Old Dogs Session # 4 and #5 Recap

Hi Goalies!!

I apologize for the delay on the write-up.  Since session number #4 was a bit of review of Number #3 and Session #5 was low on attendees, the recap today will deal a little more with the standard/static butterfly and its recovery.  Session # 6 will start our work on the butterfly slide.

In Session #4, I took the basis of my introduction to the butterfly slides and morphed them into a recap of the butterfly save.  The first drill was one of my favorite and an old stand-by for all my clinics and goalie sessions, the Static Swing drill.  I particularly like this drill because not only is terrific to introduce both the butterfly and butterfly slide, but also can be used to work on a proper recovery.  If you remember the mechanics, it involved the shooter standing about 4-5 feet in front of the goalie with the puck directly between them.  The shooter would pull the puck to either his forehand or backhand and the goalie would shift his/her angle to the new shot line.  At this stage of the drill, the shooters held the shot until the goalie had shifted and squared up.  By filling the new shot line by shifting ones angle, the goalie doesn't leave the shooter much space to score.  At that range, the only place that the shooter should be able to put the puck would be between the goalie's legs or five-hole.

Once the goalie squared up, his job was only to read the release of the shot and close the only available hole.  The important mechanics of the butterfly become very apparent in this exercise.  In order to effectively close the five-hole quick enough at that range, we need to have a low and deep stance.  As was illustrated in the previous session and the skating warm-up, in order to close the five hole quickly, our core or body-center must be as low to the ice as possible (while still being able to maintain a level of mobility).  To drop the knees to the ice, the core must also be lowered to some degree.  If the core is too high, your knee drop will be limited to the speed of gravity.  If the core is low enough, it is possible to drive the knees to the ice with hip rotation and heel flare.  This type of knee drop is considerably faster than the speed of gravity and will allow the goalie to close off the five hole quickly.

The second part of the drill demonstrated a proper backside recovery.  I got you guys to come to a full recovery (regain both edges of your skates) by using the backside leg to recover first and push back to the top crease for the next shot in one "fluid" motion.  Since you shifted to one side and dropped both knees, being able to recovery quickly and efficiently after the shot to follow a rebound is very important.  One of the main detractions about the butterfly in the early days of the save technique is that goalies were slow to recover and follow the new play.  Many goalies were dissuaded from going done for that very reason.  However, the backside edge recovery has allowed goalies to get over this shortcoming.  In simple terms, the backside edge typically describes the concept of using the skate or leg furthest from the new puck location to recover first rather than the leg closest to the puck.  This backside edge recover allows the goalie to not only get up, but to push to the puck in a single motion.  This is much more efficient and quicker than using the lead leg to recover first.

Some goalies will recover with their stronger leg, so they may be "correct" half the time.  Other goalies will want to recover with the leg that they use to save the initial shot since that leg was probably extend and the knee is already off the ice.  This can lead to a slower and more awkward recovery.  It will take quite a bit of time to rebuild our tendencies in this recovery system, so expect me to watch you guys carefully in any drill we do for how you are recovering even if the main focus of the drills is not recoveries!!

Here is Jon Elkin for Vaughn Hockey breaking it down...Jon Elkin - Butterfly Recoveries

The other thing that Jon does well explaining here is the lead leg rotation that we sometimes need so that we can push in a straight line to our new target.  Some goalie coaches illustrate this by saying that one should become square to the puck's new location first before pushing to the new angle.  We illustrated this a bit in Session #3 for those in attendance.

Anyways, if you have any questions or ideas about what you would like to see in these recaps, please let me know.

All the best in goaltending!!