Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The hockey stick divide!

Here's an interesting puzzle. I'm a lefty (hockey and baseball only), so's my brother and my kids and even my now Canadian citizen husband discovered he plays hockey and bats left. Here's what the NYtimes has to say about it.   

Hockey Stick Divide - Canada Leans Left, U.S. Right - NYTimes.com
But none may be so simple as how one holds a hockey stick. According to sales figures from stick manufacturers, a majority of Canadian hockey players shoot left-handed, and a majority of American players shoot right-handed. No reason is known for this disparity, which cuts across all age groups and has persisted for decades.

Most Canadians, like most Americans, are naturally right-handed, so the discrepancy has nothing to do with national brain-wiring. And how you hold a pencil, say, has little or no bearing on how you hold a stick. A left-handed shooter puts his right hand on top; a right-hander puts the left hand there...

We all also put the left foot forward first. Someone once said it is related to the length of the legs and which one we use as a pivot, I think they, whoever 'they' are, said it's the longer one that stays behind. Though this still doesn't explain why Canadians have the right leg longer than the left and Americans the reverse. And if this phenomenon does not have a parallel in tennis, do right foot forward righties do better than left-foot forward righties. Of course, just reverse all these musings to apply them to lefties.

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