shot left (maybe 70-75%, but that's just based on vibes). An explanation for this follows the explanation people give for why there are more right shots from the US. Which is that right handed people tend to shoot left if they start playing hockey early, but they are more likely to shoot right if they have experience playing other sports first. So, those stick stats I mentioned include a lot of people who started playing shinny or road hockey as preteens or adults and most likely won't have time to develop the skating skills needed to get to the pros. But among players who start young, and therefore have a higher likelihood of getting to the pros, left handed shots might be very common, beyond what the stick sales stats suggest. Anyway, thanks for reading my novel haha, great content!

[@mikecowley7274]

Glad I found your channel!

[@user-nz5bv4rx9h]

Really awesome work! I have 0 doubt your channel will grow to a huge size if you keep up this quality because it is easily among the best content I’ve seen on KZbin. The clip editing and research/data are professional quality. Excited for future videos!

[@tadeasbezdek8341]

such a underatted account for real. Please keep making videos, they are amazing

[@fragginbastich7307]

I did not expect this video to be as fascinating and in depth as it is when I clicked it. Bravo

[@hballer3367]

Absolutely great video! Just discovered your channel, keep up the good videos and you should gain traction. Subbed!

[@playboicartidisciple8299]

Excellent video, great editing and articulation. Also just saw you goalie vid abt white pads versus colorful. Really enjoyed that as well.

[@adamhall3344]

Interesting video. I’m glad at the end you did mention that the difference is subtle, because here’s the thing-repetition (i.e. practice!) matters way, way, way more than whether your dominant hand is on top or bottom. It will make the biggest difference when trying a new skill for the first time, but as you practice, over the years, the significance of where your dominant hand is disappears. I have a hard time believing, for example, that it really makes a difference whether or not NHL defensemen are poke checking with the same hand they write with. I’ve played a lot of hockey, baseball, and golf in my life (hockey the most, by far). I have found that many people make assumptions about which way you should swing a bat, a club, or a stick based on what your dominant hand is that, in my experience, just aren’t true. I have played with and against incredible athletes of all combinations (L or R hand dominant, shooting Lor R) to understand that in the long run it matters very, very little if at all. But so many people are surprised, for example, that I swing a bat left, being right hand dominant. I’m like “do you know how many MLB hitters are the same??”

[@willroberts6429]

Amazing video!! I never comment on KZbin vids but this was top notch man, keep it up.

[@matt7352]

Phenomenal video, jeez Louise. When you brought up that Nylander clip and saying stick handling seems stiffer. I totally agree. Nylander is unique but one of the things that separates him from the pack is his puck control, especially in tight spaces. So I originally thought he has top tier hands, but after listening to you it’s more like his puck control is actually more connected to his skating ability. Thinking about it more he almost under handles the puck, and doesn’t really overload his system with a million puck dribbles

[@MutualGambit]

Awesome video. The defensive advantage of your dominant hand being placed at the end of high end of the stick for right-handed players is so obvious, yet I'd never considered it.

[@MC-be5gg]

Honestly I thought all lefty shooters were left handed. I didn’t even know you could put your dominant hand on top

[@marc-antoinelecours-toutlo6442]

I really enjoyed the video; thank you. I started playing hockey as a left-handed player, and at a young age, my dad bought me a right-handed stick. He thought I shot right, like he did. EVERYTHING you said about right-handedness being slightly better at shooting, quicker hands on left shooters was what I've always felt playing hockey. I always thought my shot on the left was weaker, but I had better stickhandling on the left. Anyway, I'm not crazy; thank you for confirming.

[@quickdry3]

really well put togther video, great pacing, kept it all moving along nicely! I think it would be interesting to look across various populations where players don't tend to learn "dominant hand on top". Left-hand shot is more advantageous against a standard goalie just based on what the puck can 'see' and where the goalie's holes are. Left handed shot has an easier path to the low stick blocker side. Whereas RH players are straight at the glove side, and need to go cross-body to get to the higher scoring percentage hole. So in places with a predominanlt LH shooting player base, goalies will adjust to that with positioning by default that covers better for a leftie, and then making minor adjustments for RH - consider in an RH player base, the goalie will be making minor adjustments only very uncommonly match up against an LH player who has an even more exaggereated benefit because of the physical/geometry advantage of the LH puck path.

