Hold on! Right shot? Left? What decides which way hockey players shoot?

The universe has a funny way of conspiring to let you know when you’re wrong, and quite frankly, I should have seen this one coming.

It started with a text: “Where is the player’s dominant hand on a stick?” Without hesitation, I responded, “on the bottom … the hand on the shaft.”

Fast forward a few weeks. As media gathered before a Blue Jackets practice, we got to looking at a player’s stick and discussing how it’s held. I again offered what I thought to be the answer.

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It wasn’t until a couple of days later, while chatting with a former All-American, that I teased her about being a lefty and she said, “Well, I’m right-handed! Your dominant hand goes on top of the stick.”

Oh.

My paradigm of how I thought one was to hold a stick started to crumble.

So the next day, after a quick review of the Jackets’ stick rack, I set out to find the truth.

First up, Boone Jenner. A left-handed shot. What hand is on the top of his stick? His right. What hand does he write with? His right. Not in line with what I had thought!

Undeterred, down the row of lockers I went. On to Brandon Dubinsky, another lefty.

How do you sign your name, Brandon? 

“With my right hand, I’m a natural lefty.”

I’ve been so wrong.

But Dubinsky, thankfully, kept talking. For him, there is no “rule” to how a player should hold a stick, It should come down to comfort. With two of his three sons starting to play around with sticks, Dubinsky is going to let each one choose his handedness.

“As a kid, you don’t know what your dominant hand is, you just do whichever is more comfortable,” Dubinsky said. “I bought a couple (sticks) a righty and a lefty and whatever he feels comfortable to play with to start — and he could turn into the other — whatever the kids feel more comfortable with is what we should use.”

Hope renewed, I seek out Cam Atkinson, a multi-season 20-plus goal scorer.

Cam, what hand do you write with?

“My right.”

So your left (non-dominant) hand is on the top of your stick?

“Yep.”

While I was probably far more enthusiastic than anyone should be upon learning someone’s dominant hand, I knew now there was a question to be answered: Is there any right way to hold a stick?

The ABCs and USAs of picking a stick

“I’m a firm believer in that, whichever way you pick up (a stick) when you’re 5 and you’re swinging at a street hockey ball, that is the way you handle a stick,” said Blue Jackets skills coach Kenny McCudden.

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“My dominant hand is my right for writing, but I’m a left (shot). So (my dominant hand) is at the top of the stick. But thousands and thousands of others do it the other way.”

Anthony Donskov agrees. Currently the strength and conditioning director at Donskov Hockey Development and pursuing his doctorate in physiology and biomechanics, he suggests that giving a child a stick with a flat blade and letting them experiment is the proper path to determining handedness.

While you might take time down the road to correct grip or hand placement, as hockey is a late-specialization sport (meaning it’s not routinized or strict in technique), Donskov said the more a child can explore how they prefer to hold their stick the better.

“If you think about this from a cognitive perspective for young kids, the more they can learn authentically to move, crawl, kick, get up, throw, catch, skate, the better,” Donskov said. “If you think of the brain as a big computer, (that means) they end up having a lot more movement to choose from.”

USA Hockey also espouses player preference.

“We’ve said if you were to lay a broomstick down in front of a kid and say ‘pick it up with one hand,’ obviously there is no curve, what hand do they pick it up with?” said Ken Martel, technical director of USA Hockey’s American Development Model. “If the child picks it up with their right hand, then they’re probably left-handed (stick-wise).”

But even with everyone preaching the same method for handedness, McCudden has noticed a tendency for kids from the United States to play right. In a recent peewee clinic run by the Jackets’ coaches, 12 of 15 players were right-handed.

That kind of skew isn’t a surprise to Martel.

“We’re the only country, if you look at stick sales, that sells more right-handed sticks than left-handed by quite a bit, it’s about 60 percent right, 40 percent left,” Martel said. “Our unscientific take is that when a new family goes to a hockey shop here in the U.S., sometimes they don’t have much experience (with the game) and when asked ‘what hand is your child?’ most parents answer ‘right-handed, he writes with his right hand,’ and they give him a right-handed stick.”

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In part because of that, USA Hockey advises children to play with their dominant hand on top of the stick. It’s about educating families and players who are new to the sport. But that’s not a hard and fast rule. USA Hockey doesn’t have their coaches intervene to switch handedness for a player.

