FloorballCentral.Org

The Invitation to Tomah Open 2012

2012-01-27T10:24:00.002-06:00

Regulations, GUIDELINES

&
Information - Tomah Open

Date, Time and Location: Tomah High School, Saturday and Sunday April 14-15 th. Any Middle school Teams and Elementary teams play Sunday 15th - other teams Saturday the 14th. 2012, from 10.30 AM. First game tentatively starts at 11.00 AM. The number of conferences will be decided upon number of teams in each conference. Conferences might be merged, too.

LAST day to sign up March 26th.
Game format: 3 on 3 players plus one goalie (exception in advanced conference see below), regulation size nets with goalie and max. 3 (4 in advanced conf) subs per team - max number of players in a team is 7 (9 in advanced), time per game approx. 20-40 minutes in total divided in two half's, depending on the number of teams participating. The idea is that with a relatively low number of players on the field there will be more need for substitutes and more goals - so this may be slightly more strenuous as Your normal practice. At this venue it is possible to play 4 on 4 - but with the idea to have several short games and more scoring - it is preferred to play 3 on 3. The Advanced conference play on a slightly larger venue - 4 on 4 with Goalies. The SIL league in Sweden is very successful, as they play according to this concept. No, un-decided games - if a draw at full time a shot-out with 3+3 penalties until one team wins.

Team Format: Both Female and Male players welcome, players must be at least be 14 years old or at least be in the freshmen year at High School for conferences Saturday 14th.
On Saturday April 14th we play teen adults in three conferences: A) Rec - Floorball, B) Intermediate and C) Advanced. The teams themselves decide upon their own strength. A conference is open if 3 teams or more sign up. If not enough teams in one conference teams in this group will be moved to higher conference. For the advanced conference - we will play 4 0n 4 with goalie on a slightly larger court (still not full size Floorball). Max subs here four so max team size is fixed at 9 players.
Sunday April 15th, we play three school conferences; Elementary, Middle school/Junior High, and High school. The elementary conference and the middle school conference play four on four with small nets and no goalie. In case of not enough teams for a conference in the two youngest conferences - these will be merged to one conference. In case of not enough High school teams any team from this group will merge to the Recreational conference - and instead play on April 14th - the Saturday - one day earlier. So any High school team must verify on what day to play on - as soon as the sign up dead-line has passed. N.B. High school teams are allowed to sign up directly in the rec conference too if they prefer to do so.

Referees/Rules: Mr. Aaron Fiedler, from Wausau will be Head of Referees as well as head of instructions about the rules being used. Rules will mainly be in accordance to regular Floorball rules with minor simplifications. We aim to mark crease for goalies as well as perhaps height marks on the walls for balls going too high (tentative). We plan to educate and hire referees from Soccer and or other sports.
All players must show these NEW referees full respect and accept their judgement. Remember this is refs with experience from other sports - they still are new to Floorball.

Meetings: Before the tournament (or each conference) a quick referee meeting where the Head Ref will go through the rules used for the tournament - all assigned refs are mandated to participate. Directly followed by a short 5 minute “all players meeting”.
A quick ceremony for the winners after the tournament is the aim.

Team Sign Up: Any team listed in one conference a previous year may not sign up for a lower conference. The last sign up date and day for post stamped team fees to Tomah Parks & Rec. is March 26th, 2012. You may start to sign up today.

Enclosed Team information form - MUST BE FILLED IN -and Check or Cash is to be mailed to:
The enclosed Team information form - we also hope to post online at this address
http://www.floorballcentral.org/p/tomah-open.html

Fee: 10 dollars per player (makes this also America’s most affordable tourney we think). Elementary and Middle school teams pay $5 per player.

The City of Tomah
The Director of Parks and Rec
819 Superior Avenue
Tomah, WI 54660

The valid team sign up must include the following items:
A) Team Name, including the name of the leader or coach
B) Team Roster i.e., Player Names (4-7) (for Advanced teams 5-9 players), including assigned goalie(s) - two assigned per team
C) Shirt Color
D) Paid Fee 10 dollars per signed up player, min. sign up fee per team $40
E) Team email contact and phone number
F) Indication if you can pick up a “free agent” to your team or not
G) Your own rating of the team from “recreational - to - advanced”

We do not ask players to have a numbered shirt or Jersey - but it is good if this is possible. Pennies are supposed to be provided.

Free Agents: Some players may not be able to form a full team so we may also try to form a pool of free Agents and as soon as we have 4 - to 7 players - these may be assigned to a “united” team. We can at this stage not promise that this will work - but we do want to accommodate for players without a full team. Free agents must pay and sign up to The City of Tomah in the same way as a team - with names on the roster.

Goalies: Goalies will not be allowed to play without a good face mask. Goalie equipment may be scarce - in particular for more recreational aimed teams. So if any team have extra pants, cups, elbow or knee pads, hockey helmets with face cage or other good equipment - please maybe You want to bring this so others may share, if possible? Floorball goalie equipment is preferred.
Using Hockey gear or similar You may have elbow pads, a cup, a big Hockey style Jersey and preferably a thicker Shirt to have under, a helmet and face-mask - if You add good knee pads for Volley ball (not the best to recommend, but a basic and “become sore” solution) - maybe a good pair of garden gloves - in principle - then You only need to find a pair of long padded pants to be fully set. In worse case a team with no Goalie, that wants to play may be tentatively considered to “borrow” a Goalie from other teams - but we do want to avoid this and prefer that each team use their own goalie.
NB, Last year one team goalie used hard shell knee pads - from Hockey or similar. This is not allowed under any circumstances since it scratches the floor and we might not be able to run this tourney again!

Boards: No boards, we will use the walls.

Tournament format: Depends on number of teams signed up in each conference - but the intention is to have all players to play at least 1,5 hours of Floorball, divided into a group round and a set of finals. Minimum four games for a team is the aim but not guaranteed. This is to be announced in more detail at a later stage as the deadline for sign up is past due and we have the final number of participating teams. The number of teams and how we divide these into groups or even conferences, length of games etc will all determine the tournament format. It is crucial that You rate your team as recreational, intermediate or advanced - this will help us decide on the tournament format.
This is what we wrote last year - “We do think we will have in-between 4 -10 teams - but this is up to you. How many teams can you send? Above 12 teams we will reach the limit.” We had 12 teams. For this year we hope for 12-16 teams but it would not surprise us if we have 20 teams.
Our solution is to use the best possible attitude we may have.

Doping, Swearing and Code of Conduct: As a gentleman's (and woman's) agreement - no doping. But if someone obviously is under influence of a substance or in other ways disturb this activity or do not follow the rules at the venue or not use a normal code of conduct he/she will be asked to leave the premises immediately. The referee is responsible for misconduct related to his/hers “own” game - game misconduct is to be reported to head ref. Mr. Fiedler.

Awards: Most of the tournament fee will go towards nets/goals for Tomah. But we will try to aim at producing a T-shirt and at least something more special for the Champions. At this point we do not dare to make any promises at all in this respect. It would be great if Chicago could bring back the Trophy - so we could pass it on to the new winner in the Advanced conference.

Insurance: Any player or team is not insured or protected by the Tomah Parks and Rec department or by anyone else related to this activity - in case of an accident or other mishap. All players teams must rely on their own solutions, insurance etc and assume their own risk related to participate in this activity.

Miscellaneous: A Goalie may double up, that is play goalie in one team and play as a field player on another team. This to help more teams to have access to a goalie. Assigned field players may only play for one team. As a goalie is supposed to play a game between “both” his/hers teams - he/she must assume the primary goalie position.
The Rooster for a team can be changed until before the game starts as long as any new players pay their fee. Any paid fees will not be refundable.

We plan to run concessions during Saturday 15th. With Hot Dogs, Home baked items and stuff. We will also have a little mini Floorball store up and for other activities - we are open to all your suggestions.
We hope to find someone to sing the national anthem and we will invite the Tomah Mayor to come and inaugurate this years tournament, lets see if that all works ;-)

Expectations: We dream of more teams and that we have a few teams that travels even a bit further this time ;-)

Purpose: The main purpose is to have fun and come together. If we at the same time can determine the first ever very in-official Mid-West Floorball Champion “SIL-Style” - and maybe a “Rec Conference” and “Intermediate Champion” too - lets do it!
You are Invited and we look forward to see You - and Good Luck to You All!

Questions: ulfjens@gmail.com or 608-377-2217. Further information will be sent out as soon as the deadline is past due, we have the valid email list for participating teams and we have shaped the format of the tournament, in groups, conferences or how we design the tourney based upon the teams signed up. ETA about one week before the tournament. By pasting the following link into a browser you should not get lost. http://maps.google.com/maps?q=highschool&ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=h&sll=43.977746,-90.516701&sspn=0.019116,0.033088&rq=1&ev=zi&radius=0.99&split=1&hq=highschool&hnear=&ll=43.97753,-90.512238&spn=0.019888,0.033088&z=15
You may print your own directions. A) Marks Tomah High School in the map as of above.

Disclaimer: Anything and all in this invitation may change without further notice. This is mainly a presentation on what we aim for. We do appreciate your input on this, see questions as of above.

Sincerely

M Borg, AFiedler & J Protz

Tomah Fury (a possible future club),
The Wisconsin Floorball Federation (an interim board is forming)
The City of Tomah, Parks & Rec.

NB: The form to fill in is posted below this post!

Form to Sign up for Tomah Open is out!

2012-01-27T09:57:00.000-06:00

This Frame does not act very good here - and with different computers and different screen size material - we also offer the native link to this form: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dDNSdXpzRkk4MTd0QXBxa1N1WGFETVE6MQ#gid=0

Full Invitation is to be out soon
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Frontier Floorball

2012-01-26T21:35:00.000-06:00

Frontier Floorball?
Yeeah, that is exactly what it sounds like, to try to build a sport - when there is no Big TV Floorball games - no main articles with pictures in the local news-paper and not very much material on-line, at all, that cover the activity in your very own area or at the National level.
So how do you do this?
Well first of all as many Floorballers know the sport/game has many inbuilt features that are just "deng" attractive and many players love it. That is fine. But then the harsh reality is that as a "Frontier Floorballer" you must not only make the game stick but you must also attract new players.

Americans love the expression hard work. I think that is good - but I myself am a bit too lazy, so I prefer "Smart Work", even so, the reality is that you must continually work with new fliers to attracts players to the game and yes you also must convince some people in person to come and try the game, and to come back to the game.
There is two main parts to this A) the part of Attraction - and B) To keep the players in the game.
Today I want to focus on the second part. I think it is essential that you know your players first names, including all the kids, and that you call them by their first name as well as you provide tonnes of good feedback as they play. This just to use common sense - and build confident players - in what they do.
And, hey to me it is obvious that you build at the base - in other words with the youngest ones.

But here is the new thing I want to share, on care and respect. Sometimes it does not take much to do the little extra thing and it is almost free of charge.
So in Tomah we just came up with a new thing - a little "letter of recognition" that we will sign and give to all our youngest players. To show respect, to build community, and to show them that we care a little bit extra.

Here is how this may look like and I think we will use this letter to all our youngest players this Sunday:
------------------

Letter of Recognition/

Dear XXX XXXX

Tomah Fury wants to recognize you as a Floorball player. The club (in the making) is happy to not just see you play with us but also to see how you develop your own Floorball skills week-by-week. We think physical exercise is good for people of all ages, even if it might hurt sometime as a player falls or is hit by the ball. We also think that Floorball is fun and we hope you agree with us.
This letter is for you - and it is our note that try to show how much we appreciate that you play with us.

Thank You

Tomah Fury

---

This will be in the name of every single player, signed by the club (still in the making here) and we will put a few logos at the end too.
Do you think other sports/games in our community are doing this? I do not think so, but I am not certain - so this could be another reason why Floorball should lead the way.

Why do we share this - we think it will have a positive impact on what we try to do - and according to the idea of working a bit smarter - well as we share the ideas we have to make things work even better....
I sounds kind of smart and lazy enough for me.

MB

Caltech

2012-01-26T09:14:00.001-06:00

Look at this - serious development
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/world-cup-floorball

Here is an "extensive" ;-) text that describes this event, well at least a link...;-)
http://www.usafloorball.org//index.php?action=news_read&ID=352

New post on "frontier Floorball" will be up later today... or Friday...

University?

2012-01-26T00:25:00.003-06:00

First, I think they should change the name to "Multiversity" instead.
It just make more sense.
Anyway if you run a University - or if you happen to be the general of a main Floorball Federation - and have background from for instance a US University in, lets say Kansas...
Cough cough.
Now the reader should guess who I think about and fill in a name in the comments after this post.

Anyway there is many profiles that match this - and then you may definitively not miss this:
http://wufc2012.com/en/

And
Surprise Team USA will join this time. May that possibly be from a school out west perhaps - at this point I do not know? Are we breaking the news that USA will participate in the Floorball tourney at the Universiade here? More to come I guess..

