Which is better: a stand up style of goaltending, or a butterfly style of goaltending?
Unfortunately, today you see very few true standup goalies. In fact, goalie equipment over the past 10-15 years has changed to adjust to more of a butterfly-type goalie. While I do believe that a butterfly style can work, and Tony Esposito is a prime example of how well it can work, I think the stand up style offers distinct advantages over the butterfly style of goaltending. The purpose of this blog is to show goalies the advantages of using stand up ice hockey goaltending.
One of the core principles of goaltending is to let the puck play you, instead of you playing the puck. Meaning you move and react to the puck, not pre-determine what save you will make before it happens. With butterfly style goaltending, you are choosing to drop to your knees, prior to the shot, thus predetermining the type of save that you will make.
And, by dropping to your knees, you expose the two upper corners, giving the opposition a good target to shoot. This eliminates the goalies’ advantage of covering those corners by keeping gloves and blockers high. Remember it is a game of inches, and you need every advantage you can get.
Finally, you limit your mobility to where you need to be if you drop to your knees just prior to a shot. Moving around on your knees is cumbersome and slow if the puck carrier passes and does not shoot. Moving on your feet is fast and can enhance your ability to control and recover rebounds when you are goaltending.
I’ve played professionally for a number of hockey teams. Please visit the Internet Hockey Database for a list of teams and my statistics.
I’m also President of DACC Associates, a security and management firm headquartered in Boise, Idaho. For more information about DACC Associates, please visit my website.
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