[@glowble]

The amountof footage and research you had to put together for this video!!! Great details. Maybe the left hand shot players are able to fend off other players with their left hand is because most other players shoots left too.

[@TheCanadianWifier]

Really really well made man, subscribed and I'm excited to see what you talk about next

[@noahlambe8230]

this video is so insanely good, really really good work man

[@ambrosius94]

I'm nowhere near the pros, but I started playing hockey with a righty stick, I figured since I was right handed that was the best option, until about 6 months later when I tried a lefty stick, I instantly felt more confident and my stick control improved since I was more confident in making movements with my right hand, personally didn't feel much of a difference in shot power or ability but I was so bad at the time I probably had the technique all wrong. Great vid btw!

[@letitsnow9595]

This is a great video dude, super interesting. As a full right goalie, my teammates would always say it was harder to shoot on me in practice because blocker vs glove moment is flipped. I think Matthews ends up as a high level shooter because he’s so good and shooting high glove on a left catching goalie with his release. I think similar to baseball pitching, left shooters shoot better on a right catching glove and vice versa. The glove side is easier to score on (80/20) for a right shooter because it’s quicker. It doesn’t come across your body. Just my two cents!

[@Vipersrule]

This is interesting. I was always told the toughest shot for most goalies to stop is low blocker. Most goalies holding blocker in right hand hand mean that the shot was easier to hit for right handed players because it’s easiest to shoot across your body (moving hands from right to left across your body). So I assumed right handed players had a natural advantage because the easiest shot for them to take was the hardest shot for most goalies to stop.

[@davideaston6944]

Excellent exploration! Got yourself another Sub. When I was a kid, I naturally picked up a stick and held it right. (I am right handed). But I didn't come from a 'hockey' family, or area, so it wasn't a gimmee that I'd have a new stick under the Xmas tree every year. So when we started playing at school (deep winter), I often didn't have my own stick, and would get what was "left" over; that was almost always a lefty. 'Everyone' seemed to shoot right back then; it was obviously very predominate. So, just wanting to play, I learned to play left, though my natural tendency was to play righty; by my early teens, I could play both. Fast-forward to 10 years later, after not playing for some time, I started getting back into it, with community centre floor hockey. When I picked up a stick as a 22 year old, LEFT was my natural feel, and I couldn't imagine shooting right. I've been a lefty ever since.

[@keithfletcher7435]

Spectacular video! I think one of the best wrist shoots that comes to mind is Joe Sakic, a left handed shooter!

[@Reladan187]

What a great video. Such a good video with lots and lots of effort and information. Subscribed

[@ryanbates5054]

Ehlers has switched hands a few times mid play in an NHL game, it’s very subtle but it comes naturally to him. Watched him play here in Halifax a lot and apparently he practiced stick handling both left and right handed.

[@NewJersey_Filmmaker]

Unreal research and info. I really enjoyed this. Keep up the good work!

[@pieshka4509]

Remember being told once you're supposed to get strength in your shot and stick handling from the hand at the top so that's where your dominant hand should be, but a lot of right handed shots feel they get more umf through the dominant hand pushing the stick from the shaft especially with slapshots and that's why so many right handed shots. It's why I shoot right, I feel like I get more strength in the shot that way but both hands are involved with stick handling so that isn't as good. When I tried goalie I had a glove on my left because of baseball

[@freebird2468]

God I love these kinds of videos. Thanks for filling this niche! :D

[@Mimi.013]

i think that either daniel or henrik sedin writes with their left hand, but i'm not sure which one. as for andrei vasilevskiy, he said in an interview that he does everything left handed and would've caught with his right hand if given the opportunity, but when he was first starting to play goalie in russia, it was very difficult to find full right equipment and he adapted to the left catching equipment. tuukka rask is also another goaltender who writes with his left hand.

