what is bag skating

Bag skating is a term used in ice hockey to describe a special exercise in which players skate hard without pucks until the coach believes they have made their point. It is a form of punishment or a way to motivate players to work harder. Bag skating can take various forms, but it usually involves skating unthinkable patterns for unimaginable periods of time. Some examples of bag skating include laps of hard skating around the rink for prolonged periods, hard skating from end-to-end or side-to-side, or Russians (goal line to blueline, back to goal line to centre line, and so on) . The term "bag skate" is believed to have originated from the old days when trainers would place plastic or paper bags rink side because they knew some players would need a place to heave in exhaustion after the grueling workout. However, the exact origin of the term is unclear.