Bullfrog said:
Highlander said:
No just Googled it and only 10% of us are Left handed. So the ratio in the NHL is different for other reasons. Perhaps left handed people have to adapt in so many ways to a right handed world that their brains are more adept at certain skills. I would have thought it was more like 70-30 or even 80-20... Interesting.
I think it's more to do with the debate over whether it's better (or rather preferable) to have your dominant hand at the top or bottom.
I'm right-handed and shoot left. I can't fathom having my right hand at the lower end and shooting right. It feels as awkward as writing with my left hand.
Yeah, it depends on the coaching (philosophy) you received and training mixed with your natural preference (
which exists on a spectrum). The 10% ball park lefty number is probably fuzzed with many schools before the 90s forcing kids to operate right handed. The world is slightly more inclusive now to lefties, hence the growing numbers.
With enough time and motivation, a young person can build the neural pathways to going against their natural handedness. Handedness with writing/eating doesn't necessarily directly translate to stick sports (hockey, golf, lacrosse, baseball) but there was a prevalent school of thought in hockey circles to start kids with their dominant hand at the top, which enabled stronger control when playing one-handed and driving more leverage on shots. I don't know for certain, but I'm guessing there's a mix now of letting kids play the way that feels right and some parents/coaches seeing the opportunity on the right side forcing kids to shoot that way pushing the numbers in that direction.
A good number of the current top tier 1D in the NHL we yearn for are righties:
Karlsson, Hedman, Letang, Subban, Doughty, Weber, Burns, Byfuglien, Klingberg, Ekman-Larsson, Carlson, Pietrangelo, Jones, Trouba, Fowler
Just from a cursory image search, they're not all left-handed. Hedman, Subban, Weber, Doughty, Klingberg are right writers. Karlsson, Jones, Letang are lefties.