[@_Enttauschung_]

Jonas Hiller was a big inspiration for me growing up, especially once I found out he was right handed and caught right like I do. I feel like more goalies would catch right if the gear was more available.

[@JohnDoeDoeJohn69]

One of the most thought provoking videos I’ve seen. Curving the blade is a necessity for performance, but does pigeonhole you towards different strengths. On a related note, lacrosse is perhaps the one sport where having to switch hand orientation is so essential to being a legitimate player that non-dominant training starts almost at the very beginning. But I think you see a similar trade-off, as for a right handed person, shooting righty will feel more natural & control is easier to acquire but speed has to be trained, shooting lefty has a more natural power with the trade off of accuracy needing major work.

[@wszeliga]

Damn, what a great put and well edited video

[@easymac24]

So glad you made this video, I am naturally righty but can do things like backhands better lefty, there's so much correlation how your feet move in relation to your handedness and your dominant foot, i.e do you lead with your left or right foot. But I think about this a lot while watching hockey. Pasternak strikes me as a left handed righty, he looks and moves his feet more like a lefty.

[@vevihx4589]

U deserve so many subs

[@hi_i_guesss]

0:50 Thank you very much. Now I’ll never be able to un-see that.

[@robertviens6104]

Etched in my Brain, Yvan Cournoyer, LH Shot, Screaming up the right side, the puck is right there, slightly out of position, top of the faceoff circle... Switches hands for a Slapshot: Il Lance et Compte!! man....That was over 50 yrs ago. Nice video, very well Done.

[@kemosabe8313]

Lord.. my head is spinning now. I can't even remember what way I shoot now. Thanks!

[@darthdewit6814]

Great video man Btw. I totally agree that it makes sense to have your dominant hand on top of the stick. I play baseball as well as hockey and it’d be interesting to see how they compare. I’m right handed and play hockey and bat lefty. While throwing a baseball righty.

[@garrettobrien5197]

only 3.7k subs. bro u deserve way more. this video was amazing

[@Leiska27]

Another factor lowering the number of full right goalies (at least for the older generations of goalies) is/was that most start their junior hockey career with gear that the team has, which would almost certainly always be regular. That, alongside the enormous cost of goalie equipment and kids tending to grow quite fast, parents are usually more willing to buy used gear, and thus regular is usually what is available. For example, Boston Bruins legend Tuukka Rask is left-handed and was a right-side shooter, but their goalie gear was left, so that's the way he learned to play (Vasilevski could have something similiar).

[@MJsCookieFarm]

My favorite player is Pat Laine, I’m very biased towards him, but the puck just zings off his stick different than most guys, shoots righty and has a deadly one timer. I’ve never really put together the thoughts, but you voiced exactly what I’ve begun to notice. Fantastic video

[@joshuamccann7862]

I'm going to pet this video everywhere and get your name out there!!! This video was amazing and all your videos are amazing. I hope you can grow this channel

[@andrewsheldon5379]

I'm left handed, yet shoot right. I grew up in England in the early 80's, and I too was forced to write with my right hand, yet it never took. I do everything right handed, except writing. Odd. Great video, great original thinking.

[@glenmiller1437]

This was far more interesting than I imagined it would be. Nice video. I'm right handed, and I shoot left. Years ago (like 25+) when I played beer league, I used to get mad at the rink pro shop because they didn't have much in the way of left handed sticks. They told me they sold about 3:1 right handed sticks, so they inventoried that way. Now I'm wondering if that was an anomaly, or if at the pro level the ratio simply changes? Or maybe the shop sold less left sticks because they had less to choose from so potential buyers, like me, left empty handed. (Sort of a self-fulfilling result due to what they stocked.) Has it changed in that last 25+ years?

