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Many goalies have had to make a decision between being the starting goalie at a lower level or being the backup goalie at a higher level. Looking back on the choices that I have made and the experiences that I have had, I would definitely have to say that being a starting goalie at a [...]

Butterfly, Recover, Sliding Pad Save Drill For The Hockey Goalie

Posted on Friday, July 11, 2008

This drill is to emphasize recovery and body control. There is a shooter set up at the backdoor and the goalie is set at the top of the crease square to the faceoff dot. The shooter has a pile of pucks and when the shooter slaps the stick on the ice, that is the signal for the goalie to drop down into a full butterfly, recover to his or her feet, pivot and make a sliding pad save from a shot that the shooter takes. It is important for the shooter to give just enough time for the hockey goalie to get across, but not so much time that it is easy for him or her to make the save. We really want to focus on control with this drill, it can be very easy for a goalie to start to lose control over his body and his positioning and we want to avoid that.

Recovery Drill

Key Points

  1. Controlled butterfly and recovery.
  2. After recovery, hockey goalie must find the puck with eyes.
  3. Then goalie pivots into a sliding pad save trying to get
    all the way to the far post with his or her skate.