MB

Spanish Closed Captioning

2012-01-24T09:33:00.001-06:00

Or third most read post on this blog is written in Spanish - and you know what - it still gains some serious traffic.
Here is a Czech video - now with Spanish subtitles;

Live Video, test

2012-01-23T23:28:00.000-06:00

I saw that Gothia Cup in Sweden used Bambuser to let their players and/or spectators stream live video from Floorball games recently - using smart phones. Hmm interesting now we have tried it out too.
Last evening at the local high school we took some video from a smart phone that was not on a wifi connection - but we streamed it live - poff - up to our facebook page.
You may find the video here https://www.facebook.com/FloorballCentral?ref=tn_tnmn

The quality is not good but I think half of this relates to the fact the we used a 3G phone connection plus I am not convinced that the phone is fully designed to make videos with. So it looked bad, kind of. Then also with a direct live feed - with no producers and only one camera angle. Yepp it is not TV yet.

Did someone watch our feed? Ha we had two live views - and about 20 people have seen the clip since it was streamed - nope this is not super-bowl yet. But to be honest I think it might crazily enough become a very big thing in the future...
Let's say that you instead use a Go-pro or other HD camera and you hook up over wifi (this school does not provide wifi) or use a wire straight into the Internet - LAN style. Then I can imagine that the next development step would be that you have 3-4 cameras and that the viewer, either manually or automatically - use a function that switch in a nice pattern between different cameras.. as a real producer do on live TV.

The future sure will look different and it is not only Floorball I talk about as I say this.

Should other leagues or tournaments use or at least try this? If you care about Floorball and you think it is right to spread the word. The answer is yes. But the next test we want to see here should be from someone that has a WiFi connection at their venue. Bambuser works from both smart phones and laptops - but I recommend that you hook up a good camera to that laptop.

Then there is always the commercial version of Bambuser too but we do not know how that works and what benefits comes with that package.

Lets see how good this might become - and yes - if there is any sport that should do things like this - it should be the new ones - right... ;-)

Wanna know more - start here http://blog.bambuser.com/

MB

General Update

2012-01-21T23:23:00.002-06:00

Logo for Tomah Open 3 on 3 tourney in WI

I will tomorrow try to make the initial test of sending live streamed Floorball direct to the floorballcentral facebook page. It will not be long - but I want to see how it works as a tool. I will try to see if I might get some of the very youngest play floorball in front of the cam... If this works it will happen between 5 and 6 PM central time. After this we will report on how it worked.

Our new store "Twigs for Grab" should be fully working this week - and it would not surprise me if you already may place orders, but this will be expanded over time and we will not advertise this store until we have all connections in place.

The work on the final invitations, some local posters and more for the April 14th Tomah Open is under way.
And I need to fix some sort of logo right now... Yupp this will do - at top as intro to this post right now...

In other recent news. Houston Texas just opened a Facebook page today on Floorball and it seems like the Hockey Jam sessions in Vancouver had a great day - more on this on the Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/FloorballCentral
That page is going haywire, by the way, with 51 people talkin' about it - I think Facebook perhaps might be the tool to use to spread the light about Floorball.
SO - Keep up the buzz!

Must also admit that I start to get interested in the GoPro Hero 2 Cam - it is the cam they use for helmet video of Floorball. Hmm....

MB

Magical Games 2010

2012-01-20T09:05:00.001-06:00

Hey, Do you remember the largest Floorball happening of 2010. The Magical Games from Finland?
Either you do or not - here is a little reminder - just before we head into the Qualifications to WFC for 2012.

In the case you like this link - we would advice you to - share it with friends on facebook etc - do not just sit there and watch ok?
http://www.flickr.com/search/show/?q=final&w=55431179%40N07

Photo: Mikko Hyvärinen, Juhani Järvenpää and Jari Turunen

X3M TWIST EXPLODE

2012-01-19T10:13:00.002-06:00

from the Club-house

Floorballpro takes on lesson responsibility

2012-01-19T08:28:00.001-06:00

Floorball Rules: Stick Contact from FloorballPro Inc. on Vimeo.

We will re-run a couple of these from Floorballpro, link as of above, with their kind permission. This is fully excellent material and it is just the way to go - add content of extra value to the main outlet hub on the web in Canada.
Not only Good work Floorballpro - it is excellente galore!

POST number 2001

2012-01-18T22:42:00.000-06:00

Hopefully we do not have Hubris, yet. Na, we are just now trying to experiment with live chat on the blog. This is a quick exploration that probably will last a few weeks or so. I do not think I am online enough time to run an online chat. But since the Facebook page is doing so very very well - maybe Meboo can add some extra spice to this blog?
Try it and see if I can figure out on how to reply if - I happen to be online... ;-)
I prefer questions related to Floorball.

MB

Why in the world would anyone be crazy enough and travel far to play Floorball in Tomah?

2012-01-18T10:10:00.001-06:00

Andy led Holey Balls from Horicon, WI to Victory in the
TORO Conference in last year's Tomah Open

Last year we arranged a little 3 on 3 tourney, with goalies, played in Tomah WI. It was a huge success with teams from three states and we involved some 100 people in total.

This year we will expand the number of conferences and invite people to travel even further.
Saturday April the 14th, 2012 is the date - and if - in case we have some school teams - well we will play these conferences the following Sunday the 15th.

Why would anyone do this?
Let us first sum up why You should NOT do this.:
A) We do not have real boards - so we use the walls to play against. (still a bit tentative)
B) Our refs were trying hard last year but we want to do this better, way better. So for this year we will try to hire refs from similar sports like Basketball, Ice Hockey or maybe Soccer. This most likely means that our referees still will be at the “entry level”.
C) We are not a professional organization and we are not sanctioned by the US Floorball Federation - so we may only try.... just a little bit harder.
D) We can not promise professional nets at this time - but the nets will be at the right size - at least.
E) We might need your help too - to get this thing through in the best possible way!

But: Beside of all that!
Here is the reasons why you must come to Tomah.
A) We think this is the only 3 - on - 3 tourney in America so far. This means non-official American Championships, dude ;-). (however there are discussions going on right now to perhaps expand the advanced group to 4 on 4 teams with goalies and play at a larger venue... hold out for now)
B) Games hold high standard so there will be lots of things to learn from some very skilled players (think about Chicago for instance they're good)
C) It is easy and cost efficient to travel with a team of 4-7 players (most people should fit into one van)
D) Right next to Tomah is where you find Wisconsin Dells, 40 minutes down the road, where you have some of Americas largest and most impressive indoor water-parks. http://www.wisdells.com/ (they call it themselves the Waterpark capitol of the world).
E) In case you fly in, well I do think there is plenty of things to see both in Chicago or Minneapolis too, and Tomah is located right in-between - with train connections and buses in both directions. But hey, check out that schedule before you board a plane, since the train only goes one trip per day.
F) We dream about International teams visiting Tomah for this tourney (but only dreams at this point). lol, and maybe we must keep on dreaming? You may change that!
G) We do this to promote Floorball in the USA/Midwest, and if you participate - you will contribute to a good cause - by just being here.
H) We plan to open up the conferences so players from the elementary school level to high school - from recreational players via, intermediate and to advanced players will play in their own brackets - as long as each conference have three teams. The philosophy is to have open conferences and then see who signs up, instead of the opposite. We aim for many winners and we believe all teams will play other teams at similar levels. If a conference does not fill up we will move the teams around and make accommodations.
I) We do this because we think it is fun.
J) If you need one more reason or you are a single player with no team - contact ulfjens(at)gmail.com and we will try to figure something out for you. NB replace the at with @ and no brackets so the mail goes through!!
K) Our attitude is - we will make this happen - you might have to be a bit flexible too.
L) All teams will be playing at least about 1.5 hours of strenuous Floorball against players and teams you have never played before.

Interested? Keep us posted and we will send an invitation to you.

Never tried more well "serious" Floorball before? - Well this is your chance - in particular if you play Hockey! Floorball kind of tend to be the best support-sport for Hockey there is. So do not blame us in the case you did not already knew this, ok.
Invitations are supposed to be out in one to two weeks time or so - And Sign-up is to take place during March,,,
all in all, still a bit tentatively. Hold out!

N.B. This is not the Invitation - it is only Advertising so far

;-p

Sincerely

Tomah Fury

2012-01-17T16:11:00.003-06:00

Floorball Madness
FLOORBALL TOURNAMENT 2012
General Information:
The tournaments will be played Saturday February 4, 2012 in Huntington Beach California. The tournament offers 1 adult co-ed division.
MAXIMUM 8 TEAMS, invitation only.
The Floorball Mandness Tournament is presented by FloorballGear.Com, www.floorballgear.com
In cooperation with Floorball Hockey America, The-Rinks Huntington Beach. Tournament Sponsors
FloorballGear.com, Unihoc - Zone - Reactor, LogOnFixIt.com - HomenLoans.com
REGISTRATION DEAD LINE
February 1, 2012, Venue: The Rinks Huntington Beach.
Tournament contact:, Erik Larsson – 714-493-9980 - erik@floorballgear.com

We picked up a tweet here

2012-01-17T14:06:00.001-06:00

Roger Neilson Hockey @RNeilsonsHockey15h

See why Roger Neilson's Hockey supports Floorball and incorporated it into our programs almost 3 years ago!fb.me/1aHd16obe

Do not someone come and tell me about Basketball again ok? ;-)

Ok ok ok there is nothing wrong about Basketball - but Floorball makes kind of more sense if you aim for Hockey.

It is a sad day for Floorball

2012-01-17T13:31:00.003-06:00

The IFF just announced that Brasil has withdrawn from the American WFC 2012 qualifications due to financial reasons.
http://www.floorball.org/news.asp?id_tiedote=2379

Well, this is things that happens as we grow from the early stages to the more mature development.
I am certain that both Brasil will be back stronger than ever soon. It is a pity that they do not participate - but it sounds like both the US and Canada now are qualified to go to WFC 2012.
Go Americas GO!

So come on now Brasil re-charge these batteries of yours - and Jamaica - you go for it too since Global Floorball needs you - but you know what - You need Floorball too. ;-)

Can U compare a Lacrosse stick with a Floorball stick?

2012-01-17T09:39:00.000-06:00

Lacrosse or “Lax” is the sport that journalists in the USA has a consistent history of confusing Floorball with - as Hockey players makes what we call - Zorro goals - and the journalists,, ehh call it Lacrosse. goals? Well...

This text will not explain the sport of Lacrosse due to two reasons; A) I do not know enough about Lacrosse and B) it is easy to search the subject on the Internet.

But what we will attempt to do is something that we have never seen done before. A comparison between Lacrosse sticks with - yes, Floorball Sticks.

Can these be compared? Yes and No. Perhaps the old idea of a comparison between an apple and a pear is what may come to mind?

This is how most of today’s Lacrosse sticks looks like, and what is interesting is that they do come in different lengths (depending upon if you play defence i.e. longer or not). Some Lacrosse sticks comes with the head integrated onto the shaft as in the picture of above - but most are purchased as a separate shaft and a head. How about that Floorballers? I can imagine that shipping costs will be lower if sticks are divided into a shaft and “blade part”.

Lacrosse sticks seem mainly to be made of a hexagon profile in the shaft. Their length’s are roughly as Floorball sticks at 32’ - 40’ and most Lacrosse sticks are purchased with : no - blade. The “blade” on a Lacrosse stick has a ball pocket and it is called a head. These heads are often “wired” with a mesh of straps - forming a ball pocket - that sometimes are tied in a way (with loose straps) to make them look impressive - and probably masculine?

In essence, even if it is hard to make a direct comparison to Floorball sticks.
Lacrosse sticks are heavier and the lightest shaft I have found weighed in at 185 gr, but then you - still - have to put on a head. So I think a fair estimate is that a Lacrosse stick in general are twice as heavy as an advanced Floorball stick.

One reason for the higher weight is most likely that a Lacrosse stick is used to check another stick with (read, slam in to each other) and another reason might be the weight of the Lacrosse ball - it weighs some 6-8 times more than a Floorball ball, at 140-147 gr. So most likely the need for sturdier sticks are built into this sport.

Almost all Lacrosse sticks I have seen have the typical hexagon shape

Floorball producers have a long time been working on ideas to improve their stick shafts with curves, dents and other design features to improve the “kick” or other features in the stick etc. Lacrosse sticks does not seem too advanced in this area but this is showing an “I-beam” i.e. - a Lacrosse shaft with a narrower part of the shaft to improve the stick in these respects (it is hard to see in the picture - but this shaft has a part that is narrower to improve the stick tension).

Companies like Reebok, Nike and Easton are all involved in the production or marketing of Lacrosse sticks.
This is a cool fact since we have earlier discussed the abundance of the big brands in the Floorball market.
I have tried to figure out the size of the Lacrosse stick market as in comparison to the Floorball stick market - but have not been successful.

