Old Dogs Session # 3 Recap
Session #3, March 10th
Hi Goalies!
Here is this weeks Session #3 recap and the official date/location announcement for Session #4. I want to thank all those that could attend this past weekend's session. The feedback on the session has been very helpful and from what I was told the right muscles were the sorest, so I guess we were doing something correct. For the most part, I hope our thighs and quads were burning and sore the next day and not so much the lower back and knees.
Session #3 highlighted a lot of up/down work with the butterfly. The reason that the butterfly has become so popular and so successful in modern times, is that it allows the goalie to effectively cover the bottom half of the net in one motion. This single motion allowed the goalies to react on shot release and not worry (much) about shot direction in terms of left or right. In a swift action, the goalie has closed off the bottom part of the net. The ability to cover the bottom of the net effectively is essential to successful goaltending. Even at the NHL level, more than 80% of the goals enter the net through the bottom half and we are talking about the best shooters in the world. If you could perfect your butterfly technique, you too could have at least an 80% Save %age in the NHL and play for the Leafs.
In days prior, goalies didn't go down in that style either due to the rules of the game or the limits of the equipment (who wants to butterfly without a mask?). For a goalie to cover down low in those days, he/she must have reacted either with their skate or stick. This lead to a total reactive save that required not only inhuman reflexes but impeccable timing. As the game sped up and shooters improved, the kick save was supplanted by the butterfly. Reacting to an 85 mph snapshot along the ice from 20 ft out had become impossible.
In watching the attendees work and responding to their on-ice questions, I was able to discuss a little bit about the physiology required for the butterfly save. In simple terms, a strong, wide butterfly comes from a lot hip-flexibility and not the knees. The knees should have a very strong muscular support structure built up before attempting butterflies, since they are easy to injure with improper technique.
As promised, I am appending an excellent series of videos from Maria Mountain, a professional trainer in Ontario who focuses a large part of her practice on ice hockey goalies. I suggest in watching all these videos, as she discusses how the other joints and the movement and flexibility will affect the other joints and even our backs/arms.
In addition, Maria uses the term Kinetic chains quite a bit. It is a very interesting topic in Sports Medicine and I think we should really consider this when dealing with our movements and the potential for performance limitation.
On the technical side, we highlighted several areas that are important for a quick and effective butterfly. The most important element in my consideration is our stance depth. In most cases, I use a term called "save ready". This is the situation where we have created a deep stance that is ready to react to the shot (in both timing and direction). To be "save ready", goalies will be deep in their stance, bending their knees and not crouching their back too much. From a lateral perspective, it will look as if the goalie is just about to sit in a low stool. In order for use to go into a butterfly and close off the five hole quickly, the goalie's core (or bellybutton if you can't visualize the core) must be as low to the ice as possible while maintaining decent lateral and depth mobility on one's skates. For the goalie's knees to hit the ice, the core must drop. If the core is too high, then the it will take time for the core to drop to the ice and that will leave a gaping hold between the legs. Gape too long and the puck will find a nice and uninhibited path to the back of the ice.
In our drills, we also stressed the "quiet hands" and "quiet upper-body". The "quiet hands" helped keep our stick and glove in the proper position while executing the saves. The "quiet upper body" will also help block as much of the upper net as possible plus allow goalies to make quick and efficient recoveries.
Lastly, we introduced the concept of "backside" or "backedge" recoveries. Rather than using two legged pop-ups or strong leg recoveries only, goalies must learn to recover with the leg furthest from the puck's rebound location. Not only is this more efficient, as it will help the body turn and square to the new puck location, in our later sessions, it will help us transition into a second save or movement. "Backside" edge is a staple in modern goaltending. Adding this little tweak to you game will take time as you may have to re-train your natural recovery instincts, but it will lead to quicker and more efficient movements, which should lead to more saves (and less fatigue and injuries).
Our 4th Session is scheduled for March 24th at 9:30 pm again at Shearwater Arena. The general plan is to review the butterfly again and introduce the butterfly slide. We performed a lot of single knee drops for our warm-up last week (and I hope everyone performed some at their pick-up hockey sessions). The need and ability to perform these simple exercises will definitely become more apparent when we start the butterfly slide. I will still keep on the attendees about their recovery as well as their stick and hand discipline.
If you can confirm your attendance early, it would be a great help as I need to organize shooters for the numbers attending. I want to keep everyone working hard the whole session. I will resend a confirmation request on the Thursday just prior to the session date. If you have already confirmed by that time, please ignore it.
Yours in goaltending,
Todd Bengert