Canada and lefties

T

Ticktaker

I posted this in another thread, but no one responded. Tell me if this makes any sense, specifically those of you from or who live in Canada. I am from the states. Born and raised, never left (no pun intended).

I throw right handed, bat left handed. There is a far higher percentage of left handers in Canada than America. The only explanation I've ever been given for this is that Canadian's are much more into hockey than Americans. A left handed hockey player shoots to the goalies stick side, rather than glove side, which is a higher percentage scoring shot. I was told kids are taught by their parents to "bat" or "shoot" from the left side at an early age. Not sure how much truth their is behind this, but it's interesting.

Here is one more statistic to back my point up. In Major League Baseball, the percentage of American's that bat left handed is 28.43%

The percentage of Canadian's that bat left handed is 46.15%

http://www.sabernomics.com/sabernomics/index.php/2010/02/why-are-there-more-canadian-lefties/
 
It's the same on the golf courses in Canada, way more lefties than in the States. Go into a golf shop and the club selection is almost as good for left as for right. It has to be the hockey. Even as 4 and 5 year olds, lots of kids just seem to naturally shoot left handed, no idea why though.

I am right handed, and shoot golf and hockey left, but baseball right, though can can switch hit. I'd say that's a pretty common combination here.
 
I am from Canada and am the same way. Right handed, but shoot left in hockey and golf, can switch hit in baseball.

I'm not sure this is due to hockey, although I suppose it could be. I've played hockey all of my life and was never taught, as a general rule, to shoot toward the stick side of a goalie. Granted, some goalies are better at making saves with their glove, but other goalies are better on the blocker/stick side. In addition, sometimes a right-handed shooter is better positioned to shoot to the blocker/stick side of a goalie. Often times you will see a right-handed shooter play as a left winger in order to better setup for a one-time shot. So all in, I don't think the prevalence of left handed hockey shooters is due to players being taught to shoot for the blocker/stick side of a goalie. Even if they were, it would not be considerably more difficult for a right handed shooter to accomplish the same goal in most circumstances.

While we're on the topic of hockey, anyone catch that World Juniors game last night? Massive collapse by the Canadians in the gold medal game. Up 3-0 going into the third period and end up losing 5-3 to the dirty Russians. We should indeed declare this a national day of mourning.
 
Quote from trefoil:

Wow! I need to move.
Of course, you could only play golf one month out of the year, maybe.
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I usually start the golf season around the beginning of April and end it in October. Roughly a 6-7 month season on average.
 
Quote from Kassz007:

I usually start the golf season around the beginning of April and end it in October. Roughly a 6-7 month season on average.
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This is the same as in the midwest USA. There is basically no difference from what I've seen between the Toronto area and the midwest in terms of weather. Most ignorant Americans do not realize that Minneapolis, along with most of upper North America is further north than Toronto. Glance at a map.

So in terms of lefties, is there still no legitimate explanation other than maybe a hockey stick is more prevelant to be held from the left side? Because I am a big golfer, which I play left handed, and played baseball through high school, where I batted left handed and threw right handed, but never played hockey. I wasn't taught to do any of these things. They all came naturally. As a matter of fact, my Dad has told me when I was three or four, he would pitch a ball to me, and I would stand directly behind homeplate and make a wood chopping motion at the ball. Naturally to him, he tried to set me up as a right hander, and I then started going to left side. He said he was confused for a while.

Maybe I'm a Canadian at heart? I still find this topic interesting.
 
Quote from Ticktaker:

This is the same as in the midwest USA. There is basically no difference from what I've seen between the Toronto area and the midwest in terms of weather. Most ignorant Americans do not realize that Minneapolis, along with most of upper North America is further north than Toronto. Glance at a map.

So in terms of lefties, is there still no legitimate explanation other than maybe a hockey stick is more prevelant to be held from the left side? Because I am a big golfer, which I play left handed, and played baseball through high school, where I batted left handed and threw right handed, but never played hockey. I wasn't taught to do any of these things. They all came naturally. As a matter of fact, my Dad has told me when I was three or four, he would pitch a ball to me, and I would stand directly behind homeplate and make a wood chopping motion at the ball. Naturally to him, he tried to set me up as a right hander, and I then started going to left side. He said he was confused for a while.

Maybe I'm a Canadian at heart? I still find this topic interesting.
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Yes you are correct about the weather in the GTA.

I was not taught one way or the other either, it just came naturally. I am not sure if this is a Canadian phenomena or not though.
 
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