The Bag Skate

Do we honestly believe that NHL coaches bag skate their teams, after a poor performance? Far, and by large, they don’t…so why bag skate a kid? The players are not the same, now, as they were in 1985. Mental engagement & conditioning isn’t the same and athletic sciences have learned tons since 1985.

Pulling the Herb Brooks move just doesn’t work. Will players fear a coaches retaliation…yes. But, they probably already view the coach as the authority. Will players remember their errors, in the next game, because they bag skated? Unlikely. So, what is accomplished by sending kids up and down the ice for an hour, besides wasting time that could have been spent on development?

Well, coaches are certainly entitled to run practices as they see fit. But, ice time is expensive in all markets. Getting into non-traditional markets, the ice time is still expensive and far more difficult to access. So, why waste it on 1) conditioning and/or 2) disciplinary action?

Why the bag skate? Let’s be honest…it’s a power trip. Something, during the game, made the coach angry. And, probably 50% of the coaches even preach to their kids not to lose their temper in a game, putting a team on a PK. But, the coach did that exact thing they told the team not to do…they got angry. And, the result, bag skates for the players. Some coaches even bag skate their teams because the coach was thrown out of a game for excessive penalties. Guess what…that’s on the coach, too. Coaches probably kept putting out the “best players†even when they had 3-4 penalties, and kept sitting the kid who is an average player with 0-1 penalties. Y’know, because the coach wanted to win. So, how does this create a team problem that warrants bag skating?

Is there a better idea?

Should poor performance be addressed? Yes, absolutely, always, without a doubt. Not even getting into skill differentials there is a mental toughness in hockey players that is not abundantly present in many other sports. But, that data can be uploaded to the player in many ways. Maybe consider video analysis? If the Team isn’t already reviewing tape, they are behind. Maybe weekly report cards. This is an increasingly common activity in junior hockey. Be creative in giving performance reviews to players, both at the team and individual levels.

Using ice time for disciplinary action is unlikely to gain a teams compliance. In fact, it really is more likely to make them simply not like hockey. Look at the player attrition rates which largely start at 13U through 16U. And, when do bag skates really start? Probably some reason that the numbers largely coincide.

Conditioning is certainly one of the worst applications of ice time. Conditioning is best handled off-ice. Weight rooms, tracks, hills, stairs, boxing rings, and all of the related can better serve conditioning.

Soooo…

Admittedly, there can be value in the bag skate. Not unlike military basic training, exceptional character traits can show themselves. And, sometimes the deepest bonds are developed in times of suffering. But, perhaps the bag skate just needs to be used in more selective applications.

Perhaps instead of using ice time for disciplinary action or conditioning, why not utilize an off ice program? Really, most teams have captains who could be leading the off ice (keeps the coach from running, physically and leading). Poor team performance…schedule a disciplinary run after practice, the following week. Poor team conditioning…hill sprints before practices. Keep the ice separate from the conditioning and discipline. In return, teams get to use the full ice time to develop skills and systems.