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PUCK: The American Sign Language (ASL) sign for "puck"
Question:
A Deaf player is on my hockey tieam and there is one word that I don't know how to sign and can't find (other than fingerspelling which is impractical) and that's the word "puck." I sorta have something I do each time and tell him ‘this will be our sign for puck' but it's not ideal. Is there a word for hockey puck?! Can you describe or show me? It's so stupid – it's a word that never comes up in life unless your play hockey and then you need it a whole bunch!
Thanks!
- Jack
Response:
Hello Jack!
Since most of us Americans don't know how to have a good time on the ice -- the trick is to finding examples of "puck" being signed is to check out newscasts in international sign language regarding hockey.
See "puck" at the 3:53 mark of: https://youtu.be/NTrdl0s83Dg?t=233
That version is using a non-dominant C hand.
Seems to me if you have your gloves off you could do a modified three-digit horizontal C hand using the index, middle, and thumb
Or just do the horizontal C.
See a bit more advanced version at: 3:13 of this video: https://youtu.be/GLfG5e_SRw0?t=191
Here we see the dominant horizontally held "F" hand functioning as a classifier representing the puck and the non-dominant palm-down flat hand depicting the ice-sheet "moving" beneath the puck (when really it is the puck moving over the ice but we show that by moving the "ground" in ASL).
Cautions and caveats:
The horizontal F hand can also used to refer to someone as being an a-r-s-e-hole so just be aware of that little overlap. Actually, the F hand has lots and lots of uses though and the meaning depends on context (holes, coins, round things, eyeballs, etc.). In the context of hockey it can mean "the puck."
I recommend you use the "F" hand version if you are showing the movement or position of the puck. If you want to discuss the puck itself then use a C or modified-C hand (and hey, maybe even do it with the non-dominant hand for extra distinction which is sort of cool since it is a special case due to pucks being notoriously "acted upon" rather than being "the actor."
The dominant index finger can be used to represent the "stick" acting upon the puck.
Notes:
See: HOCKEY
See: ICE SKATE
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