[@zoobear12]

your videos are really well done and interesting keepi it up

[@viktordominguez]

Very well done. I've been saying the same things to my buddies who are all right-handed righties and they always ask about stickhandling. I always tell them "You should've learned to be a lefty" 😁funny enough, we have had competitions where we switch hands and they always beat me, a right-handed lefty player when they go lefty and I go righty.

[@morrisalanisette9067]

great video.. your research skills are exquisite. one anomaly though, ovechkin you said is left handed and shoots right, which kind of goes against the idea right hand shooters are better, since his dominant hand is on top like a left handed shooter. i think you'd have to measure on dominant hand on top rather than left or right shooting for your analysis, since you mentioned most lefties shoot right. i think ovi is maybe just an anomoly though. That is actually interesting to think about though, because goalies always say his shot has a weird wobble and rise to it. I wonder if its a possibility that if he was forced to do things right handed as a child despite being lefty, that could be one of the reasons why his shot is so great despite his weak hand being on the bottom of the stick. I just found this after looking it up: "I write with my right hand, throw with my left hand, hit the ball with my left hand, and play hockey with my right hand. This is how I am. Baseball is perhaps Ovechkin's strangest example as he bats right handed (just like in golf), but throws left handed"

[@marko9708]

Man, you murdered the stats in this video. Great work.

[@ameerjohnson4093]

My dominant is left and I shoot righty and I’ve noticed my hands and shot are always the best parts of my game. I had thoughts like this but figured I was giving too much thought, but nice video to see a theory like this to put in a explanative way.

[@vevihx4589]

I haven’t cared ab hockey since I was a young kid but watching this quality ass video interesting and gave me so much nostalgia at the same time hearing all these old players names from when I was a kid for some reason I loved playing with alex simen and ovi on nhl 13 so much even tho I was a sabres fan

[@wheelingdbag]

Amazing video! I've always noticed these differences as well. My Dad tried to force me to play right handed when I started playing hockey, because he is right handed and that made more sense to him lol. But for me, I just couldn't handle the puck well with my left hand on top. I've always thought that right handed players shoot better as well, because their dominant hand is driving into the ice and that seems to be true. If you watch left handed players, they seem to emphasize pulling with their top hand, as opposed to pushing with their low hand, like righties do! At least, that's always how I've done it. Anyway, great vid!

[@cglasford1]

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'm right handed and shoot right side hockey, maybe because of how I swing a bat and a golf club. As a Goalie, I played pretty much my entire career I would say the dominant hand holding the stick really has nothing to do with it, at least not as an American. It is 100% what hand you learn to catch with and throw with AKA what hand you wear your glove in Tee Ball/Baseball. 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. One theory I read is that kids in Canada are given hockey sticks much earlier on average than other places in the world and its natural to grab the top of the stick with your dominant hand a very young age, before any other influences, 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 of a hockey stick and bottom of the bat handle but he wasn't taught to do that it just happened.

[@TheRyanflanagan]

This video was awesome. All your videos are awesome it seems

[@fingerpointer10]

Very good video - production and analysis. You’ve earned a new subscriber 👍

[@qspice6413]

Worth adding a comment from my time playing as a goalie catching with my left hand. My single best year statistically for saves was the year that my team used me and one other goalie swapped out periodically. We'd both suit up and get swapped usually at periods - it was a huge benefit in high-intensity games where we were facing a ton of shots on goal, but was also noticeable for another reason: He caught with his right hand. In retrospect, it was a lot like switching out relief pitchers as right-handed or left-handed specialists. If we noticed that the other team had particular shooting habits that favored one side or the other, we'd switch accordingly. IIRC, we had a combined 8 or 9 shutouts that year including against the team that would win the Peewee national championship. In general, I also shot left when playing out of the goal - despite being right-hand dominant. I never have had quite as much power as other players while shooting left, but had significantly better control over the puck, and have always had it explained to me that way: your dominant hand being low generally allows you to get better leverage and power, but having it high allows for significantly better fine motor control.