As it comes to the graphical design I say that the Lacrosse producers have very much to learn from the Floorball side as I do find Floorball sticks to be much more graphical attractive. But some Lacrosse sticks often comes in a full range of colors and this is something I have not seen in the Floorball market - one particular Lacrosse stick (or shaft) may be offered in a full range of colors., even if it is the same stick - the customer may get it in red, blue, brown, yellow etc.. I also tend to like the loose straps that a lacrosse stick often feature on its head and maybe some loose straps at the top of a Floorball grip could possibly advance the aggressive feel of a Floorball stick too, perhaps?

It seems clear that Lacrosse sticks are a bit more expensive as compared to a Floorball stick. Or at least the upper range of more exclusive Lacrosse sticks seems to feature more versions of more expensive sticks. It is possible, for instance, to buy a shaft that cost almost 200 dollars, and that is with no head included. The most expensive head may dig further and deeper into a wallet.
The most expensive Floorball sticks on the US market - are a bit cheaper. But I do not think that is because the Floorball sticks are less advanced. I think the American market with a lower tax pressure promotes a market for more exclusive and the advanced sales of more expensive products. Or in other words maybe many American players have more money left to spend on their stick? If this is true, I think the future Floorball market in America will see sales of more expensive, exclusive and advanced Floorball sticks too - and most likely higher profits in the Floorball industry?
The trick is to make the Floorball manufacturers to grasp this - and to make them involved to build the market - through the path of building the INFRASTRUCTURE for Floorball in America.
This is not done primarily by selling sticks - it is done by building Floorball in the school system..

Could the Floorball producers take their advanced stick knowledge and make even better Lacrosse sticks? I think so - but they do need a very strong brand name to do so - and I do not think we have seen these strong brand names in the sense of marketing from the Floorball Industry as of yet. Instead the Floorball industry seems to dilute itself with even more new brand-names and producers every year. I think some consolidation and the action of big global sport brand names would be a good thing for the Floorball market.

There are Lacrosse sticks available on the market - made out of - wood (hickory - bamboo) and some leagues allows these sticks too. Metal shafts made out of aluminium etc seems to be very common too.

Caution, his text may contain errors, since the writer has never played Lacrosse. Please let us know if you may have any additional comments that would guide this content in any enhanced direction ;-).

MB

Club-house

2012-01-16T23:08:00.001-06:00

Wisconin aims to form Floorball Federation

2012-01-16T22:51:00.002-06:00

Tomah and Wausau has teamed up and will form an interim board with the aim to form a Wisconsin Floorball Federation. This work will take some time and a fully functional federation at the state level might be a reality in 2013 or beyond.
We have however already now opened up the opportunity for anyone interested in supporting this idea to become a supporting fan-member free of charge. This membership is open to anyone and you may sign up as well as read more about this initiative if you click the tab WFF as of above, or you may also click here http://www.floorballcentral.org/p/wisconsin-floorball.html

MB

Team USA is ready

2012-01-16T00:47:00.002-06:00

Team USA just presented their roster for the WFC qualifications.
We note many new names and it is also interesting to see many names that plays in the Swiss league system.
The full article is available here
http://www.usafloorball.org//index.php?action=news_read&ID=350
and we say go "heda" go.

Happee - the Movie

2012-01-15T23:07:00.001-06:00

Happee from Finland is the first team in Europe that understands the value to expose themselves as a media happening on Internet's more global scene - in other words - World Champs - according to us.

Boot Hockey

2012-01-15T22:50:00.000-06:00

California Boot Hockey Is Here!

Floorball Hockey Pick Up

Floorball Hockey America Presents

"Boot Hockey" at the Rinks in Irvine.

Get out and have some fun like when you were a kid on the ponds & gyms.

Floorball Hockey is for Everyone All Ages and It's Lot's of Fun.

Come give it a try....$5 to play and all you need is gym shoes, t shirt, shorts....and Just.....

Pick up a Stick and.......... Have a Ball!

FloorballHockeyAmerica.com

floorballhockeyamerica@gmail.com

We stole this one

2012-01-11T09:34:00.000-06:00

with the kind permission by ; http://flrball.com/drills/

Give 100 % in floorball

What makes 100%? Here’s a little funny mathematical formula, that might help you answer these questions:
If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
then:
H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%
and
K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%
but
A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

Tomah Open April 14th

2012-01-10T09:03:00.002-06:00

We have a date.
April 14th 2012 in Tomah Wisconsin we will yet again play a 3 on 3 Floorball tourney with goalies - The Tomah Open.

We plan right now to open up the tourney to 3 conferences; Advanced, Intermediate and Recreational.
If we have interest from schools we will open up conferences for both Junior high as well as High schools.
A conference must have at least 3 teams to take place.

We will try to improve the quality of the refs. in some way.

Last year 12 teams played from three states.

Further information, invitations etc will be sent out soon (within 1 -2 weeks time).
Please spread the news and get prepared.
Questions to ulfjens (at) gmail.com - replace the (at) with an @-sign and no spaces in the address pls.

MB

Toronto - starts a new season

2012-01-09T10:48:00.003-06:00

Hey, There's still time to register for floorball!
Free Rec Floorball open house this Wednesday

What's floorball? It's an exciting, safe and inexpensive indoor hockey sport suitable for players of any skill level.

Level	Game Times	Location	Registration Fees	FREE Open House
Recreational	Weds 6:30-9:30PM	La Mosaique Danforth & Greenwood	$120 or $700/team	Wed Jan 11th 7:00-9:00 PM
Intermediate	Tues 8:00-10:30PM	York Glendon Bayview & Lawrence	SOLD OUT! Starts Jan 17th	EMAIL US FOR WAITING LIST
Elite	Sun 10:00-1:00PM	Harold Brathwaite Brampton	Varies by team	EMAIL US FOR A FREE TRIAL!
Youth Int. Born 1999-2002	Fri 6:00-9:00PM	Crescent School Bayview & Lawrence	$120 Starts Jan 13th	EMAIL US FOR A FREE TRIAL!
Youth Elite Born 1996-1999	Fri 6:00-9:00PM	Crescent School Bayview & Lawrence	$120 Starts Jan 13th	EMAIL US FOR A FREE TRIAL!

Ready to register?

Surf to the online registration page now!
Registration is open for all leagues.

Want to try it first?

Attend one of the FREE open house sessions or contact us to try a free game. Just bring yourself, shorts, t-shirt & indoor shoes. Floorball equipment will be provided.

Keep in touch with us by joining the Toronto Floorball League facebook group or 'Like' thePlayFloorball facebook page. You can also follow @playfloorball on Twitter. To learn more about our leagues, check out our league website at www.playfloorball.com or call us at 416-972-9305 x101
Don't hesitate to get in touch anytime as we are always happy to talk floorball. I hope to see you on the court this year.

Juha Mikkola & The Grassroots Floorball Team

More from Canada

2012-01-09T00:53:00.001-06:00

Here is the latest on their U19 ladies team...

Canadian U19 Women's team coaching staff are pleased to announce our 20 player roster for the 2012 Women's World Floorball Championships that will take place in Nitra, Slovakia May 1st-5th.
Many thanks to all who participated in the tryouts, selection camps, and tournaments along the way that made this a difficult decission for all of us. Congradulations to all the girls.

Canadian U19 Women's Floorball Team final selection
(Five additional players were also chosen as reserves and will be released tomorrow)

Team Canada
1 MacLean, Chelsea
2 Kennelly, Brianna
3 Najem-Douglas, Naomi
4 McKinney, Christi
5 Hone, Beth
6 Johnson, Rebecca
7 Chapman, Victoria
8 Allison, Ashley
9 Tipping, CJ
10 Brown, Eryn
11 McAllister, Katie
12 Rowe, Hannah
13 Soules, Jenna
14 Valyear, Lauren
15 Ronnenberg, Karley
16 Weatherby, Taylor
17 MacLeod, Rachel
18 Eby, Kassandra
19 Linker, Katie
20 Stephanie Shore

From the Hockey-Community.com - on Floorball

2012-01-09T00:37:00.001-06:00

This release is re-printed with kind permission by the Hockey-Community

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Floorball Canada Men’s National Team Program partners with the
Hockey-Community.com to build out mobile application for Team communications and Social Media Platform.

As part of our National Team Sponsorship plan, we are aiming to deliver the very best value to our team players, staff, partners and sponsors. The Hockey Community will serve our Team needs as a
sponsor, and also help us to create tremendous traction and value connecting our players and staff to each other to our fan base and sponsor network.
The Men’s National Team will utilize the Hockey Community mobile platform to share team news, information, stories as well as sponsor information.
The Hockey Community will ensure that the Men’s National Floorball team will have a leading edge mobile technology platform to tap in to the creative trends of the Social Local Mobile -SoLoMo scene.
Facebook and Twitter are maintsream components of a sports teams’ social media strategy for information sharing, and the Hockey Comunity fuses it all together in a neat and tidy mobile platform that targets the hockey and floorball communities directly.
Follow the Team’s progress through the Hockey Community as we embark on our journey to qualify for the World Floorball Championships in Zurich and Bern, December 2012.

“From day 1 our company’s goal has been to make hockey more accessible to pros and amateurs. Enabling a team to connect Page 2properly through a mobile platform is even more important for a team that evoluates at a national level. We’ll be listening very carefully to the Floorball Team Canada’s feedback to make sure we keep our technology relevant.” Said Alex Toulemonde, CEO of Hockey-Community.com

Nate Leslie, GM of Team Canada “Our partnership with HC is innovative and exciting for Floorball Canada. After meeting with AIex we were blown anyway by his entrepreneurial spirit and knowledge of the opportunitities available through the HC platform. Floorball in Canada will grow as a result of this unique
partnership.”

Floorball Canada moves with force towards schools

2012-01-09T00:26:00.001-06:00

Floorball Canada National Teams Program
Launch Project Registration
Program Details: Mens National Team members to deliver elite ﬂoorball instruction through unique ambassador program.
Participating groups become sponsors of Team Canada as they prepare for the worldʼs championships.
Includes Floorball Canada membership for one year.

Registration:
• School or community group must provide a gym large enough to accomodate classes.
• Floorball Canada to provide equipment and National Team member instructors.
• Participants are required to wear athletic shoes and comfortable clothing.
• Program can be tailored to ﬁt existing gym schedule.

Additional Programs:
• Ask about our intramural, afterschool instruction, and local league information.
• Programs may be adapted for special needs participants
• Floorball Canada conforms to the Canada Sport for Life Model. To learn more please visit
ﬂoorballcanada.ca

- please contact greg.beaudin@ﬂoorballcanada.ca to conﬁrm local availability, and also to have the full sign-up form since this text above is only a part of the form.

Immersion

2012-01-06T08:10:00.003-06:00

A nation immersed in Floorball - the world's best cousin to Hockey.

Does not Floorball destroy Ice hockey?

2012-01-05T13:01:00.001-06:00

There are as many opinions about things - almost like there are people.
And it would not surprise us if some Hockey folks think that Floorball would "steal" players from Hockey or at least dilute their skills?

FloorballPro.com in Canada has a long time claimed the opposite that Floorball is skill enhancing and not skill diluting for Hockey players.

You need proof?
During the last 20-30 years roughly as Floorball grew strong in Sweden, it became the second largest sport and it also became very common during PE as well as in different after school programs and has been used within Ice Hockey clubs too. Kids grew all up with it.
Did this then have a negative impact on Ice Hockey?

This is quoted from the IIHF as of yesterday:
"++ Since 2006, Sweden has been the European country with the most players selected in the NHL draft. 2011 was a record for Sweden with 28. No other European nation was even close. After the draft, Toronto GM Brian Burke quipped: “You couldn’t even go to the washroom without a Swede being picked in the meantime.”

++ Since 2007-2008, Sweden has put the highest number of rookies into the NHL of all European nations. An impressive average of ten new Swedes in the NHL per year increased to a remarkable 16 in 2010-11.

++ In 2009, Sweden took over the title of “prime European producer of NHL talent” from the Czech Republic. There were 54 Swedes in the NHL in 2009-10 and 63 last season. A new record will be set when this season is over, as more than 65 Swedes have already played at least one game in the NHL in 2011-12."

Source http://www.iihf.com/channels1112/wm20/news/news-singleview-wm20/recap/6336.html?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=5150&cHash=61bc48b6d7

Hm, this site would be brave if we instead would claim that a wide Floorball culture is not good for Hockey. And we would probably be brave if we would say that Basketball is a better option as players want to reach high in Hockey.

To state that Floorball is not related at all to hockey, seems to us rather very strange position.

We are convinced about the idea that Floorball enhance skills for any level Hockey player - but also the opposite, i.e. Hockey is good for Floorball.

One more thing - you do not build a sport at the top - build at the base.

A new Swedish TV channel?

