unihockey

Improving at Floorball

Last night was the third night of floorball at Mulgrave School in West Vancouver, where as usual we had 20 minutes of drills and warmup and played what seemed like an unending game. I got one or two assists, depending on how you define assist. (Is it like hockey where if you set up the guy who gets the first assist, you also get an assist?) I didn't score, but came close 3 times, and was really happy about the chances, as I had just the right amount of patience and was open for just long enough to turn around and take a shot. The first shot went off the cross-bar (almost perfect placement!) and another sailed past the post.

(Last week, just to keep track, I scored a goal and got one assist.)

I'm liking the drills quite a bit, and can sense improvement in my game. I still have no idea where I'm supposed to be, that is, what position I should be in during each situation. I remembered the basketball practices in high school that would be only a short warmup and then purely strategy: where we were supposed to be in set plays for offense and defense. That is, no 3-on-2-2-on-1 drills (my absolute favorite basketball drill, where the 3 players run down the court against 2 defenders, then the shooter goes back on defense while the 2 former defenders switch to offense going the other way). I don't know if I'll get to have one of those strategy practices—no, the correct, European word is "training—but for this session I'm happy to work on skill development. I'm at the point where I can feel cool passing back and forth in warmup with players that have played for more than a decade, and I'm getting better at patience with the ball and shot accuracy. Defense is something I'm learning by watching the Swiss and Swedish players, then trying to copy what they do, with limited success.

They haven't announced it yet on the BC Floorball blog, but with the strike over, floorball returns to the Roundhouse in Vancouver's Yaletown on Mondays. With dragon boating over, I'm looking forward to having that as my second weekly cardio workout, at least until it snows on the mountains enough for me to g snowshoeing on the weekend.

BC Floorball Announces League, Drop-Ins with Drills, and Youth Program

Last night floorball started back up again at Mulgrave School in West Vancouver, this time with a twist on the original drop-ins I was participating in earlier in the year. Now they have full session sign-ups, and each drop-in begins with 15-20 minutes of drills. Perfect! I'm still a floorball newbie, and having some practice time with long-time players watching over should add some polish to my very rough floor hockey edges. Starting with last night's games' two goals and one assist, I'm keeping track of my points so that I can look back and see how I did over a "season".

The BC Floorball Federation is also organizing a Vancouver floorball league, which declared its opening night's success. They're also organizing a youth floorball program for 12-14 year olds so that they can learn the basics of the game at a time when they're just starting to get serious about sports. Congratulations are due to the BC Floorball Federation on the growth of the sport in the Lower Mainland: as far as I can tell, they're very serious about using all the tools to market the sport to British Columbians, using newspapers and online social networking tools like blogging (all the links here are to their blog) and other applications like Facebook.

With Rules That Emphasize Stickhandling and Playmaking Over Physical Toughness

Readers of Urban Vancouver know that I've been playing floorball, a type of floor hockey with modifications like shorter sticks with golf club-like grips, a whiffle ball, with rules that emphasize stickhandling and playmaking over physical toughness. I'd only heard about the sport a few months ago, but the people are really friendly and encouraging, and though play is a little more 'lower-body' than I anticipated, it's a nice compliment to the primarily 'upper-body' sport of dragon boating.

After the BC Federation Floorball challenge a few weeks ago, I was getting a little discouraged with goal-scoring, but after last night's play, scoring on the final play of the final game, and feeling a lot better about my defensive play, I've gotten over any doubts I might have had about enjoying floorball. One of the organizers noticed an increase in velocity on my shot—though we'll see how accurate I am under pressure—and going the almost the whole night without water makes me wonder if my fluid intake is way more than it needs to be.

British Columbians who want to check out the sport can contact the BC Floorball Federation, and Vancouverites (and allied visitors) can play at the Yaletown Roundhouse on Monday evenings from 6:00 PM to 7:45 PM, and in either North or West Vancouver on Thursdays at 7:00 PM. I understand the current location for Thursdays is yet to be determined.