Tag Archives: Players

Floorball – Motivation

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Every floorball coach struggles with motivating his or her players from time to time. You’d think that this wouldn’t be a problem, you’d think that that all of your floorball players would be highly motivated already. I mean they signed up to be your floorball team, right? They MUST all be highly motivated and ready for you to mold them into stars… right?

Okay, stop laughing. I know, I know… Wake up! I’m dreaming! I’ll bet you thought the same thing when you first started coaching. You entered into this with the idea that everyone would be happy to see you, and that everyone would look to you for guidance, but that impression didn’t last for ever or did it?

Floorball youth coaching drills and practices

So what can you do with your floorball players strangely lacking drive to run through a brick wall for you and the team? Well, the first thing you need to understand is that every player is different. Not all of your floorball players are dynamos of energy, ready and willing to die for the cause. No, some of them just want to have a bit of fun in the sunshine, while others wan’t to be floorball superstars. Get to know your floorball players and theire motives and their vision of being in the floorball team to find the answer and the correct ingredients to get them motivated.

Floorball – Focus on the positive and improvement

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At the beginning of the floorball season every coach meets his or her new floorball players and analyzes their skill-set and knowledge of the game. Lets face facts, most floorball coaches know from the first day whether or not their team is going to be competitive or not, and it just as true that many coaches get frustrated on that very first day. A good floorball coach never lets his team see this frustration.

Floorball game running and focusing on defense

Focus on the positive! Speak to your floorball players about improvement. From the very first floorball practice, speak of learning skills and working hard. We’ve all seen the comedy routines about the impossibly naïve coach who keeps talking about having fun while his players are getting killed, but in the long run, aren’t sports supposed to be about having a good time while simultaneously building character?

Floorball Coaching from different perspectives

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Have you ever thought about how the floorball coaching role is seen from different perspectives… Not? Well I have, and these are just my personal thoughts… 🙂

Coach, Coaching, Friends, Floorball, I, Leadership, Parents, Perspective, Players, Society, You

Floorball vs. Hockey from a coach perspective Part 3

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Players coming from hockey to floorball are already on a very good level ragarding stickhandling and they are used to body contact, which is increasing in floorball, and the hockey players have also good “foot skills / foot work” from all different skating practices.

If you try to summarize what the two sports floorball and hockey can bring to ech other is;

Floorball to Hockey skills

– Stickhandling skills
– Early game understanding
– Passing skills

Hockey to Floorball skills

– Different type of stickhandling skills and practices
– New dimensions to the game understanding
– Strength and body contact
– Movement into the game

Common skills between floorball and hockey

– Passing
– Tactics
– Technical skills (like stickhandling)
– Game systems and set ups
– Shots

Hockey and floorball in cooperation

I personally and as a coach try to find the benefits between floorball and hockey instead of competition in the early ages. Floorball can develop hockey and hockey can develop floorball, you just need to have an open mind and co-operate and create contacts over these two sport borders, this will benefit both sports and the amount of players!

We can share the players and develop them together to be stars in either floorball or hockey in the end!

Floorball – The power of three letters – WHY

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Think of a situation where you did not have the true energy or motivation to do something. Do you have the picture and the feeling?

I can use one of my examples, it’s of course from the sports. I played football and had my position to the right on the midfield. On some of the drills on our football practices I was supposed run up on the border and then make turn and run in towards the middle, and then the defenseman would pass the ball on the same side I was running from, to a forward that was meeting up the ball.

I found it totally unnecessary and useless doing that and therefore asked the coach, why I’m running the way I were, I just got the answer that I needed to do so, it was part of the drill… Do you find it exciting?

Ok I did not have José Mourinho as the head coach and I wasn’t David Beckham and as you see I didn’t have the opportunity either.

Floorball youth skills drills and practices

Explaining Why

What if the coach would have explained it this way? You need to run on the border and turn into the middle to get their left midfielder to follow you to the centre, by doing this you will create some space at the border, since their midfielder will follow you, and therefore we can pass the ball to our own forward in that space you have created through your run, and from there we can start our next move, so you are making an important run to create space for your teammate and for us to make the next move.

So what was the secret? WHY, you are doing something. Can you see the difference in the motivation and energy level of a young player?

Mourinho, do he need to explain why?

José Mourinho is of course not facing this simple problem, but he will still need to explain WHY, many, many times to his players. Sometimes it’s even harder to get your experienced players trying to do some new things, because some of them will be “yesbuts”, yes but, we are used to do it this way, and then you really need to explain WHY, they need to do things differently or your way.

“Yesbut we are different”
“Yesbut we have already tried it in the past”
“Yesbut our people don’t like it”
“Yesbut but my responsibility will change”
“Yesbut it will destroy our game”
“Yesbut it does not fit our structure”
“Yesbut our fans do not need it”
“Yesbut we are obliged to …”

God bless the whynotters!
They dare to dream…. and act, thereby achieving what others see as unachievable.

Why is also important in general terms, for why you are playing floorball, why are you here in this floorball team? You can also ask that question to yourself, why are you coaching, why are you a floorball coach?

Non-professional floorball players (main reasons)

Really young floorball player: Why are you playing?
–         I want to be a floorball pro
–         My parents want me to play
–         I have my best friend David here
–

Young floorball player: Why are you playing?
–         I want to be a floorball pro or at least try to earn some money on it
–         I have my friends here
–

Semi-professional Floorball player: Why are you playing?
–         I get some extra money
–         I like the chat in the locker room
–         I just like it, it’s part of me
–         It keeps me in shape
–         It’s nice to say you are a floorball player, to the girls in the bar
–         I like floorball
–

Professional floorball players (main reasons)
–         I earn my living
–         I want to win the league/big titles
–         I want to be a better football player
–         I like the chat in the locker room
–         I just like it, it’s part of me
–         I like floorball
–         I want to win (game, league, tournament)
–

“I told Adrian Mutu, you are already a rich boy, you won a lot of money, you are still in a big contract. So no problem with your future about money, no problem about prestige in your home country. When you go back to Romania you will be one of the kings. But five years after you leave football nobody remembers you. Only if you do big things. This is what makes history.”  /José Mourinho

Youth floorball practices and drills

When you are coaching floorball on “lower” levels you need to understand why your players are there, to be able to pull the right strings, your floorball players will have many reasons to why they want to play floorball, have you asked them?

Why are your Floorball players there?

What about if you are José Mourinho? Somehow there is no difference, you still need to know why, why are your players there, the main reason is not just that they have a contract with the team (in that case they probably already are sitting on the bench) or that they want to earn a lot of money, because they already are. So what is it then?

That’s a question I can not give you the right answer on, you need to know your players to understand, why they continue their career and what motivates them, and I mean each and one of them, because you will not get the same answer from each and one of the players!

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