Why do goalies bring their glove up when catching a puck? Is it just natural or is their a reason?

Question

You know what a goalie makes a glove save that their hand goes in an upward motion to catch the puck. Why not go in a downward or sideways motion.

Answer 1

well the puck is often above the glove duh!

Answer 2

its just a follow through, it must be easier to move that way, cuz to begin his hand is by his side. he doesnt have enough time to bring his hand up and then bring it down.

a goalies got to react in .5 seconds.

Answer 3

The easy answer is because the puck comes at you from ice level in an upwards direction.

As a goalie I was taught to act as if I had a flashlight on my glove shinning on the puck. What I mean by that is the closer the puck is to you the lower your hands should be also they should be tilted facing the puck.For a goalie wear your hands go are as important as your angles, it is part of your "positioning" as a keeper of the crease.

Answer 4

Momentum.

Answer 5

I've played goalie for a couple years. Catching a puck that is going really fast is hard. If you swipe down at the puck and you can not handle it the it could possibly go in or there is a really good rebound opportunity. They swipe up be cause if they can't get it it will hit the post or go over the net.

Answer 6

They go upward because there hand starts low and they move there hand up to make the save.  Also they hold there glove in the air to show the ref they have the puck

Answer 7

So that they don't drop the puck. With the upward motion the puck will stay in the glove.

Answer 8

The puck is not shaped like a ball... it is a weird shape to glove and it is heavy.  The natural reaction is to catch it with an upward motion, to balance the weight... someone throws you something oblong and heavy then believe me you will instinctively catch it in a upward motion if it comes at you fast.  You tend to over compensate for that.

Some goalies (like Hasek and Roy) tended to over exaggerate the motion and go into a Statue of Liberty pose... but for most goal tenders it is natural (it was natural for them too but they held it too long in that position and exaggerated it).  You know when it is a pose.

Answer 9

Well if you think about it and this is obvious so i dont know what your thinking

They stand in the middle of the net to make sure one side of them dosent expose more of the net then the other and same with the glove its between the crossbar and ground  and to go in a sideways motion would most likely mean its going wide and to go downward is slow and would usually mean its low enough for their pad to save it so they go upwards to glove the highs ones

Answer 10

Reactionary force.

The puck is always shot from the ice surface, meaning the only way it can go is up. A fast movig puck is going to apply a force to the arm of the person catching it in the direction of motion to the puck, which is up and back. If the goalie moves his glove in a direction contrary to the force, he is going to simply bat the puck down in front of him. Not a good thing.

Plus, by starting your glove low, it takes out any question of which way you will need to move your arm, up or down. It's always up, making your reaction quicker.

To look at it another way, if a boxer leans back while being punched, he lessens the blow. Boxers who get caught leaning into a punch usually end up on the canvass.

Answer 11

Shots are fired at goalies sometimes over 100 miles an hour, and unlike baseball catchers, a goalie doesn't know where it's going. So goalies keep their gloves in a spot, usually out to the side, where they can best react to any shot, up, down or to either side. The shots are so fast they have to stab at the pucks in a nanosecond, so most times the momentum of the arm movement takes the goalie's glove a lot higher than where he actually caught the puck.

It's only natural that a goalie would bring their glove up when a shooter is trying to hit the top of the net. And these days most goalies spend a lot of time on their knees in a butterfly position, so they have to reach up for a higher percentage of shots.

Answer 12

As a goalie I know you must do the fastest thing that comes to you, if you see a puck flying to your upper left shoulder we instinctivly do the fastest way of saving the shot by catching the puck mid-air, then we bring it down and hold it on the ice so it won't get stolen, it's just usualy the faster way. Plus it looks cooler :D

Answer 13

Its natural instinct, the  goalie moves his body in the path of the puck to prevent the other team from scoring a goal. Its that simple!

Answer 14

It really has to do with mechanical motion.

It was an extension of the motion. I would at times have my glove hand low and in response to the shot, I'd have to raise the glove as fast as necessary and as a result the momentum was easier to stop by continuing up and arcing down toward the torso rather than trying to stop suddenly.

In baseball it is similar to the follow through that a pitcher does after releasing the pitch. You'd be risking injury if the goalie stopped his glove hand after snaring the puck just as a pitcher would if he froze as soon as he releases the ball.

I also tried to keep the glove hand away from the opening of the net in case I lost my grip of it.

Answer 15

For one thing, they dont always bring their glove up 2 catch the puck, they sometimes move their glove sideways to snatch a puck going toward the post and they move their gloves down to catch a slow moving puck and stop play. The ONLY time a goalie makes a glove save going upward is when the puck is either over their head or their glove is way too low. The movement is somewhat both they let it keep going so they dont strain a muscle and to look flashy.

Answer 16

man what kind of question is this? i know a dumb one

Answer 17

i think the only reason for this is goalies try and look good by making everyone in the arena think that they made a good catch when the puck was just like shot into their glove.

Answer 18

Theres two reasons that i do it 1. because when ur making a glove save ur arm is going up so its just a reaction thing to catch the puck, and two you throw ur arm up really high to make it look like you just robbed the guy.  For example if he shot it low glove side you want to make it look like he went top shelf cuz noone can tell where they shot it unless its on replay. :)