2012-01-05T12:36:00.001-06:00

Klubbhuset claim to release the worlds first Floorball TV channel.
I am not sure if everyone in the world agree on this, if they really are first - and it seems like no close captioning at this point - nor any language versions.

But here it is.
http://www.klubbhuset.tv/

Floorball Launching in full swing - Bhopal/India.

2012-01-05T09:34:00.006-06:00

Mr.Aftab Laiq Ahmed, Secretary( Bhopal Floorball Association ) just revealed that -

BFA Launching "Floorball" In Bal Bhavan School Shamla hill Bhopal.

A well known school in Bhopal MP India . Saif Ali Khan one of the top most film actors in Bollywood Industry of India, and son of Nawab pataudi was the student of this school.

Mr.Omar Faruq Ali(Secretary & Director of the school organization), himself as a Golf champion, liked it a lot and decided to adopt Floorball as one of his school games,specially for Girls,a promotion camp was organised which attracts the girls so much.Mr.Omar's sportsmen ship supported girl's excitement and he bought full equipments for the team.We wish the Bal Bhavan School "Girls" will be the first MP State Girls team.

Thanks to Mr.Aftab Laiq Ahmed for this info.

Mrinal

http://www.fb.com/floorballindia

Gothia CUP - Top of the world

2012-01-05T08:15:00.001-06:00

Here, results galore, and live feed of a couple of games
http://results.gothiainnebandycup.se/2012,sv/latest

Facts for this tourney?

Participating teams:	450
Players:	10 000
Nations:	5
Playing fields:	27
No of games:	1000

Referees:	120
Own bus lines:	7

Costume Floorball

2012-01-05T08:06:00.002-06:00

I remember a game from the 80-ies with teams including "greek nights".
Here is another one, this time from Spain.

It makes me think about how often have you seen a costume football game? Lol

FLRBALL.COM

2012-01-04T23:15:00.001-06:00

This is a Re-post from FLRBALL.COM, posted by kind permission from them. Flrball.com is driven by the people behind hockeycoach.se. This is based upon knowledge from the top level hockey and Floorball coaching.
--
Floorball – The Leadership Model – Mourinho & Waterboy
Posted on January 4, 2012

The Floorball Leadership Model – Mourinho & Waterboy = “The Mourinho Code”

About The Floorball leadership model

This is the floorball leadership and coaching model all the posts in the floorball leadership category will be based on. Let’s start the floorball leadership training journey with this first post in the leadership category. You will find the leadership model through these links as well, with an overall description of the floorball leadership model >>

Above you see my interpretation of Jose Mourinhos leadership. I have combined a few different leadership models and leadership theories to an own leadership model which I have dubbed “The Mourinho Code“ It is these leadership elements that I think Jose Mourinho is masterful in getting in place in the football teams he works with. The success of a floorball team is linked to how well you get the various blocks in place.

“We lead the league with nine points. Is it because we have been lucky? Of course not. It’s about anything else, than being lucky when you’re talking about my players. “ /José Mourinho

Floorball Teamwork = Capacity + team spirit – Co-operational Losses
The three parts in the middle are about teamwork within the floorball team, and the parts are picked from Steiner’s model, and describes the floorball group’s cooperation and the conditions to achieve results.
Steiner’s model is based on that we can strengthen within our floorball team, which is capacity and team spirit and try to minimize the third, co-operational losses. Capacity can be e.g. as equipment, training and utilization of, knowledge, skills, physical, mental skills, etc.
Team spirit can be difficult to define, it is something that exists in the group and makes the team stronger. We-esteem, security, appreciation, positive climate, could be a few key words when talking about team spirit. Co-operational Losses example as unclear roles, wrong positions on the field, bad passes, in short, all errors, which complicates and degrades the team.
Co-operational losses consist mainly of two categories, co-ordinational losses and motivation problems. Motivational losses tend to occur when the floorball team size increases, then you suddenly don’t get 100% from each team member, this phenomenon is called social loafing.

“We have top class players and, sorry if I sound arrogant, we have a coach of the highest class.” “In general terms we must think more about our football and not play by instinct.”
/ José Mourinho (See also statement, in energy block)
Floorball Results

What results have you achieved? Visualize what you have achieved, both hard and soft results. Small and Large. Short and long term.

“We’re not entertaining? Okay, I do not care: we win …“/ José Mourinho
Floorball Feedback

How was the performance? What did we do well? What could be improved? What have we learned? What do we take with us in the future? Your feedback will affect all the parts in the model, energy, direction of energry, teamwork and what results you will achieve in the future.

“We Would Have Won this game even with seven players. Maybe with six we would have struggled, but we would Have Won with seven. ” / José Mourinho

“I hate to speak about players individually. Players Do Not win trophies, squads win trophies… I love players who love to win. They not only win in 90 minutes, But Every Day, Every training session, in every moment Of Their Lives “. / José Mourinho
Floorball – Categorize your earlier knowledge

Probably you already have a good knowledge of many of the leadership blocks, this is just a way to structure it. The Jose Mourinho statements are in some case at the “edge” or even extreme and therefore you need to find your own ways of express things, but I think his statements visualizes clearly his goals/targets for the next season. The goals are clear for all involved players, people round the team, even the media and the fans.
Floorball – Analyze your teams strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – SWOT

Use the blocks to analyze your own floorball team, where you are strong and where are you lagging. You can use the model on different levels, for the whole floorball organization / club, for the team, group of players (e.g. goalies, defense or forwards) and for individual players and of course for you self as a floorball coach. It’s also suitable for the whole floorball season, each floorball practice or a floorball drill on your practice.

Why are we having this floorball drill? What’s the purpose of it? What/who do you need? What are the teaching points (to avoid the co-operational losses)? How was the result? What could you see? How did the players feel they performed? What worked well? What can be improved?

This is the floorball leadership model on an overall level and we will now start to dig into each part deeply in this floorball blog (all the posts will be categorized in – Leadership), I personally find it better to give you the whole leadership picture on an overall level before going in to the details, that’s so you don’t need to try to figure out how the picture of this puzzle looks like when you are reading the details.

I hope you get some guidance in solving “The Mourinho Code” through this floorball leadership model and the following pages in this floorballl coaching and leadership blog.

If you think you find valuable free floorball leadership material on the page and you want to support me, please make a donation (you choose the amount), I can add a link to your company, team, website or just add your name into a post if you make a donation, thank you in advance!

Floorball Leadership eBook >>

Floorball leadership model >>

Baseball, Fun, Floorball, Lesson-plan

2012-01-04T08:41:00.004-06:00

Picture courtesy of Tabyfc and shows the Scandinavian version without the diamond cones

This is a basic one. But it is very popular and used for instance in Stockholm, Sweden but slightly adopted for a Scandinavian version of Baseball called "Burnball."

Anyway this is how it goes. Divide the group into two teams. One group plays "out' and one teams plays "in".
Set up a diamond by using 3 cones, and a Floorball net with no goalie behind the batter. The outer team place themselves so they as fast as possible may catch and play the ball back into the net (score) with their sticks.
The fist batter shots as hard as possible and tries to get (run with stick) to the first cone without being burned (hit by the ball or scored in the net by the other team). A home-run earns 5 points. To improve this you might also like in Baseball use a pitcher that pass the ball to the batter, since in real Floorball - the idea to shot on a fixed ball is not very productive.
Scoring for this Baseball-Floorball session: One point for every player that makes it around the diamond and one point for every player that is "burned" as she or he is not safe at a cone. The out-field team may either shot direct or pass the ball back to score in the net.
N.B. This full lesson plan - is performed with all players using Floorball sticks and is played with one ball only.

The teams change "side" as either the inner team runs out of batters or after like 5 minutes.

We do know that the most important thing for kids that do sport is to have fun
http://www.activeforlife.ca/january-2011-enews/top-five-reasons-kids-play-sports/

This is just one of many ideas on how a Floorball session can be done with variation and this way enhance the fun factor.

Gothia Cup Innebandy and Bambuser

2012-01-03T19:07:00.002-06:00

This is seriously interesting. As the Gothia Floorball Cup starts this weekend they will let the visitors stream the games by using a service called Bambuser to make it possible for anyone with a smartphone to stream his/hers own version of the game. Poff up to a webpage!
This is revolution. This is new and this is the way to go for a new young sport like Floorball.
Go social baby ;-)

Clever work Gothia - we love it. Some folks will most likely have the bandwidth it takes to do this.. Interesting for sure.

More here on how it will work - http://www.gothiainnebandycup.se/eng/index.php/2012/01/live-broadcast-from-the-games/

A new contender to the best promotion clip for Floorball?

2012-01-03T18:51:00.001-06:00

This time from Germany. Speed, Identity, Feeling and Passion it all spells Promotion. Sure - looks good we say here at Floorballcentral.org

X3M Floorball Open Berlin 2011 from ole nowakowski on Vimeo.

Wet Glove!

2012-01-03T09:32:00.000-06:00

This is a goalie study from happee in Finland - awesome production as always.

Thesis from Spain on Floorball

2012-01-03T09:19:00.002-06:00

We came across the Spanish text summary of the first scientific thesis, by Mr. Miguel Prieto, that compare top level Swedish teams with Spanish Floorball teams in terms of offensive actions.

Some of the findings reported from this paper that compared 7 Spanish National team games and 7 Swedish National team games are presented in this scientific document.
The idea was to compare and contrast these teams since that they come with different strength (Sweden being the top notch team) and if their actions in terms of “offensive actions” would look different - and they do.

The conclusions from the study state that Floorball is a very offensive game. It also say that the goalkeeper has a very active role in the game and is involved in 80% of all “offensive actions” by the other team. However only less than 8% of the “offensive actions” results in a score.

Sweden gets, as suspected, better rates with respect to scoring, less shots blocked or failed as compared to Spain. Sweden generates more rebounds from the opponent goalkeeper, and therefore gets more second chance scoring opportunities.
Spain seems to try to take their final offensive actions from areas on the court that according to the results of this study indicate that these areas are less efficient. So it almost sounds like that they try to shot from “too hard” places on the court.
The way the shooting is explained in this study makes us believe that this paper suggest that wrist shots are more efficient than any other kind of an “offensive final action”.

The full scientific report is not released, so this summary is only written upon the abstract of this paper. The full paper is supposed also to contain suggestions to improve the game.

The source file is to be found here at the Spanish Floorball Federation
http://www.unihockey.es/index.php/descargas/category/7-otros

I will contribute too from - INDIA

2012-01-02T23:13:00.004-06:00

Hello Everyone ,

Courtesy of Mr.Michale Borg , I will now be contributing to this blog as well.

Please Let me formally introduce myself on the blog.

My name is Mrinal Naugain an Ex-Hockey player Belongs to Delhi/India.

I picked up floorball in 2008 and started playing in my school in Delhi.

Gradually It became more interesting for me to stik to floorball.

It attracts me so much that I left everything n put my self in it.

Till 2010 we were playing with the basic Execl sticks.

But In Oct 2010 I got my first little bit advanced execl Blade without a shaft(A Gift from Mr.Gill to me), so I fitted a wooden shaft on it covered with red Electric tape n Started Playing.

And when i was good enough to show something I posted a Video on Youtube.

Link- http://youtu.be/fNj8dtUd8MI

As a Result of all that I got my first proper stick sponsored by "BLAST"

Thanks to Mr.Tuomas Korhonen from Blast.

I m currently Plying for Delhi open National Team as a Captain Under the Guidens of Mr.Pradeep Singh(National Coach) my Mentor n Coach.

And One-n-Only Mr.P.s.Gill(National Organising Secretary-FFI,International Referee) who is doing

his best-Giving his best to Promote floorball in INDIA.

That's what I have to Say about me and the rest is all about floorball yet to come.

I will try to give my best keeping in mind the reputation of this blog.

