Better Butterfly

[rquay17]

IS there any exercizes or antying that i can do so i can get my legs to spread out more when i drop into a butter fly...or am i just screwed?? Please help

[RyJ Maduro]

Make sure you're not trying to make your knees flexible, the rotation should be in the hips. Goalies World had a good article about the stretches Boston goalies (Skudra and Dafoe, at the time) did for hip flexibility. I'll see if I can put them up tommorow morning.

Also, how do you do your straps? Putting two inches or so of slack in the toe string and doing the bottom straps loose all the way can make the pad sit away from the leg, so even if they aren't wide, the pads can be.

[ctcrease]

The biggest thing associated with butterfly flare issues that I have noticed as that goalies tend to pinch their knees or ankles in, digging the skates into the ice and not allowing their feet to go out when they drop.

This also creates a slower butterfly where you go over top of your toes rather than driving your knees striaght into the ice. Also, it locks you into position making you more suseptable to lateral plays.

The simple solution to this is the stance. Make sure you have the weight on the balls of your feet rather than your toes and that you don't creep forward in anticipation of the shot. The locking in process can be avoided. When you go into your butterfly, try to let your feet go out to the sides as you slam your pads to the ice.

A good exercise to see if you are doing this properly is to go into your stance and place a puck beside your outside edge of each skate. If you butterfly properly, the pucks should go to the sides with some force. If you go over top of your toes, the pucks will move only slightly or not at all.

Butterflying properly allows you to at least get the most out of the flexibility you have.

[MURCIELAGO R-GT]

if you do what they said and it still doesn't naturally feel right, don't force yourself to do it or you will mess up you knee ligaments.

[spidergoalie]

http://www.hockeylabjapan.com/englis.../article10.htm

[VAPORDEUX6038]

Originally Posted by rquay17

IS there any exercizes or antying that i can do so i can get my legs to spread out more when i drop into a butter fly...or am i just screwed?? Please help

Lots of hip stretches.

[RichMan]

Originally Posted by spidergoalie

http://www.hockeylabjapan.com/englis.../article10.htm

Great link, thx for posting that! I was already doing some of those, but regardless, i find that with age (only 37) it makes for a huge difference, especially if you haven't kept too limber over the years.

My b-fly almost looks like a normal knee drop. Hence why i resort to the pin-ball technique

One thing for sure, don't miss a day of stretching, even the basic positions. It takes one day off and the next time you stretch, it feels like you haven't for 3 weeks

[rquay17]

Thanks everyone for the replies....it helps greatly!