Backside Leg Recovery Foot Placement

Copyright © Stephen McKichan 2004

     I'll apologize in advance for writing my first technical article on what can be argued is a very elite and difficult skill, displayed properly by a select few. After some consideration I realized that many Vaughn goalies fit that description and this would be a great discussion especially for those goalies that want to take advantage of the VELOCITY pad's design. These attributes are clearly low ice to pad friction ratio when sliding and their ability to be worn loosely, PRO-FLY style.

     Recently I had the opportunity to watch Marc-Andre Fleury first hand during a morning skate at the Air Canada Centre. This rising young talent has exceptional feet and is one of the quickest goalies I have seen playing the down game. Specifically his ability to pad shuffle and drive hard sliding butteflys is amazing.

     What we want to delve into here is where the push skate should be placed before the push and why it should be placed there.

     When down in the butterfly and faced with a proximate rebound to your right or left you should recover with the back side leg while maintaining pad position flush to the ice with the puck side leg.

     Here we see Jeremy placing his backside skate in the correct initial position.

     Here is the new thing I learned watching Fleury.

     As this back side leg snaps up placing the skate under the shoulder a powerful shimmy can be driven to the puck side.

     Fleury doesn't just get this skate up under the shoulder nice and upright. He actually throws the backside knee up AND foward causing a rotation about the sagital axis where his skate lands 5 - 6 inches foward of his other knee.

     This skate is vertical but the foward thrust and ice placement causes a squareness to ocurr as he simulataneous explodes and rotates on a 45 degree shimmy.

     Here Jeremy keeps the lead pad sealed to the ice while driving with the back side leg.

     The rotation is now faster than the delayed rotation normally found in a slide.

     The "Fleury" butterfly move turns the push and rotation into one move by planting the foot in front of the body, therefore rotating when the push is made because of the relative location of the leg.

     From a b-fly position, throw the knee forward and up (let's say the right knee). The body will rotate to the left generated by that knee throw, the skate blade will land flush on the ice about 5"- 6", maybe more, in front of the right shoulder and then you execute your b-slide.

     Butterfly slides and shimmys are now common practice and taught as a basic fundamental for an advanced goalie.

     What hasn't been taught or at least I have never heard about it is this push leg skate placement.

     Ideally, if flexibility permits the puck side leg should stay square and flush to the ice as long as possible while the back leg does the work.

     What struck me as amazing was where his push leg skate lands on the ice and how it is oriented.

     Typically most goalies land this skate with the foot pointing straight out towards center ice.

     What Fluery does is simulataneous square up and explode at the same time by throwing the push skate from its starting position in the butterfly up under his body but forward slightly.

     Attempt to move without having the front pad become "unflared" as this will lessen low net coverage.

     In order to get a truly powerful push when in the down position it is important to get your instep of your foot facing where you want to go. This movement allows you to do just that and push directly where you want to go.