As a hockey parent, I keep finding that stuff I thought I knew about hockey ... I don't. One area that this is true is hockey sticks. When my son first picked up a stick at the ripe old age of 3, he held it the wrong way. You see, all of my sticks are righties. He is right handed; therefore, he was holding the stick incorrectly.
Anyone who has reasoned with a three year old will not be surprised to learn that I eventually gave up and bought him a lefty stick. He has been a lefty shot ever since. I learned much, much later that the majority of Canadians are right handed but shoot lefty. They believe that your dominant hand should be at the top of the stick to grant greater control.
If parenting is the act of passing along something to your kids without screwing it up too badly, then I succeeded. Well this one time anyway.
Another stick related debate that really hits your pocket book is wood vs composite. My philosophy is to remove myself from the decision. I buy all safety gear, but my son must buy his own hockey sticks. So of course he goes for the slickly marketed composite sticks.
Contributor 'Doc' submits two documents from the Coaches Resource Center on the Minnesota Youth Hockey Association's website:
Hockey_Sticks_101.pdf - An excellent introduction to stick types, lie, blade size and shape, stick length and of course wood vs composite.
Wood_vs_Composite_Sticks.pdf - An analysis of the financial aspects of the debate.
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