School introductory lesson

1. Introduce yourself and your experience in Floorballquick summary

2. What is floorball? use both sides of stick, any part of your body except your head and arms, ball is light (pass it around), stick is light and can be curved at the blade for a left hander and a right hander.

3. Most in Europe play Left, in Australia most of us play right.

4. Goals the aim of the game is to score as many goals as possible explain the different size goals large for Gks and small for 3 on 3 or trainings or schools floorball.

5. SKILLS AND TRICKS Ice hockey and Field hockey dribble bounce the ball off your chest or leg, and shoot with stick between legs or juggle ball

6. Emphasise GRIP (at least 30cm apart) and demonstrate by making them guess (a golf swing, a hockey swing, and then a floorball hit which has no swing)

7. Basics to be good you need to learn the basicsthis can be encouraged to be learnt quick if they want a game at the end.

8. Organise players/students into pairs and stand them in two lines; 4-5 metres apart no more or less. This is so you can see the correct or incorrect techniques.

i)                     walk down the line so you can see who is gripping the stick correctly.

ii)                   Then explain you are going to call out pass, and they should pass one at a time. All balls should end up with their partner and balls should be passed at a comfortable pace for the person receiving. Explain how to pass and how to receive and that a flat pass is best. Pretend the balls are eggs! Be careful!!!

iii)                  Ask if ball should be passed flat or bouncyof course flat is best.

iv)                  Then do a few passes at a time (how to hold the stick and show flat passes).

1.       Say: What if ball is going on the other side?

v)                    Change to backstick and inspect grips againexplain that you dont change your hands around, you just reposition yourself. (keeping the grip in right place and smooth passes).

1.       Say: What if the ball is bouncing or you cant use your stick for some reason?           

vi)                  Stop with feetdemonstrate how (watch that they are holding the stick with top hand ALWAYS get their partners to police this. This way they learn quicker)

1.       Say: What if the ball is going high above your knees?

vii)                 Ask students to step back 3m, drop sticks lightly, and come back to 2m apart with the ball only. Stand a metre or two away and demonstrate to lightly toss the ball on to your partners chest or legs and control the ball as it touches the ground. If you smother it high up off the floor it will just bounce higher so meet it as it hits the floor. (Ball control with body, some footwork required and just smothering not squashing).

viii)             Now do it with the stick (Make sure the partners are still policing how the top hand should ALWAYS be on the top of the stick and getting close to the bounce of the ball, no high sticks and no taking top hand off).

1.       Say: What if the ball needs to be passed a long way?

ix)                Demonstrate how the ball doesnt need to be killed to get it a distance, and with quick wrist work and stick pointed to your target it should be successful. A few goes and they should master it. (Separate 10-15m give good space and look for high sticks, incorrect golf grips, and reception of the ball).

In between some of these drills and skills consult with the teacher and note the students that are doing well and those that need attention explain the basics. The teacher should come away from the lesson with some ability to teach the next lesson as it is very basic common sense material.

With time left you can do a few things:

Spinning giving a ball between two players ask them to see how many times they can spin around and around with control of the ball. Explain that they need to keep the ball around the middle or the heel of the blade and start slowly this can help with evading players and getting power on your shots as you whip the ball around your legs, a skill learnt later on.

Juggling - juggle the ball on the blade facing up (this one is hard), or off the shaft. You can also see if anyone can turn the blade over the ball in the air, so blade faces up and then around, and up again with ball still on blade.

To begin to learn how to juggle a floorball with a floorball stick you must first start with ball balancing on stick. Then slightly raise and lower 5-10cm up and down with the ball still on stick. Then larger size up and down movements, then slightly raise the ball off the blade at the top. Then higher and higher until you can toss it high and catch it on the blade.

Relays straight running 10m and then return placing the ball right on the blade of the next runner. Incorporate different skills maybe touch stick/foot 5 times, or back stick or one hand (top hand) run.

To sort out the good players straight away it is a standard to be able to make 20 good straight flat passes in a row.

GAMES

Either:

1. 2 teams of up to 8 a side if at least 10x20m (primary age) never above 5 plus gk for older age students (as 5 on 5 plus GK is IFF standard on court)
2. 2 teams (with every player given a number) then call out for 3,4,or 5 a side. For instance if you call 2,3,6,7,8 then the players with these numbers from both of these teams will come on. Rotate every 2-3 minutes get them used to the quick substitutes (by using the numbers it makes the think and concentrate a bit more). This is one of the best options.
3. 4 teams of 5/7 players rotate every 5minutes approx. No more as you may get wanderers. This option is ok if you have a good group
4. Place all sticks in middle and while blind-folded pick out teams by picking up their sticks.

As students learn the basics, in future weeks they can be taught how to substitute or line change, play house, point, dice-five, and learn which are the best shooting zones amongst many other fundamentals of Floorball.