Amazing Athletic Feats

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1. 1
   

   Kyle

   February 15, 2013 at 7:31 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment

   I would argue those saves are more a matter of having proper body and glove positioning than having fast reflexes or quick movements. Granted a shitte load of training goes into making that positioning instinctive; but even the best goalies can’t move at a hundred gajillion mph. For my money, saves with no rebound in traffic make a top notch NHL goalie.

2. 2
   

   bluefoot

   February 15, 2013 at 8:40 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment

   Several years ago, a museum in my home town had and exhibit that included video from helmet cams on the players of the local NHL team, cut together for about 20 minutes of hockey. They projected the video onto a huge expanse of wall in one of the galleries, giving a somewhat-larger than life-size on-ice perspective.

   The view from the goalie was insane. There’s so much traffic on the ice, especially in front of the net, I was surprised goalies can ever see pucks coming at them. There were slapshots that couldn’t be tracked by the video because 30 fps is too damn slow for the speed the puck was moving. It was crazy stressful just watching it. These guys are *amazing.*

3. 3
   

   Cuttlefish

   February 15, 2013 at 1:18 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment

   It always irritated me to hear baseball fans claim that the most difficult thing in sports was to hit a major league fastball. I’ll go with the goalie every time.

4. 4
   

   slc1

   February 15, 2013 at 5:31 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment

   Re Cuttlefish @ #3

   That depends on how much movement there is on the fastball. A pitch that starts out at the belt and is letter high or better by the time it gets into the hitting zone is pretty fuckken tough to hit. Also a curve ball that starts out belt high and ends up around the shoe laces in the hitting zone is also pretty fuckken tough to hit. Just ask anybody who had to hit against Sandy Koufax some time.

5. 5
   

   Cuttlefish

   February 15, 2013 at 8:31 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment

   sic1@#4–but it doesn’t come out of nowhere; there aren’t a bunch of players intentionally blocking your view of this pitch; there aren’t people ready to take your head off if you make a wrong move. If everything you say is true (and it is), it describes something that could be the case in a given slapshot in hockey! Except, of course, a pitch is limited in time (there are no balks in hockey, and in hockey there is a non-zero probability that *any* possession could lead to a shot on goal) and there is very little that anyone but the pitcher can do to influence the result of that pitch.