Thanks

Mrinal :)
http://www.facebook.com/MrinalNaugain

VOFE or Vancouver Open 2012

2012-01-02T21:28:00.000-06:00

We heard some news about a new big thing coming up in West Canada and checked in with Greg Beaudin to see what's up:
--
Hey, Greg we have heard about a new exciting tourney in Vancouver - called Vancouver open - may you tell us more?
The Vancouver Open is more than just a tournament, it's a full-fledged Floorball experience. We are fusing some of the key areas of focus for us: 1. floorball+hockey, 2. an elite floorball showcase on a scale that has not been seen before in North America, 3. A world class International tournament 4. a National Team training camp 5. establishing the Richmond Olympic Oval as a center of excellence for Floorball development in North America.
We have some special Floorball guests from Europe confirmed and coming, but I don't want to release the Team names just yet. Let's just say that we are very excited to be hosting the best Young players in the world to Vancouver this summer.
The event is slated for the week August 4-12, with the tournament portion happening on August 9-10-11. A major summer party on the 11th at night, followed by a inner harbour boat cruise brunch on Sunday...this ties in to our theme of 'Play Hard and then Play Harder' :-)

What is your highest expectations or dreams at this point for this tournament?
The vision is this: The Vancouver Open Floorball Experience (VOFE) is the fastest growing floorball event of it's kind in North America. Tapping in to a strong partnership with the City of Richmond Sport Hosting, The Richmond Olympic Oval, BC Floorball and Floorball Canada, the VOFE will collaborate with large International iconic events such as the Czech Open and partner with the Core countries of Floorball- Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, the Czech Republic plus the IFF to raise the profile of Floorball on this Continent, which will help us solidify our collective Olympic aspirations.
Elite European Teams will come to the VOFE for training camp, a summer holiday and to market their sport to a large US and Canadian audience, all the while being surrounded by some of the world's best Floorball and sport training amenities.
The Oval can accommodate about 8 full size courts going on at one time, so we are fully scalable to grow. Richmond Sport Hosting has an impressive quantity of hotel rooms within 1000 meters of the games. The venue is 20 minutes from downtown Vancouver by skytrain. Vancouver is consistently ranked as one of the best places to live and visit, on the whole planet, so we have that working in our favour. Teams will truly enjoy their Floorball experience here.
Year 1, we have a Hockey Camp and Floorball Camp intertwined and all in one venue, (the Oval also has two NHL sized rinks under the same roof as our Floorball setup), so the logistics of doing a Floorball+Hockey camp is a dream in itself. It's important for our growth in Canada, to work tightly with Hockey.
We want the International event, the Elite, the Recreational, the Women's and the Youth divisions of the VOFE to grow organically, and that's why we capped the limit at 8 teams per division. So far, we have 4 or 5 in the Elite division and that's our main priority to fill up. The Kids groups in year one will have a lot to see and learn, so our goal there is just to show them what top level Floorball looks like.

When do you think BCfloorball will have teams signed up for the final deadline and what are some of the teams do you expect to participate?
The two European Elite Teams that we have slated to attend this Year are much too good for our Tournament, so we will treat this as a marketing exercise and showcase their skill through exhibition matches and camps. That said, we will have two Swedish teams competing in our elite division, so that will be an exciting challenge for our top teams and our National Men's Team.
Locally, we have at least two teams that will play, two teams from Sweden, our national men's team, and interest from across Canada and the USA as well. It's going to be an exciting week of Floorball, we don't compete with the Czech Open, and for next year, we will stagger our event in step with the Czech Open so that our event Champions will get to go to Prague.
I will say that we are speaking to Teams from Finland, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Sweden and the response has been great.

Is today's balls the best possible for Floorball?

2012-01-02T16:45:00.000-06:00

Lets push the ball a bit... in terms of design ideas.
The initial Floorball ball was first developed for baseball practice. But soon some improvements came along and several designs have been seen over the last decades to create the very best possible Floorball - ball. The most significant development is the dimples, or similar surface designs, it looks almost like a golfball and maybe also - the enhanced hole design in the last ball from Unihoc - could be worth to be mentioned too.

But all these designs rest upon some kind of a fixed rule book that say that the ball must have this many holes of this specific size, the ball must weigh this much and so forth? Or does it not?

This is what the rule book for Floorball state posted at the IFF:
406 Ball
1) The ball shall be approved by the IFF and marked accordingly.
The ball surface shall be single coloured in a non-fluorescent colour. Neither the inside colour of the
ball can be fluorescent

Hm. There is further a lower technical document that more precisely defines how the ball must look like. But it seems not set 100% in stone that the Floorball ball must look exactly as it does, beside of the colors as mentioned of above in the main posted rule. It sounds like the certification itself is maybe more crucial as compared to the technical design?
Well, there is a more specific technical document that precisely determines how the ball must look like to be certified:

This is from the Swedish National technical testing institute SP: Let us quote
"2.2.1 Ball Weight
The ball is to weight 23 ± 1 grams. SP's Certification Rules for IFF-marking of Floorball Equipment – SPCR 011 – January 2010 ©. 15
2.2.2 Ball Dimensions
The ball is to be designed with dimensions according to appendix 11.
The dimensions must conform to the standard.
a) ball diameter 72 ± 1 mm
b) hole diameter 10 ± 1 mm
c) the hole's internal placement at joint no requirement
d) the hole's internal placement over joint c/2 ± 2 mm
2.2.3 Ball Surface Fineness
The ball's surface is to be even, negative embossed pattern up to 0.5 mm are allowed, but the surface
and negative embossed pattern fineness is to be between Ra 1—5 μm. Any protruding unevenness
over 0.5 mm from the surface of the ball should not be present at the joint.
2.2.4 Number of Holes
The ball is to have 26 holes.
2.2.5 Breaking Stress
The ball's material is to tolerate a breaking stress of 6.0 N/mm2
as a minimum, and 1.5 N/mm2
over the joint.
2.2.6 Rebound
The ball's rebound is to be 650 ± 50 mm"

So what it is then that make all balls to have no holes that goes across the seem/joint? Well most likely this is a design feature to make the ball as though and sturdy as possible. But why are all holes always designed in a symmetric pattern with 5 main holes on top of the half of the ball and a round ring of the other holes among the seem/joint on each half of the ball? The funny consequence of this is that the ball is symmetric from a few angles but not all and is that the very best possible design?
When will we see asymmetrical holes? Is that better? Different numbers of holes? Holes of different size? Or rules that defines air-resistance or "air-grip"? What about the surface design of the inside of the ball - does it have some important properties?
What control the rules for the best possible Floorball ball? Tradition? Or rather the most important question must be - what is the possibly best ball design available for the very perfect Floorball ball? Is this to still rely on a basic set of rules - based maybe upon an old practice design for baseball balls? May the current rules obstruct new and better development? Or does it not? How does the best ball look like? Does it have 26 holes and is it heavier or lighter as compared to todays balls? Can 26 holes be placed on one side of the ball? Should a ball fly faster, slower or with more curvature? Can this be done better - or maybe the balls we have today are just good enough? And we should just let it be - like it is?
It is no doubt that the stick development has been more pronounced as the ball design over the last decades and it seems like we have more questions than answers here.

Is today's ball the very best possible for Floorball? And who drives this - the rules or the function? What is next?

MB

Behind the scenes..

2012-01-02T09:39:00.001-06:00

This is a documentary reel on behind the scenes of team Falun in the Swedish highest level. It is all in Swedish but still it gives a little insight in the "big time" Floorball reality.

10 years and some soft hands...

2012-01-01T13:09:00.001-06:00

I think the fist video show some great youth talent as it comes to stick-handling.

But hey there has been an intense stream of new, old odd and some other good things over the holidays.
Another one that I think stood out a bit is this one.
I have never seen wooden floorball sticks before. Have you?
This one is from Moçambique 2010 but it just came up at You tube and has today 4 views

Mr. Floorball looks back at 2011

2011-12-31T16:59:00.001-06:00

This is Mr. Juha Mikkola also known as Mr. Floorball and his retrospective take on 2011 in terms of Floorball.
-------

1. Floorball gains Olympic Recognition

This is not one that the North American Floorball Community can take direct credit for, but it's something that our work here hopefully helped push along. The International Floorball Federation has done an amazing job in this area. IOC recognition is key as we work to market floorball to sports hungry North America. I hope and expect it to bring much more attention to the game!

2. Borje Salming visits Toronto as an ambassador for the Canada Cup

One of the best Toronto Maple Leafs of all-time and a Hockey Hall of Famer visited Toronto to be an official ambassador for the Canada Cup Floorball Championship. Mr. Salming appeared on TV, Radio and Print networks talking about floorball and why its a great cross over training tool for hockey players. It's incredible to think that in 2004 the Canada Cup was just 6 teams: now it is an event worthy of Mr Salming himself with 62 teams and over 1000 players participating. We hope that everyone in North America involved with floorball participates in 2012.

3. Team Canada finishes 3-1 at the U19 World Floorball Championships

North American floorball has not enjoyed a lot of International success (yet) but 2011 showed glimpses of the excellent talent that exists on North American soil. Several Canadian and US teams did well but the most impressive for me was our Canadian U-19 Men's team at the World Floorball Championships in Weissenfels, Germany. Playing with a team made up of nearly all Canadian born and bred players, who all trained in Canada, and a fully Canadian coaching staff, the squad finished with 3 wins and 1 loss just narrowly missing the medal round on goal differential. Canadian brand floorball was on display for the world to see: strong battles in front of both nets, quick transition and a never-say-die work ethic. With three Canadian Hockey League junior players on the team they proved how high level hockey players can transition quickly to competitive floorball.

4. Hockey Canada partners with FloorballPro

Canada is without a doubt the strongest hockey country in the world and to have Hockey Canada officially endorse FloorballPro as their Official Supplier of floorball equipment is a major milestone. More important for us is the fact that Hockey Canada believes in floorball and the skills that young hockey players can develop by playing floorball when they are off the ice. They have brought the sport into their Skills Academies and Centres of Excellence. In 2012 we hope to see minor hockey organizations underneath Hockey Canada's umbrella embrace the game further, by launching off-season leagues for the game and implementing floorball into their off-ice training regimen.

5. Unprecedented media interest in floorball

The North American media showed more interest in floorball than ever before, with major television and newspaper coverage in Canada focusing on the game and helping spread the word to the masses. Highlights included televising the finals of the Canada Cup (Both men and Bantam junior divisions) on Rogers TV, an incredible column in the Toronto Star, an article on The Score's website, nationwide TV coverage on CBC, multiple profiles on NHL.com (including one with Steven Stamkos) and many more, including Rogers Sportsnet with Borje Salming. Newspapers from Nova Scotia to British Columbia covered the game, its equipment and its surging popularity.

The best thing about 2011 is to know that it's just the beginning. The floorball community in Canada and the United States is developing fast. The number of players, organizers, referees and coaches is growing and there are more clubs, leagues, schools and hockey teams playing than ever before. We are nearing the tipping point for floorball. Everyone involved with the game should push in the same direction and increase their involvement with the game. 2012 will be a year that floorball breaks through in more communities than ever before!

Regards,

Juha Mikkola

We at Floorballcentral hope Juha will be back with a fresh outlook upon 2012 too soon...

Classic events

2011-12-30T14:56:00.001-06:00

It is not so long ago since the NHL started with out-door big ice-hockey games, and it seems like they are taking off and almost become larger for each year.
In golf the trend has also been to play games with almost original wooden or hickory clubs to get some of that early antique feeling back. This is also a concept that among many seems to be rather popular.
So it seems like seeking your roots is a good way to diversity a sport and by this attract more people or perhaps a wider audience to the game.

For a more modern sport as Floorball (that has yet to grow out of the diapers) it is not as easy to seek some antique roots. And I am not sure if this is good development idea - in particular on new growing markets.
Maybe it would work in a more mature setting where thet sport has grown very large like in Sweden and Finland?
So the question remain. How would a real "antique" floorball setting look like?
Maybe with only using classic cosom sticks - but playing a game like this with some of the worlds best Floorball players.

Is this the initial seed to the Floorball stick?

Or how would you dream up your own version of a real Classic or antique Floorball game?
And would this benefit the sport? Most people would probably say no.
But the same folks would probably have said no to out-door NHL games as well as hickory wooden golf clubs too?

mb

New video from Hungary and WFC 2011

2011-12-30T11:42:00.001-06:00

We had a new tape sent from Hungary and their goalie - good work thanks!

Snowing on Floorball?

2011-12-26T20:59:00.000-06:00

Yea, with a head-cam.. if you push the snowball icon too.

Only a Picture

2011-12-23T01:33:00.002-06:00

But Sometimes they say more than a full Blog

Yupp in our own PLASTIC x-mas tree...

Hockey Jam Sessions

2011-12-23T00:26:00.001-06:00

This is a re-post, with kind permission, from BC Floorball.

BC Floorball is proud to support ModernHockey JamSessions throughout the lower mainland.

What are JamSessions? JamSessions are Hockey & Floorball development classes and games that promote the fundamentals and creativity of play, through a blend of techniques created by Hockey instructor and National Floorball Team Canada member Faez Kanji.

Each JamSession is a hyper-fun learning experience for each and every child as they advance up the charts of hockey expression and skill.

From skating to stick-handling, each JamSession is full of entertainment and enjoyment in a safe, accessible, affordable and enlightened atmosphere.

To Learn more about ModernHockey JamSessions please like us on facebook and join our team on the Hockey Community!

----

It is in our plans to follow up on this and talk to the man behind this Mr. Kanji, right after x-mas.

A Darling Re-run

2011-12-22T11:11:00.003-06:00

This is one of the first posts ever at Floorballcentral, in 2009 cold something.. It was lost in a flood of posts. But I still think it is so good that it holds for a fresh re-run. Read, digest, think and enjoy - it is only a snippet that happens to stand out like a flash.

Rules for Joe Doe spells JD

......

