Quote:
Originally Posted by harri1
Most of the goalies in the NHL use a traditional stick approach, most of the time, but NHL goalies also used to cling to the idea of the stand-up goalie as well. I think that the stick with angle approach has just as much merit as the old approach as, I think, I have clearly identified. Again, all we ask is for goalies to give it a shot and maybe come back with some honest feedback. If the approach works, integrate it, if not throw it to the side.
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Sorry, but that is a slippery slope argument at best and it exposes the logical fallacy that is the idea that the angled stick approach to rebound control, i.e. redirecting them into your body is actually a valid approach for anyone to use.
To hit at the fallacy, let's go back to the stand up. Why did goalies play that way? Are you even old enough to have played standup in that era? Serious question because I was, and Cuban with his fro knows all too well.
The reason for a stand up goaltending style was two fold:
1. Equipment. Shots to the chest or thighs hurt. People bitch today about stingers...WAHHHHH!! Whiners. Shots haven't gotten harder, and guys like myself, Cuban and many, many others have handled the same velocity shots with significantly less equipment. Granted I was at the end of that era when I got in the game. So you stayed on your feet to hopefully get the puck on your pads or if it was up, get your hands active and on it as the gloves were slightly better at dealing with the pain and suffering of a shot than a chest/arm two piece set up.
With the advances in equipment and masks, goalies were able to give into the instinct of covering where most shots were...i.e. low/on the ice, and they started to drop more and more accordingly.
2. The game changed. The game changed in the way that in the 60's-90's the game was linear. Wingers stayed on their wing, and plays developed north-south as opposed to now with the influx of the skilled Europeans and different defenses and attacking styles, the game now evolved laterally, i.e. East-West.
So how goalies adapted was instead of squaring on angle on their feet they now developed the butterfly slide laterally to square up, and take advantage of the better equipment(see #1 above) and fill space on the lateral, faster paced plays that develop.
So now that, that is out of the way, we can get back to the stick positioning and goaltending to explain why this is a completely wasted idea with no merit what so ever.
1. Take a sheet of 8x11 paper and hold it landscape in front of your monitor. How much of your monitor's screen can you see? Not a lot if any. Now tilt it back say...30 degrees. How much of your screen can you see now?
Now that we've been through this exercise, that piece of paper represents the stick blade covering the 5 hole. If vertical, you have, using the paper, 8" of coverage. Angle it back 30 degrees and for arguments sake we now have roughly 6" of coverage.
Are we in the business of giving up more inches? Nope. Even though leagues and governing bodies legislate us to do it, we need to keep what we have.
2. Arms and biomechanics. I am not sure how much you've studied on this, but I have done a good deal of self study and discussions with my brother who has a masters in the field in regards to proper stance and body positioning.
What the stance you're advocating does is drives the arms down, and forward. By this nature that causes the shoulders to roll forward and shifts the center of gravity forward, therefore causing the goalies to be attempting to maintain their balance in a drop or even standing and moving whilst in a stance. Bad balance, is bad for anything. Your stance is the foundation of all movements in goal and you must be squared up with the shoulders over the knees and hands slightly forward, nor pronounced forward.
Also, in all the pictures you show of goalies there is a ton of open space upstairs. Again, are we in the business of giving inches? No. Now that you've dropped your hands lower than normal, say only a couple inches, that is still distance needed to be traveled during a high shot. Distance = Time. Time = higher GAA. Not to mention, that because of the shifted center of gravity, your goalies are always falling forward and down, thus making it harder for them to get up high.
3. Change of direction. No where in any goalie publication or manual by anyone that I respect do they recommend changing the direction of a puck, unless it is to a corner, over the glass or to a teammate. You always redirect the puck AWAY from the net. Another simple equation, towards the net = danger regardless, away from the net is...well..away from danger!
So by the fact that you're the only person I can find that advocates, and actively teaching this method, you're saying that you're personally revolutionizing the position and how it is taught and that eventually most goalies will use this?
In my 20+ years of playing and studying this position I can say that the use of the stick has been a pretty well set in stone, i.e. right way/wrong way teaching/usage principles and this bucks it. While I am not opposed to change at all, it needs to be presented in a logical well thought out way and I am sorry to say, that this simply isn't it. People aren't holding on to the way of using the stick as if it is some archaic method that should have gone the way of the Dodo, it is because it is logical, tested and simply put it works for everyone. It is a true fundamental much in the way the T-Push and Shuffle are the right ways of skating as a goalie.
By all means though, use it and keep teaching it. But to me this is a matter of buyer beware, and I am not buying it.