Doin' the butterfly

[Aaron]

Just a question for you guys. Being not all that flexible myself, I'm wondering how much of a spead do you get with your pads when in the butterfly position.

Me personally, I don't get alot of spread. I'll just tuck one leg underneath me and kick out the leg closest to the shooter sometimes. I can sit on the floor with both pads to my sides, but as far as pushing them out to "face the shooter" it's somewhat difficult.

I've also just discovered another problem. My goalie pant. The extra 5-hole roll keeps my legs from coming together closing the 5 hole down low at the tops of my pads when i'm in the butterfly.

for the pants you have the same probleme that i had,when you will buy new pads add 1 inch to of length it would close the hole.i had my girlfriend mesuring my butterfly and it's 3'10" wide
but i'm 5'8".i beleive bigger goalie have better butterfly than me.theres a lot of execice you can do to have a better butterfly.take a look in the features section theres an article on streching

[Squealagig]

I can't really tell you how much spread I get as I've never measured and I'm too lazy to put my pads on and try to measure now. But I do know that I've been doing some of those stretches in the features section as well as a few others and the amount of spread I'm getting is definately improving.

I never measured either but most of the guys on my team tell me that I just about block out the bottom of the net.. But then again I'm running about 6'6" wearing 37" pads.. My favorite move is throwing a "narrow" butterfly letting the shooter think that he as a hole, then strech out that last bit...

[Bernie]

I'm 6'5 and on a a full butterfly I cover the 6 feet across the net if I'm sitting on the goal line while still covering the 5 hole with my stick.

Normally I play further out from that so I don't have to stretch my butterfly so much and I prefer to keep the 5 hole tighter anyway. Again, I can't overstate it enough- 66% of all goals ever scored have been 1ft or less off the ice. Sealing off the low quite significantly increases your success.

I think I make up all of the 33% of goals scored over 1 ft off the ice... god I hate that... perfect butterfly.. top shelf.. goal

[Aaron]

Bernie, that's alota net! When you do it like that, you have a large gap in the 5 hole correct? Your groin is stretched out somewhat.

[Bernie]

Righto Aaron, but like I said, not enough gap that the stick can't cover.

I always try to adjust the width of my butterfly in direct correlation with the situation I'm facing. If the angle is really tight, I may not butterfly at all. If a guy is in close, my buterfly is generally much more tight because there's no need to cover the whole low net. On a screen, I'll go fairly wide and try to play the odds by covering as much as possible. Remember, when you butterfly wider, you also bring your upper body lower, so there's a trade off. If I covered 6 feet on every butterfly, I'd be beaten a lot more high because I'd show more net over my shoulders. Also, you lose mobility in a wide butterfly. You almost have to pull your legs back in a bit to pop back on your feet. Not to mention, yes, it strains your groin considerably!