“From a USA Hockey perspective, the recommendation is dominant hand at the top of the stick,” Martel said. “But if a child picks up the stick a different way,  it’s always what the child prefers. Whatever they feel comfortable with, is fine by us.”

Bucking the trend, finding the skill?

Matt Duchene is among the players who place their dominant hand at the top of their stick, (Duchene writes with his right hand and shoots left). And when it comes to how to hold a stick, he’s also in favor of preference over “rule,” but one of the newest Jackets also sees an interesting trend in players whose dominant hand sits within the range of a stick’s flex versus at the top.

“There are more left-handed shots than right-handed shots because (so many players) are right-hand dominant (and play with that hand at the top of the stick),” Duchene said. “But the guys that do shoot right are better shooters because their dominant hand is on the power part of their stick. Lefties are usually better stickhandlers and better passers.”

The idea intrigues Donskov, who says while he isn’t aware of any scientific data to support such a theory, he wouldn’t doubt it. He’s read studies that show dominance in one leg over another can dictate which direction you feel more comfortable stopping on the ice, so it’s possible that having your dominant hand low could give you extra torque on your stick thus, increasing shooting velocity.

Having a dominant hand low is a concept that has also intrigued Paul Caufield. A right-hand dominant right-handed shot, Caufield played four years at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (Division III) and still holds the career scoring title (126-128-254) for the program. It was during his playing days that a man asked, “How do you score so many goals?”

Now the coach for Team Wisconsin’s U16s and rink manager in Stevens Point, Caufield remains intrigued with finding the answer to that question from years ago.

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His passion project has led him to explore theories surrounding goal scorers being predominantly right-handed shooters. He’s dug into ideas such as playing with your dominant hand low, bringing your dominant eye even a few inches closer to your hand allowing for better focus; and having your dominant hand low on a stick allows a player to have more coordination and be quicker in his release.

“I looked at a lot of goal scorers and they are right-handed,” Caufield said. “Most goalies catch left-hand, and you can score straight ahead, not across your body.”

Are right shots better goal scorers? Much like Atkinson, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Josh Anderson both write and shoot right.

But Caufield’s theory still isn’t without fault.

When his first son, Brock, was born, he showed to be right-hand dominant; so Caufield put a right-handed stick in his mitts. Brock put up 18 goals and 40 points in 2017-18 playing with the Green Bay Gamblers (USHL), and now in his first year at University of Wisconsin has six goals and five assists through 34 games.

But Caufield’s second son, Cole, who ranks 15th among NHL Central Scouting’s North American skaters, is left-hand dominant but shoots right. Currently with the U.S. National U18 team, Cole has a 43-22-65 stat line in 47 games.

“Cole’s a goals scorer but his dominant hand is on top so he kind of defeats my purpose,” Paul laughs. “He blew (my theory) out of the water. There’s always an exception to the rule.”

Strength at the top

There’s another wrinkle to holding a stick that Markus Hannikainen — also a natural lefty — brings into focus.

“No matter what, the top hand is stronger,” Hannikainen said.

Do you mean grip? Overall control?

“Yes, hand strength,” the Finn responds. “Because you always do stuff with one hand. You forecheck or you try to poke, you always have the stick in your top hand. Your bottom hand does not do as much work as your top hand. When you’re stickhandling, your bottom hand isn’t doing a lot. Your top hand is the ‘stronger’ one that is doing the motion.”

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This is also part of what guides USA Hockey’s recommendation.

“Our feeling is in ice hockey you do a lot with one hand on your stick,” Martel said. “Having that dexterity to be able to do that when you’re young and just getting started, may allow players to be more successful.”

This is particularly relevant to defensemen who do so much one-handed. It’s worth mentioning that of the Jackets blueliners we talked to (Seth Jones, David Savard, Zach Werenski), each plays with his dominant hand at the top of his stick.

But at the end of the day, it all seems to come down to what makes sense for the individual player, regardless of level, and even regardless of sport.

Jones has the hand he writes with (left) at the top of his stick, but when it comes to handedness and sports, he’s “all over the place.”

“It just depends,” Jones said. “I play golf right, baseball right, tennis left. Write left. Throw a ball left.

“I think it should just be natural. I think if you have a kid and he picks up a stick and holds it like that, most likely that’s the way he wants to play. That’s what I’ll eventually end up doing. Same as with anything.”

(Photo of Cam Atkinson: Jamie Sabau / Getty Images)

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