The second rule we would like to promote is something we never heard of.
But to distinguish Floorball from other sports we think it would be a good thing if the sport opened up for letters on the back on the Jerseys instead of the traditional Arabic numbers. Why? Because it would be easier to identify players if they where able to use their initials in the names on the back instead of numbers - that do not carry too much information. And the initials of the players would help either if there is a name on the Jersey or not - at least from a distance or on a TV.
Lets say Joe Doe is playing Floorball and today the might have number 44 on his back - not very informative at all since this is only a number.
But if he instead would have JD on his back then, audience, tv-reporters as well as referees would have a much easier way to identify the player - related to the name on the player. If you have another player with the name of Joe Davis? Well be creative and mark this player with JO on the back or JS?

Why do we think this to be a good idea? Beside of the reasons mentioned above there is two other reasons why doing this. A) This would be something that would distinguish Floorball from other sports B) It would be a much more modern way to mark players in a sport - and it would most likely promote Floorball even better.
C) It would make the players to have a more personal appearance on the court too! Hey would you name your child 44? Do not think so - but JD is kind of OK - right?
The the other main reason as we already mentioned is that letter markings carry more information that then the old style Arabic numbers.

MB

Some problems here

2011-12-19T13:29:00.000-06:00

I do know a lots of people like this place. And
Floorballcentral has always been an experiment.

The next step in this experiment, for me, is to continue with something new.
I will dissolve people involved in the collaboration of this blog and most likely revert its address to the original address at
http://floorballcentral.blogspot.com

My intention is to be back in another form at another blog - maybe after x-mas or at new years. See you there.. More attitude, less straight facts, more pictures, less numbers, more feelin' or something..

merry x-mas in the mean time !

MB

We link you out again

2011-12-16T11:34:00.002-06:00

The latest from CANADA
http://www.thescore.com/buzz/articles/196924-what-s-new-floorball

How to get a strong national team in floorball

2011-12-16T08:23:00.001-06:00

Posted on december 16, 2011 by Steen Houman

This is a re-post from his own blog in Denmark

http://steenhouman.wordpress.com/2011/12/16/how-to-get-a-strong-national-team-in-floorball/

The headline is not correct, it could have been, how to make talent development, or why Swedish floorball is doing something brand new, regarding their way to organize youth in floorball.
The Swedish floorball federation presented their thoughts at an international conference, abouth the good sport for kids, and their new strategy/philosophy to development of floorball.

They were inspired by a guru in this area, the Hungarian born Canadian Istvan Balyi, whose Theory, many are inspired of.

But what is it, Balyi have inspired Swedish floorball to do. And why should the most winning and biggest floorball country change anything.?
Emil Person, who is head of the Swedish floorball national teams told the 500 participants at the conference, what they have done. You can see more here, though the material is mostly in Swedish.

http://www.innebandy.se/sv/SIBF-info/Utveckling/Spelarutveckling/Utvecklingsmodell/

The Swedish floorball federation introduces this materiel ahead of the Swedish finals.

New path
But what is quite interesting is that Sweden are up for some very big changes in how they will organize their youth tournament and also their way of making talent development.

They see the development as steps. When Sweden beats other nations, (not Fin, Sui, Cze) they don’t win because of their playing systems. They win because they have so many players to choose from, so the level of the national team, means that they more or less could pick random from the 2 best divisions, and still win.

The Swedish development model
Level 6 – Players Key competence
Level 5 – Game System
Level 4 – The Floorball player
Level 3 – The athlete physique
Level 2 – People
Level 1 – The basis

The interesting thing about the model, is the recognition that lays behind.
Most trainers have their focus at level 5 and level 6, and believe that this it what makes victories.

The road to victory starts from the bottom

it’s elementary my dear Watson
Because if you have no game system, if you do not have the players who have the competence to make good pasing, and if you neither have the physics to run in a full game, so forget about game systems.

But first and foremost, you as a coach, must learn to know your players, so you know what they stand for.

The wise coach
The message is that you must build up from scratch, not from the top as many coaches mistakenly do.

What about the foundation what does this mean?. Yes, it is your whole team or your club or if we’re talking national team, all players in the country.

It is clear that clubs with few players, they have a small foundation to build on, which does not mean, that they can not cope! But in the long run, a club / team will be vulnerable, the fewer players there are to build on.

Swedes win, we do not
Why Denmark always will lose to Sweden, the Swedes’ foundation is 130,000 players against Denmark’s 6,000. Sweden could choose among all the players from their top two divisions, and still have a team who will be top 4 in the world. 40% of all players in the world are from Sweden!

Therefore it is very exciting to see Sweden take the lead in this development.

Danish Conditions
Should we transfer this to Danish conditions, then the Danish coaches and clubleaders focus more on the bottom levels. The better the foundation, the better physics, the better technique, the greater chance there is to work with gameplays. But many coaches, falls into the trap, starting with the top (level 5-6), instead of building from the ground…

Winning matches
It is not the Swedish game system that makes them beat Denmark, no the Swedes beats us because they are in better shape and have better technique. We don’t see the Swedish game system when Denmark play Sweden.

This is just the way it is
This is not a criticism of the Danish players, nor the Danish clubs, but an inspiration to the danish clubs, it’s about to saddle on and not make the same mistake as Sweden.

For Sweden have fallen in the soccer trap, namely that the worst players already are sorted out at 9 years of age.

Heavy dropout
Sweden loses 75% of all floorballplayers before they become seniors, the same as happens in football.

The primary reason is trophy-hungry coaches and parents who do not leave room for the players, who are not good enough aged 8-12 years.

Who will be good?
What’s interesting is that studies show that it is in no way possible to say who will be good as seniors!

In Sweden, a researcher followed footballers born in the year 1984. As a 25 year old footbaler, he looked at who made it to be a professional and can live on the sport, and which path they have taken.
Half of all the professionals have been at a youth national team, they have had the best coaches, trained with the best etc.
Despite this, only half of those who were professionals have been at a youth national team. The other half, have never had the same opportunities, but still they made it to become professionals!

Think carefully
Therefore, there is good reason to think the way you organize your youth tournament!

The Swedes have done this and they’re going to do something that will hopefully be an example to follow. The interesting thing is that all the best players and top coaches support this! Yes, you do the right thing is the message.

New strategy
The goal for Sweden is to retain as many players as long as possible in the clubs!

It will give them a better foundation, and thus is the foundation stone laid to become even stronger.

But what is it Sweden are going to do with their tournament for youth?
They will work hard to have a youth tournament, where more equal teams meet, and it will not be age that decide. It’s still to be done, so if its works, we will have to see.

The swedes have also incorporated the rule, that in youth games, the ref blows the whistle every second min, in order to substitute the whole line up, this in order to get all players a chance to play, and not only the best!

Denmark
Transferring this on to Denmark, how would the tournament for youth be designed so that it retains most possible players for the longest time in your own club?

In Denmark you can only be danish champions at U19 and U17, this is quite good.

Making Danish champions for U15, U13, U11 etx, would be very wrong. Then you make the same mistake as in football, where winning the series becomes more important than developing all players and retaining them.

How to?
But how do the danish federation, arrange a tournament that keeps as many players as possible, and create as many matches to be played for the teams. Which rules must the be introduced, what structure should there be?

Discussion
I was lucky enough to sit beside just Istvan Balyi at the conference and we talked a lot about this. He welcomed what Sweden have made steps to do! As he said: It’s common sense.

He showed also what USA is setting up in ice hockey. They want to develop players themselves, therefore they started to use Istvan Balyis model. He has advised them, and in this video you can see a somewhat different view of hockey over there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSt4C23vdV8&feature=related
and this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwkfDtzjpYw

Next step
Finally, it will be interesting to see what the central board of the danish floorball federation, the tournament comitee and not least the clubs, to take up this issue.

A simple way is to create a closed facebook group where relevant people would be and here could discuss the matter, and come up with
an initiative on this. I would like to make up and contribute.

Finally, try to look at the players on the team you coach, see what time of the year they were born. In the world of football there are approximately 75% of all players born in the first 6 months. Are you a better player because you are born like this ? NO, it is the system and the coaches who are the problem. This is the football trap, you are a succes as a coach, if you can keep as many players as possible in your team/club, instead of the aim just to win matches, then you will loose players

New Floorball helmet cam

2011-12-14T20:45:00.000-06:00

Just follow the link it is cool and in HD
http://youtu.be/IFK6bFulUQE

Gestures and Dance

2011-12-14T08:49:00.002-06:00

Right now, in American football, people talk about two things: The first is a quarterback from Denver that seems to honor his god each time as the team scores with gestures like he is praying and reaching out his hands to his lord alleluia style. The other thing is the quarterback from the Green Bay packers that seems to have a scoring gesture that looks like he points to his own golden belt buckle (think boxing/wrestling belts) or something.

Why is this interesting?
Some of the most popular posts here in recent weeks show a Floorball goalie that are dancing away in the net. The others include dancing teams and....
This tells us a bit about the importance of added extra visual content to Floorball too.
So our conclusion is - should this just be spontaneous?

Maybe not - maybe Floorball teams should use choreography and seriously plan for as well as practice different kinds of dances and scoring gestures. Why? Cause it obviously brings some serious attention to the sport . If you do not happen to agree to this - tell us why. But we would love to see way more dancing Floorball stars and funky moves here. And as we write this we like to send a special thought to the Australian ladies at the WFC in St. Gallen. Ladies - you won gold in this particular skill.

Dance away.

The Swedish armed forces...

2011-12-14T08:26:00.001-06:00

Have just released their own - designed stick!
It say "Armed Forces" on the stick and the design include the Swedish national weapon.
We say - wow Floorball must be the best way to go to war with any weapon - leave all your guns at home and just bring the Floorball stick.
It is both much more fun as well as kind of healthy.

MB

EVER SEEN FLOORBALL ON ICE?

2011-12-13T14:54:00.000-06:00

No stick on the goalie - and yes free-hits otherwise it looks like hockey huh

The WFC 2011 set a full range of records

2011-12-13T11:55:00.000-06:00

So the IFf have tossed up an article about it. You may find it here http://www.floorball.org/news.asp?id_tiedote=2350 and we think the best record was the number of people watching the games - add then the Tv spectators too and yes - floorball is moving forward..

mb

WHY DOLLARS?

2011-12-13T09:09:00.000-06:00

Would perhaps USA be an interesting piece of development for the IFF and the global Floorball movement? At least for the future..

Let’s look at some facts.
Floorball has proven to become, not just another sport, but a major large team-sport in European countries that also have Ice-Hockey.
Finland and Sweden have together some 100.000 licenced Hockey players - but many more licenced Floorball players.
USA and Canada have about 10 times as many licenced Hockey-players or about 1 million together.
Hockey in the USA has moved from being a “northern” thing - to be rather well spread over the country.

Floorball also seems to attract field hockey players. In USA field hockey is strong, in particular with girls - as well as the sport of Lacrosse (un-known in Europe almost). Lacrosse also, at least marginal, resemble some of the main ideas in Floorball.

Both the whiffle ball as well as the very first plastic sticks came from the USA.

Now to the questions:
Where is there a multibillion dollar market for sport items to be found? Where are advertising costs (think super-bowl) as well as TV rights to broadcast high profile sporting events at a world class level? Who are the future “actors” that want a piece of that action - in the case Floorball becomes as big as any other sport in the USA (noting strange with this - as it just would follow an European pattern)?
In principle may all questions be boiled down to a few matters: Where is the market potential for Floorball? and Who is willing to take some risk as an investment in time, work and probably some dough - to win such a game?
and.. Would Floorball bring serious health benefits to a country like the USA?

How would it be done?
We have earlier suggested “scout-solutions" to this matter. But the most secure way to do this is probably not to do this bottom-up, but top-down.
It is obvious that the right political connections has paved the way for a serious local Floorball development in many countries. So perhaps we should stop whine about the large four federations and...
Maybe the truth is that this is a matter for the European Union and no one else. So who calls for Brussels?

Nope, we are not afraid of thinking large and loud at this blog. ;-)

TBI

2011-12-13T09:02:00.002-06:00

Concussions is a serious deal. It affects different sports at different rates - but it may happen in Floorball too - here is some great resources - if you play with kids or adults - teens - maybe you want to read this?

http://www.cdc.gov/concussion/HeadsUp/youth.html

New hype video from Finland...2012

2011-12-13T00:23:00.004-06:00

...do they not do movies like this in Sweden?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6-0Zd9ww0M&feature=colike

NEW WEBSITE JUNIORFLOORBALL.COM

2011-12-12T23:22:00.000-06:00

This material is a re-post from juniorfloorball.com - a new great Canadian initiative:
Here is the source http://www.juniorfloorball.com/
------------------
JUNIOR PLAYER’S EXCITEMENT FOR THE GAME,
When young Brodie first tried floorball with the West Vancouver Rec Centre, he found a new love. It’s always fun to be a part of a child’s discovery of new things and this was a big one. He wanted to play all of the time and wondered why it wasn’t on more days of the week! He started watching games and floorball tricks on YouTube and saw a “freebandy” blade and goal. Freebandy is a offshoot of floorball. He wanted one so bad he has created one himself and this was his rendition.

