Why You Should Stop Using “Bag Skates” as a Coaching Tool

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Why You Should Stop Using "Bag Skates" as a Coaching Tool

There are better ways to motivate your team.

The bag skate.

If you’ve played hockey, you’ve probably been put through one.

Maybe your team wasn’t focused. Maybe they weren’t working hard enough. Maybe someone stepped out of line and broke a team rule.

Maybe the coach was just having a bad day.

Whatever the case, the bag skate is the act of skating a team, without pucks, to the point of exhaustion.

The most famous type of a bag skate is a “Herbie.” It’s the famous skating you see in the movie ‘Miracle’ after a lacklustre loss to Norway. Herb Brooks yells “again” and Craig Patrick blows the whistle to start a Herbie.

“Herbie” = Goal line –> near blue line –> back to the goal line –> red line –> back to the goal line –> far blue line –> back to the goal line –> far goal line –> back to the goal line.

Perhaps this was an effective tool for a coach back in 1980. But now? Well it’s old school and we’ve come up with better ways to teach players a lesson.

There are better ways to motivate your team . . .

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