The Standard Grip for holding an UWH stick is to hold the handle tight to the palm with the thumb pressed to the back-side (or hook-side) of the stick's handle opposite the fingers. The stick's back-side should face the player (this is sometimes counter-intuitive for new players because it seems more stable to push the puck if the hook faces forward).
Players are permitted to play with either hand (if they have a glove on each hand); however, players are only allowed to touch their stick with one hand while attempting to play the puck; if two hands are touching the stick at the same time as the stick touches the puck this is a stick infringement foul. Most players only have one glove on their dominant hand to grip the stick.
When attempting to play the puck, no more than 25mm (1in) of the stick's heel (the pinky finger side of the handle) may extend out from the pinky finger side of the glove; if a player attempts to play the puck with a grip that has more than this extension they can be called for a stick infringement foul (this is also true if a player uses the stick's heel to play the puck).
The puck is allowed to rest against the player's index finger when on the front-side of the stick. However, the player's index finger is not allowed to rotate forward (or be otherwise extended) when contacting the puck, doing so is an illegal advancement of the puck foul. Similarly, when the puck is on the back-side of the stick, the thumb must be pressed to the stick, it cannot be used to help capture or propel the puck.
Many players find it helpful to attach their stick's handle to their glove hand with a hair-tie or a cross-sectional piece of bicycle inner tube. The tie is looped around the handle and a finger (often the index or middle finger) near the first knuckle. This attachments allows for the stick to be held in a relatively loose grip when a player is not actively trying to play the puck, which helps minimize hand grip fatigue. This attachment can also help keep a stick from being knocked away from a player's hand if they lose their grip. Some players attach their stick to their hands with a cord looped over the back of their hand, or with a cord looped around their wrists. These methods secure the stick to the hand better, but do not allow the same amount of grip flexibility as the tie method.
Demo video coming soon!
The standard grip can be used for nearly all situations, the player's arm and wrist may rotate to get a better angle or improve their reach in some situations, but the grip remains the same.
There are not really any situations where you cannot use the standard grip. However, during some maneuvers, such as during some tackles it is advantageous to switch to the monkey grip.
Example video coming soon.
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STANDARD GRIP
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