NEW promotion movie from Holland

2011-12-12T12:24:00.001-06:00

Cars and Floorball?

2011-12-12T09:07:00.001-06:00

Back in the days Detroit was rather quick to figure out that to be able to sell cars - well, people needed something to drive these cars on. So there is no doubt that the old car industry took several measures aimed at road constructions, bridges, and other matters that would make it more reasonable to drive cars. Some sources have also stated that the old car industry also took actions to limit things like public transportation in America...
If that was the case this negative route is not a road to learn from...
But the positive side was that they (together with the help of others) was a driving force for the creation of an INFRASTRUCTURE that made it easier to not just buy a car but to use it as well.
This is an important lesson that we must learn from as we try to build Floorball on new markets. There must be an infrastructure in place. What is infrastructure for Floorball? I think it is first and foremost Floorball in school, but also a creation of a new "platform for Floorball Clubs" too - to make it a piece of cake for them - or to aid clubs to easy and swift be able to develop their own operations in the new brave digital world.
This is exactly what we have written about earlier - in this post:
http://www.floorballcentral.com/2011/10/brands-and-their-marketing-part-2.html
It boils down to basics - if brand manufacturers wants to sell sticks and other equipment on new markets - hrmm, they must than seriously take initiatives to build the infrastructure for Floorball.

I am extremely excited that the IFF just have started to use words like infrastructure as they speak about future Floorball development. This is one of the best news we have heard.
One more thing, we do think that the IFF is about to develop a phone app too. Good stuff. Only one thing - an app is the package - not the content. Of course the package is extremely important (McLuhan - Canada I think, said a long time ago that the media is the message). But we also would like to know what the content perhaps would be - it is kind of interesting... Even if this discussion seems to start with the "package".

MB

The final compilation

2011-12-12T08:19:00.000-06:00

Running late here

2011-12-12T02:14:00.001-06:00

Sorry,
We have not been able to keep up the speed here due to several factors. But there is so much interesting things to report upon. First of course the WFC and several interesting postings from the IFF.
We will try to get back to all this in due time. For now we will only toss up a little reflection on the furious stick development that is racing around or what do you think about this?

HEAVY NUMBERS!

Lets do the weight numbers for some of the very latest Floorball sticks in a regular length approx 96 cm:
191 g = 6.73732 oz From Fatpipe
204 g = 7.19588 oz From Salming
214 g = 7.54862 oz From Unihoc

Crazy? Hmm let us compare with the lightest Ice Hockey stick.
Wikipedia claim that the lightest composite Hockey sticks are at 390 grams and up (probably an old article).
Hmm, still about twice as heavy, but not twice as long.

This leads to the interesting idea that maybe a Floorball producer should try to make the worlds lightest Hockey stick too? Since it seems like they have some knowledge - the Hockey guys might be missing here?

The weight spells speed, in both stick-handling as well as in shooting and delivering quick passes...
And it sure seems like the true weight race in Floorball just started.
But will they not break? Hm, we honestly do not know - some say, yes these sticks will break more easily others say na - this is better carbon-fiber from Japan or something so no they will not break....

MB
I will stick with my old heavy tool for another couple of months... but hmm...

X-Mas Feelin'

2011-12-09T19:43:00.001-06:00

Ho Ho Ho.
Floorballcentral is gettin' into some cozy x-mas mode here.
Yes, the full x-mas tree is full of balls
;-)

mb

More from WFC Day 6

2011-12-09T18:04:00.001-06:00

Cool sequences from w WFC 2011 day 6

Bang- The IFF just scored its most important goal ever

2011-12-09T14:34:00.001-06:00

Here it is in black and white - or rather ka-bom on a webpage
http://www.floorball.org/news.asp?id_tiedote=2336

We say that this is the most important post and best news we ever have read from the IFF.
This is not like a one ball and a wanna be world... This sounds like real substance.
So now the full IFF have voted and they seem to want what is important to do - good! Lets hope this gets channelized into some some real substantiated action too.

We all know that Floorball is a fully superior sport, compared to many others. We know the product is great - now it is time to plan this well, develop the product "package" and see some real action too.
Floorballcentral fully supports this from the IFF and we wish we may help them as much as possible in this direction with a clear aim for development. The only odd thing is that marketing ends up on the last part of the scale in what they want to do - this is a bit odd since marketing is a vital component of development too.
Maybe marketing was presented in an odd way for these sessions? But to burn money on campaigns with no substance is not too clever...
But..
Just to have players in less developed countries to start to "walk their sticks" on buses, trams and bicycles is a great tool that is free of charge and perfect marketing for Floorball. Make the sticks visible in your community and many others will follow suite. Perhaps a little pity action like this... but it is both aimed at development and marketing - it all goes hand in hand (or stick in hand)...

Time for a new era Boys and Girls - and all you others out there too - we hope - since Floorball is for everyone. And it is time for International Development! Lets develop - come on!

Thank You all hard working administrators - you are on track!

Just one more thing...
This is cut from the news as of above...
"Name: Floorball should have one brand image and one name"
This is what we have said since we started Floorballcentral - there is tonnes of post on this in our archive. Just search for it.
And the Floor name idea - idea is not something we like - we like Flash or Speed to be a word incorporated in the name since it convey the speed of Floorball and sends positive signals.

Flashhoc? Speedball? Lighthoc, Flashball? Be my guest to come up with more ideas - the word and world is free! And the IFF is a democratic function working in action - today scoring a main goal!

Hopefully a new logo would be as clean as Nikes or Addidas classical logos too... No more home made patchwork please.

MB

Germany, the key to the floorball future

2011-12-09T14:29:00.003-06:00

Floorball in Germany do not have the greatest reputation in their own country, or internationally. But the Germans are coming, and after this weekend’s matches against Denmark who gave a victory to each, it seems however that Denmark is still a step or two ahead of Germany. The defeat to Germany, was more a consequence of German efficiency in a 5 min penalty to Denmark, who turned a Danish lead, to a German victory.

80,000 players
Germany has gone past Denmark in the number of players and floorball has begun to diversify away from the old East Germany. But the sport is still significantly less than in Denmark, this can be seen by comparing the number of players relative to their population. If the Germans had the same share as in Denmark, the picture would look different. That would mean 80,000 Germans would play floorball!

If Denmark is to maintain their edge to Germany, it must be done by the Germans do not grow bigger. At the moment we have a better floorball culture in Denmark than in Germany, but it is something that is changing. For the Germans stick to their own players rather than a bunch of players they have picked up in the big four floorball countries, something which other countries have done in great style.
Aside from the powerful Holzbrødre, it’s a pure German nationalteam.

Positive German development
This means the German players who come along, learn a lot with the national team, which they take home with them, and it developes floorball in the country. Rather than have 1-2 line ups with players from other countries, it will mean that many German players would not develop.
Of course you must go after making the strongest team, but at the stage the sport is, yes it is wise to use players from their own country, in order to lift the sport in the long term.

The key
But Germany is the key to the floorballs future, as it is now, there are 4 countries that dominate, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland and Czech Republic. This 4 countries have 85% of all players worldwide. For the sport, it’s really really bad, so it is for IFF enormously important to spread the sport to countries outside the 4 big countries, in order to make floorball growth.

In Germany, almost each sports have a strong Bundesliga, which is one of the strongest leagues in the world. Therefore IFF looks to Germany as the key to floorball can grow, both in economy and status.

Bundesliga
A semiprofesionel German Bundesliga, it would be a locomotive for the sport, and 80,000 would only be a start, the goal is to grow even more, because in the long term it could be the country in floorball, with the most players. Even bigger than Sweden?

The goal of the IFF is to get on the Olympic program in 2020, it requires that some countries will grown much more, and therefore it may be a good reason to stick with Germany …

WFC 2011, are Sweden on another planet?

2011-12-09T13:55:00.004-06:00

30-0, 23-0, 15-1 and 19-0
The Swedish champions have proved daunting strength at the World Championships floorball. Iin their first two group matches against USA (30-0) and Japan (23-0). One of the founders of floorball, Andras Czitrom raised the question, should we return to the old system of A and B division with 10 teams. In order not to experience the this heavy results. (You can go to the wall of AC, and read the whole discussion).

This I do not think, 16 teams for the World Cup is a good set up, this also because it means that far fewer teams are qualified to be the next World cahampionship. In the old system there was only one relegated from A to B division, and few teams went out, and had to qualify.

New system
With the new system, then it means that only 5 countries are ready for the next World championship, the rest go out and play qualifier matches.In Europe this means a large number of equal matches towards the next World championship in 2 years. It is only good for the development of floorball..

Power Swedes
The Swedes have after the first two great victories, followed by 15-1 over Denmark, much anticipated, but it was 19-0 victory over Norway not. The Norwegian girls is a strong bid for a 5.plads, and getting such a defeat, it puts the Swedish strength in perspective!

Who can challenge?
The three other powerful nations, Finland, Switzerland and Czech Republic have equally won clear victories, but not at the same level as the sovereign Swedes. So to return to Andras Czitroms questions about the old A and B league system was better? We must recognize the Swedes they are alone at a level that nobody can follow, and it is not easy to see any who can challenge Sweden to miss the third World Championship gold in a row.

It would just be Switzerland with their shortpassing style and a very experienced Mirca Anderegg in the squad who can tease Swedes.

More live Floorball here

2011-12-09T09:02:00.001-06:00

Here is the link again
http://youtu.be/1LZN_1_k5cg

Just coming up Finland versus Poland....

The Moose being punished

2011-12-09T08:56:00.001-06:00

In Finland the team Happee is not too happey with their own moose (the mascot) so they give him some Floorball punishment.
Now please make certain that this one goes viral....

The best development ever

2011-12-09T08:33:00.001-06:00

Unihoc goes in and takes full responsibility to help the IFF with Floorball development.
This is the best thing they could have done - we love it.

Full article here
http://www.floorball.org/news.asp?id_tiedote=2334

We have however a few pieces of criticism:
A) This is a Floorball expert that gets appointed - that is good. But what we miss is someone that knows modern social media (internet) marketing, product placement, strategic product (floorball is a product) development - this must include strategic Branding and develop of the brand "Floorball" internationally.
B) This arrangement leaves all other manufacturers out in the cold - not good. I therefore suggest that someone else develops another part time- position that aims to focus more on the strategic aims as described above.
C) Some of the smaller manufacturers will be even more squeezed out - therefore I recommend them to join in a joint venture to create another "shared-function" where perhaps a group of these, work together in an alliance, to create yet another support function for the IFF. Yes Unihoc has an exclusive sponsor deal with the IFF - but that does not mean that angry competitors may work together to create something that is much bigger together - and then in that larger marketplace - let the market decide on what product gets strong on the market - but as we talk infrastructure (think Floorball in school or at Clubs) then we all must work together.
NB, this last part includes other manufacturers to of rinks, shoes, clothes etc.. too

It works like this - to be able to sell cars - we must have our roads in place. So we must all build infrastructure (schools and clubs) as infrastructure is in place we will be able to sell cars too (read clothes, sticks, rinks, balls etc).
This is just basic stuff - and I am so happy that Unihoc now are taking a step in this direction - so what about all you others with money invested in Floorball - how do you plan to build infrastructure - outside of Sweden - helping the IFF?

MB

Sweden Advances...

2011-12-08T13:23:00.000-06:00

I just read a report from Sweden and how their ladies have "toyed" their way through the first round of the WFC 2011 for women.
If I understand what I have read right, Sweden has now won with larger differences then before - against all of the teams they have played so far. 23-0, 30-0 and 19-0.

Here is another comment on the perspective of the A and B group in WFC
http://steenhouman.wordpress.com/2011/12/09/wfc-floorball-2011-the-right-system-or/

Anyway...
This all could mean or indicate that Sweden this year have their best team ever.
But my take on this is that they are too good and that the development goes in the WRONG direction and something must be done rather fast.

Therefore I here ask that SIBF creates a proper program to develop Floorball outside of the Swedish borders.

Will not this be expensive? No this is not an expense, this is a matter of an investment in the future of Floorball and this is an Investment that they must take.
An investment that they (and all others) will be able to gain a decent return on in both financial terms as well as in terms of the development of the sport.

FloorballCentral has earlier pointed out that Traumatic Brain Injuries cost the United States 60 BILLION Dollars per year (year 2000) and even if sport injuries are only a fraction of these humongous expenses... We guessed maybe One Billion dollars just as a wild estimate.
Floorballcentral also said that if a decent number of School Kids in the USA - by only free will and choice (think marketplace) would be gravitated from "TBI prone" collision sports to safer alternatives like Floorball.
Well, we talk about serious big money here fellas. Money I think one may prove that a country like the US can save by just doing as much Floorball as is done in Northern Europe.

