A player swoops into the offensive zone with momentum and the puck on his opposite hand. 

The skater cuts into the middle of the zone, seemingly primed for a scoring opportunity before shifting to his or her forehand for a highly-contested shot that skitters away from the scoring area. 

With wrist shots and snapshots the norm in youth hockey, this scene has been played out numerous times, and sometimes leaves parents and coaches wondering why the backhand shot is shied away from.

“Because opportunities for backhands are few and far between,” says Dave Perri, founder and owner of hockey-training entity Build Your Game, where he’s trained players from youth to professionals for over 11 years.

“Being almost exactly two-thirds the speed of your forehand shot no matter who you are, you can only use it as a shot if you're very close to the goalie and as a pass if you're relatively close to the player you're passing it to,” Perri continued, adding that he’s measured his player’s shot-speed differentials between shot types many times.

Noting the instances where a backhand shot or pass may seem like the logical option during a game, Perri counters that the possible reward of shifting to the player’s dominant hand outweighs taking the slower shot.  

“In most cases, with the speed of the game being what it is in the modern day, it makes the most sense most of the time to just use your forehand,” Perri said. “Even if you need to reposition the puck to do so, it's still worth the extra second.”

Perri, who’s refined his training techniques over the last decade, said that he doesn’t particularly prioritize one shot over the other, but has his players practice the most-used shots more heavily with backhands getting regular reps during workouts. Perri is also a proponent of practicing forehand shots with the puck from a less-than-optimal point on the ice. 

“[Build Your Game is] probably the only hockey camp in the metro area that works on shooting forehand shots out [and] away from a player's body,” Perri explained. “It gives my younger players a better option for most situations and it's one of the many reasons I see so much success with my players.” 

So while working to perfect a backhand shot may seem a worthwhile goal, the number of appropriate situations doesn’t merit spending more (or as much) time on it as shots that are more regularly-used. 

“They are what they are,” Perri said. “A decent choice in certain circumstances, but not in most.”