The change from stand up to butterfly style for goalies was revolutionary for the game of hockey. This allowed the goalie to cover the lower part of the net just by dropping down to both knees and flaring out their ankles (hip internal rotation) making it harder for players to get one past the netminders. There may have also been some help with the evolution of the equipment they now wear.
Why the Change?
The goal of dropping into the butterfly is to cover as much of the bottom of the net as possible. The wider a goalie can spread his/her feet, the wider the butterfly position and the more net covered. We often see goalies stretching, and stretching, and stretching some more to become more flexible to make unthinkable saves. There is also the possibility of the body adapting to the stress applied from the position to make it easier and more comfortable for the goalie in certain positions of hip flexion and internal rotation. The issue then becomes they have all of this extra range of motion but aren’t able to access it.
What does the research say?
A recent study (Frayne et al., 2015) looked at hip range of motion in goalies. One interesting finding is shown below. We can see that they looked at active and passive hip ROM (although I’m not sure I agree with how this was measured), and found that when goalies drop into the butterfly, they are typically exceeding their active range of motion but not their passive. They also identified a positive relationship between hip internal rotation and butterfly width, suggesting that more IR meant a wider butterfly. The results of this study suggest that goalies are not accessing their full IR range potential, and not accessing their full butterfly width potential.
Frayne, R. J., Kelleher, L. K., Wegscheider, P. K., & Dickey, J. P. (2015). Development and verification of a protocol to quantify hip joint kinematics: an evaluation of ice hockey goaltender pads on hip motion. The American journal of sports medicine, 43(9), 2157-2163.3 Ways to Increase Butterfly Width
Now, some of you might stop here and start stretching and cranking on your hips to increase internal rotation. Stop right there! Remember, when they drop into the butterfly, they still have some range of motion left, but aren’t able to access it because they either aren’t strong enough or don’t know how. Try these 3 exercises to increase your hip IR strength and train yourself to improve your active hip IR for a wider butterfly.
References
Frayne, R. J., Kelleher, L. K., Wegscheider, P. K., & Dickey, J. P. (2015). Development and verification of a protocol to quantify hip joint kinematics: an evaluation of ice hockey goaltender pads on hip motion. The American journal of sports medicine, 43(9), 2157-2163.