About Floorball


What is Floorball?

Floorball is an exciting new sport brought to Australia by Europeans who played the game in Sweden and Finland. Floorball is a fast paced game with three to five person teams + goalies (the IFF standard is 5 on 5 plus g, but this can be modified for social competitions), that began in early 1980s in Scandinavia. Since then, it has spread to more than 30 official countries. More than 250,000 official players participate worldwide. It’s one of the most fastest growing indoor-games in world.

The game is simple: the object is to score a goal in the opponent`s goal using the Floorball stick. No physical contact is allowed and players may not raise their sticks above their waists. Floorball has been called a thinking man´s game, with skill and technique more important than brute strength or intimidation.

Players may not have contact with opponent´s sticks except at the blade area, and pushing or blocking opponents is not allowed. Small teams allow for substitutions, which are encouraged because of the fast pace of the games.


Basic ideas when picking up the stick

When starting floorball the main things to look at are:

  • You have a top hand and a bottom hand on the grip, if left is your top hand then youre a rightie and if its right on top, then you're a leftie.
    Most players are lefties in Europe, however in Australia most of them are right handers. An even balance of lefties and righties in a team is advantageous.

  • Your top hand is dedicated to stay on the stick otherwise you get really tangled up, tackled easily and learn the wrong technique for most skills.

  • When tackling other players, go for the ball. A swinging style tackle will be considered slashing.

  • When shooting and passing, most of your power comes from behind your back foot as you stand side on to your target. Starting your pass or shooting near your front foot will cause the ball to rise.

  • When shooting or passing remember the ball is just 23grams, a mobile phone is 80grams, it doesn't take much to move this thing.

  • If the ball is even a couple of cm off the ground, get used to using your foot, definitely do not bang the ball down into the court as it will bounce even higher.

  • Most important of all, don't forget to have fun !!!

A Few Simple Rules

International rules of floorball can be found from homepage of International Floorball Federation www.floorball.org

Here are few simple basic rules to make the game comfortable and safe.

  • Pushing
    Floorball is a non-contact sport
  • High stick
    Keep the blade of your stick always below your waist
  • Hitting, lifting and holding your opponents stick
    Doing this will give the opposing team a free hit
  • Jumping
    When reaching for the ball, keep at least one foot on a ground
  • Header
    This is not soccer, do not use your head (or hands) to reach the ball
  • Slashing
    Try to use your skills, not force. To get the ball be careful not to injure anyone by slashing with your stick
  • Misconduct
    Lets behave and remember to have fun!

Referee Signs

  • Continue playing
    Just play on if referee shows this. Example: If your goal wasn’t really a goal and no faults were conducted even if someone is loudly protesting.
  • Face off
    When both sides are innocent. Example: When the game starts again after the rink boards has fallen, game had to be stopped while fixing them.
  • Free Hit
    If you breake the rules your opponents get a free hit from the place ref is pointing to.
  • Advantage
    You have the ball anyway and you’re in good position, so there’s no reason to stop the game and give you a free hit, though someone did break the rules.
  • Penalty Minutes
    Count the referees fingers to find out how many minutes you have to calm down on a bench while your team mates has to play with one man less on a field.

International Floorball

Floorball's international umbrella organisation is the International Floorball Federation (IFF), founded on April 12, 1986.

The founding members countries were Sweden, Finland and Switzerland.
There are over 150 000 floorball players who take part in international competitions and more than one million players overall.

At present, there are 26 member nations in the IFF:
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and USA.

The decision-making body of the IFF is the nine-member Executive Board. Responsibilities are divided amongst several committees. One ongoing important IFF project includes the acquisition of coaching knowledge and material and its transference to new member countries. Finland has lent particularly strong support to the floorball federations in the Baltic countries and Australia.

The men's first international game was played in Sollentuna, Sweden on August 29, 1985. The women's first international game, between Sweden and Norway, took place in Örebro, Sweden on May 8, 1993. The first official international games for junior men under nineteen were played in Helsinki, Finland on November 8-10, 1996 between Finland, Sweden and Switzerland.

The men's European Championships commenced in Helsinki in the spring of 1994. In the following year, the European Championships were organised in Switzerland at which time women also participated. The first World Championships were played in Sweden in the spring of 1996. The final between Sweden and Finland attracted 15 106 spectators to the Globe Arena in Stockholm.

The women's first World Championships were played in the Åland Islands on May 3-10, 1997. 1999 finnish women gained World Champion title in Borlänge, Sweden. Hereafter, the World Championships are organised in alternate years for men and women.

Floorball was an exhibition sport at the World Games in Lahti on August 14-17, 1997. The International Floorball Federation is currently applying for membership in the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF).

2002 Mens World Championships were held in Finland. The Australian Mens Floorball Team competed in the in B Division. After losing only 1 game in the championships, Australia finished in 9th place in B Division and finished with a World Ranking of 17th.

The 2004 World Championships will be reduced to only 20 Countries and Australia has already qualified by finishing inside the top 20.