Learnin' to Fly Part 1

After accepting some hard truths, I decided that the next step in my return to hockey was to transition from an old school "stand-up" goalie towards the modern "butterfly" technique used exclusively in today's game.

I scoured Ebay and my local Craigslist for suitable pads- namely something made after the turn of the century that would serve as my transition pads. What I quickly realized was that I didn't have the vocabulary of the modern goaltender and I knew less than squat about modern pads.

I set out to get educated and landed on the small but extremely knowledgable community at ModSquadHockey.com . Senior member, "Law Goalie" not only answered all of my questions about modern pad design, he guided me through the creation of a pad anatomy diagram. I hope this illustration is a help to anyone wanting to learn more about modern goalie pads.

Acknowedgement- Law Goalie at ModSquadHockey.com

With my new found knowledge I continued my quest for replacement pads for my Manny Fernandez customized Heaton pads, circa when-baby-jesus-was-born.

Ebay don't fail me now!

Hard Truth

I'm headed towards week two of my first Instructional League session and having now been on ice 3 times with full gear and looking at some pictures and video, I'm realizing a hard truth.

"Stand-Up" Goalies are Dinosaurs

In the late seventies when I learned to play hockey, no coach was teaching anything but traditional, stand-up goaltending technique. This method focused on mobility, challenging shooters and above all else, going down to the ice only when players were in your crease with the puck.

Stand Up

Today nobody teaches or uses anything but some variation of the Butterfly technique and there's a good reason. Net coverage with the Butterfly is vastly superior with the bottom portion of the net almost completely covered. Today's light-weight materials used in goal pads allows the drop-down/pop-up movements more viable than the heavier and bulkier old-school pads.

Butterfly

As for me, while some of my old-school techniques are starting to come back to me, the reality is that these heavy, old pads have to go and I've got to begin learning a new style of goaltending. I plan to begin integrating the Butterfly style into my game and it will begin with using a hybrid pad that is constructed in a way unfamiliar to my game.

I should have my new pads later this week and will post about my transition.