How to do this? I do not know but I think there is tonnes of ways to do this.
A) Write a serious book or a documentary TV program on in English this subject based upon research
B) The SIBF could go to the Swedish government and ask them for a push in this matter towards for instance the USA?
C) Make a serious presentation on Floorball at TED
D) I am sure you have many ideas to on this subject too, so feel free to share how you think yourself.

To me this is a slam-dunk.

And did not the new General Secretary at SIBF Göran Harnesk, say that he had a background from an US collegue education? Hmm, wonder if he has some plans in this direction.
Yes, we did write him an email and asked him about it.... and I still wait for his answer..
;-). Maybe I should publish that e-mail here too?

Now lets continue to see some good Floorball action from the WFC!

Here is a cool one from Sweden-Norway 19-0
http://youtu.be/uBjBQxQZO60

MB

Team USA wins again today!!

2011-12-08T11:59:00.000-06:00

Lets us steal one line from the IFF page:
"In the placement match against Slovakia, the US team wins with a final score of 6:3. The Slovaks lack efficiency in front of the American goal."

Here is the full report
http://www.wfc2011.ch/reports/2011-12-08/791052/

Wow, do I wish that some of the ladies were willing to send some more personal material upon this - maybe they will - one day.

MB

New Site Design!

2011-12-08T01:54:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone,

Our new website design is now LIVE! I hope you enjoy the site's new, sleek look. It's very clean, with none of the clutter that plagued the old site causing it to load slowly. We want to make it look more like a webzine, and hopefully this will be the charm!

There still are tonnes of changes to be made so don't be distraught if the website isn't working for a few hours in the next few weeks. Until then, enjoy!

Andrzej

HD TV FROM the Czech Republic

2011-12-07T14:36:00.000-06:00

http://www.gothiainnebandycup.se/eng/index.php/gothia-tv/?film=930&mid=549

I do recommend this one - it is from Czech TV

Second largest team sport there too ;-)

And large parts of the world - still at sleep..

MB

LIVE FEED from WFC

2011-12-07T10:51:00.000-06:00

Blog Status

2011-12-07T09:24:00.000-06:00

As some of you have noticed we are in a slow mode here.
We hope to be back with a better blogging solution as soon as possible.

MB

Day 3

2011-12-06T23:00:00.001-06:00

Sweden - USA 30-0

2011-12-06T12:44:00.001-06:00

Maybe it is not that very easy to win a Floorball game with 30 - 0. So all the kudos to all good hard working players, leaders the organizers etc. On both sides. Yes, thanks for a decent game.

But this is not the main and most important "game" for Floorball. The main and most important game for Floorball is to not just spread the sport in quantitative numbers - it must also be to spread in qualitative numbers.
But also the full package of Floorball must be included, with children, schools, health initiatives, special Olympics etc.

So now let this question ring out as a New Years Bell for 2012; How may Sweden work to build Floorball in the USA? In a way so the difference only boils down to a much more comfortable difference? We want Floorball to be a real sport right? And a real sport must be interesting, with fairly equal teams and games.
Who is really interested in a "whipping" exercise - is that exciting?
The Olympic movement? I do not think so.

No, the way I see this - Sweden must start to take some serious International responsibility for their own sake and for the future of the sport. (The same thing goes for Finland, Switzerland, and The Czech republic).

There is hundreds of things that they may do and Jamaica, Spain, Polen is just a few small but good initiatives on International expansion. But it is not even close to being enough. If we want to build an exceptional sport - exceptional things must be done.
When will someone talk about Floorball on TED for instance?

Let us now hope that this matter will not continue to echo unanswered - cause that is not a good thingy.

Video from Day 2

2011-12-06T08:09:00.001-06:00

This years most important post

2011-12-05T13:11:00.001-06:00

If you live in the USA

Site to be Taken Down

2011-12-05T08:56:00.000-06:00

Hey there everyone,

Haven't written anything in a while for the website, as I've been traveling and been caught up with schoolwork. We're taking the site down for several hours and up until a day to work on some of the technical stuff.

Thanks for supporting the blog, and Michael especially.

Facebook posting team USA

2011-12-05T08:52:00.001-06:00

We have never posted a Facebook posting direct into the blog before - well everything has its first..

US Womens National Floorball Team

Watch our game live!! 19.30 local time: http://www.wfc2011.ch/streams/kreuzbleiche/

India Rocks

2011-12-05T08:42:00.001-06:00

Mr. Eriksson

2011-12-04T22:53:00.001-06:00

It is clear that Mr Eriksson understands the true value of a "PRODUCT" and a "marketing strategy". I think so since I just read his main message ahead of WFC 2011. This is the best message ever from him.
And Yes I agree fully with this message.
He is also right to focus on TV.
BUT..
I miss a few things, there is nothing on social media in his speech/address and the impact of social media - wow it is not here yet.. and I think TV will become only a part of social media too.
He should also perhaps focus more on children and school if we want to build something for the future to last. I also miss more force or directions on International expansion - where strong helps weak.
Are any club allowed to do Floorball without a youth group and promoting it in schools? Are not the four strong Floorball countries required to help other strong Hockey nations? I also think the stance towards all players including people with disabilities must be included in every speech if we truly mean that we want Floorball to be for all.

Here it is in its full flavor, welcome the future..
http://www.floorball.org/news.asp?tyyppi=&offset=0&kieli=826&id_tiedote=2192&alue=171

More Information to follow soon?

2011-12-04T22:15:00.001-06:00

Nja, that is not a very good way to explain that all games will be streamed at this the same address.
But that is what is going on- ok
IF up early tomorrow - here it is
http://www.wfc2011.ch/streams

GER-LAT

2011-12-04T22:08:00.001-06:00

The sound is messy, but they talk about preparations...

DANISH DYNAMITE

2011-12-04T21:49:00.001-06:00

Re-posted from Mr. Houmans own blog - a very well worth read

Here is the source http://steenhouman.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/floorball-for-all-please/

Floorball for all, please

Posted on december 4, 2011 by Steen Houman

Today starts the WFC in foorball, where the top 16 nations in the world will compete for World Championship medals. But there is not only medals at stake, or rather the medals are only to be sorted out between 4 nations, the others must fight for the secondary positions, and then see if they have come closer to the top 4

The big four
The 4 major nations in floorball are Sweden, Finland, Switzerland and Czech Republic. The 4 nations have at the previous 7 World Championships, snatched a total of 19 of total 21 medals! Norway has been the one to break the dominance with 2 bronze medals in 2001 and 1997.

Dominant
But the 4 nations is also totally dominant, because if we look at the number of players around the world, then comes 81% from these 4 countries.
Therefore, you can look through this list below and see how many players are there in each country and how many players have come to the country in 10 years.
If floorball wants to be at the Olympics program, it requires 2 very basic things.

1) Floorball is to grow in size
2) Floorball for all

The last is believed that each country must be far better to have floorball for all. This means that the individual clubs, are to start up with youth, it is no use it is a bunch of Swedes and Finns running around abroad and enjoy themselves a little. This little caricatured, but that the last 10 years, the top 16 nations haven’t growth more, may worry when everyone has the ambition to get on the Olympic program.

Floorball for all
But floorball for all, also means that floorball not only be played by children and adults, no floorball is ideal for the disabled.
Down in Switzerland, there will be played an exhibition match in one semifinal. It will be between Switzerland and Austria, and played in Special Olympic (SO) style. SO is the intellectual disabilities, and they have their own Olympics, it is run in 2013 out in South Korea, where it actually is happened floorball to join as a demonstration sport.

Special Olympic
IFF will during their President meeting at the WFC, meets with head of Special Olympics mr. Colin Todd, who will report on floorball in SO, and to encourage more countries to take floorball in SO reign .
So begins floorball, to be floorball for all, and the IFF, this is one of many must-be to highlight the sport compared to the IOC that floorball is a sport that is worth betting on.
But it requires floorball for all, and it requires that floorball is growing in size worldwide.

More players please
While there are many nations that works quite elitist, there should instead be far more countries who are using resources to grow, the number of players, also says something about your chances for a World Cup!

	players 2011	players 2001
Schwitzerland	28.000	23.000
Russia	2.400	800
Poland	1.840	480
Holland	999	276

	Players 2011	Players 2001
Finland	47.000	31.000
Latvia	2.458	1.120
Germany	8.280	1.980
Australia	1.965	400

	Players 2011	Players 2001
Czech republic	34.000	16.284
Norway	6.432	4.865
Hungary	1.500	286
Slovakia	3.880	400

	Players 2011	Players 2001
Sweden	121.000	118.000
Denmark	6.007	2.177
USA	800	325
Japan	320	432

A simple message, keep as many players for as long time as possible, and you will se growth.

High rate?
The percentage rate, is for many nations quite good, but if you look closely at the numbers, so take Slovakia, who has almost 10-fold increase in the number of players at 10 years, so it’s actually just an average 340 players a year more! Or if we say there are 20 players to a team, it’s 17 new teams that have come to this spread of existing clubs and new clubs.
But let us rejoice in the growth, but hope that there will be many more players in each nations.

Way to go
The Czech Republic is super story in this context. Denmark played them at the WFC quarter-final in 1996, and the game went into extra time. Back then, both countries have approximately equal numbers of players, the Czechs a few hundred more, but developments in the hockey happy nation has been explosive, compared with the Danish.

Future
So the for the sake of floorballs, help with the development of sport, get youth to start up and spread the joyful message of floorball, floorball for all

Team USA News as of today

2011-12-02T11:33:00.001-06:00

Reposted with copyright permission from USA Floorball
-----------
WFC2011: US Women's National Team Woman
11.12.02 Bazenheid, Switzerland: Team USA played local Swiss team (Hot Chilis Rümlang-Regensdorf) in an exciting 6-6 game at the end of regulation.

Anne "Jasu" Jumppanen led the charge with 3 goals, and Erin Carr, Marie Haggstrom, and Valou Reinhard rounded out the scoring with one apiece.
The match went to a shootout to determine a winner, and the US team did not disappoint. Alex Morgan scored first for the US team, and after two unsuccessful attempts, Valou Reinhard buried one quickly in the net to clinch the win.
Hotshots were unsuccessful on all five of their chances, and ceded the victory to the US National team.

Playing for Team USA:
Meile (30. Gomez); Williams; Jumppanen; Bluhm, Carr; Häggström, Reihnard, Wattwil; Morgan, Hansen, Stübi, Camp, Linhart, Thoene; Odegard.

Missing: Winkler (injured); Muuri (work), Nurmia (absent).

No Grant from Pepsi Gatekeeper

2011-12-02T09:39:00.000-06:00

This is what we had from Pepsi yesterday;
"Your idea is not eligible for a Pepsi Refresh Project grant because it didn't follow all of the Refresh Everything Official Application Guidelines."

Feel free to read these guidelines they are soo good that they loose the main point. I see them as when bureaucratization chokes a good idea.

We did apply for a $ 50.000 grant by Pepsi - to use that to fund Floorball sticks to schools in USA - and we must have missed something in their application rules.... so our idea will not be up for a vote. And we may not spread some 100-200 Floorball school-sets across the USA.

Sorry Kids.

So it was decided by someone or something at Pepsi that our idea did not meet their guidelines. And maybe we did not fill everything in right, but our intentions were pretty clear.

Ok, what cola soft drink do you think we will prefer from this point forward?

This is not about us being crushed - it is more a pity for many kids and Pepsi (and us too) since we now all missed an opportunity "galore" to associate with something indeed very good for the future.

Now, Floorballsticks listed as x-mas gifts in Canada

2011-12-02T08:14:00.000-06:00

Yes, Floorballpro is on a roll.
Here is the link
http://thechronicleherald.ca/homesnews/38755-editor%E2%80%99s-picks

And you know what, this is the Editor's pick.
Our recommendation is to go for the stick, but also hey look what other things they suggest in Canada now before x-mas.

MB

Hey, here is english and on the most important stuff WFC 2011

2011-12-01T23:06:00.000-06:00

Blogger has problems right now

2011-12-01T22:36:00.001-06:00

The post below was a draft and it looks like you may watch the post on the blog.
But our blog posting system does not work so we may not be able to change our text.
To be able to post this message we had to do some work around.
Hopefully Blogger will be up soon again since we have so much to tell you.

Old but Gold

2011-12-01T20:32:00.000-06:00

You must watch this one on Youtube. It is old but very good. It is a typical example on how old stuff becomes dug down in a herd of Finnish on Youtube and no-one not even a search machine may find this on Youtube - in the case they not speak Finnish. There is nothing wrong with Finnish - it is not just optimized to communicate on-line with an International audience..
Perhaps also the music choice is another problem since we now have to ship you away from this site.
Have fun though.

MB