Tag Archives: Team

Floorball – Off-season training and Injuries

Posted on by

“We were sailing into the floorball playoffs when our star player sprained his ankle, and then BOOM, we were eliminated in the first round”. Sound familiar? If you’ve been around the sports/floorball world for any length of time, you have seen it happen, probably more than once. What can you do to prevent this, and how can you overcome this when it does happen to your floorball team?

First off all, conditioning and well prepared players, that’s what it’s about. If you want to prevent most of your floorball player’s injuries, then make sure that they are well conditioned, good pre-season practicing. Devote most of your early season to get your floorball players in good physical shape. Figure out your players during the early part of the pre-season. Do not just assign the entire floorball team to run x-number of laps or km/miles and then attend to other things while they run. Make sure that out of condition floorball players, work gradually themselves up to game shape. Assign well conditioned players even more work to improve their fitness to an even greater level.

Floorball practices and drills 2 vs 2

Never ever scrimp on warm-up time (can and should be done before the floorball practice, in my eyes!) Make sure that late arriving players go through a full warm-up period before allowing them to join in the activities. Many floorball players are injured each year when they get to floorball practice late and then jump right into high stress movements.  Do not injure your players with over-enthusiasm.

Floorball – Waterboy Leadership

Posted on by

We are a team

The statement “First-teamer will not be a correct word. I need all of you. You need each other. We are a TEAM.” That statement shows how important José Mourinho sees each player in his team. To not be eaten up by the competition from other teams and unhealthy competition within the team, he is creating a culture, where everybody feels and knows that they are an important piece in the team puzzle. Each player should act like a leader regardless of the rank or position within the team, with this I’m meaning the players take responsibility for their own role, results and therefore also for the teams results, they are leaders from their position, during practices, games and outside football. Each player is part of the leadership team within the team, no role is a small role!

Floorball feedback, value it

Maybe this is why Samuel Eto’o accepted to play in a “not central” role his last season 2010 in Internazionale and take a big defensive responsibility, instead of beeing in a central role, like he is playing now.
With this vision everyone needs to show “leadership”, take responsibility for the results, inspire teammates and therefore also act in a positive way towards their teammates, be a leader. No matter what your position is within your team within the team (defense, midfield, forward or a waterboy…), how old you are, what earlier experience you have, you have the power of showing leadership, no one can take that away from you if, you decide to do it. Make your players aware of this, this is what Mourinho is doing.

“For example, in my team I love to have Geremi on the bench because he’s a low-profile player who is ready to help, ready to fight for the team, ready to do the job I want him to do.” /José Mourinho

“Why drive Aston Martin all the time, when i have Ferrari and Porsche as well? That would just be stupid” /José Mourinho

You are a key player

Positive culture creates a positive spiral and positive spiral creates positive results. Remember every role is an important role! Think of an orchestra, one false tone from somebody and… or think of this example.

Xvxn if my computxr is old, it works vxry wxll, xxcxpt for onx tangxnt kxy. You could think it wouldn’t affxct this txxt, but somxhow it’s dxstroying it. Somxtimxs you might say to your sxlf that your xfforts arx not visiblx, you arx just onx small pixcx in thx puzzlx and no onx will rxcognizx if you don’t do your bxst, but bxlixvx mx, your xfforts will makx diffxrxncx, sincx a txam will nxxd all of it’s playxrs in order to function and pxrform wxll. So nxxt time you think your xfforts will not makx diffxrxncx, rxmxmbxr my old computxr, you arx a kxy playxr and your xfforts will makx diffxrxncx!

Floorball coaching staff

Posted on by

It seems like good floorball teams always have luck, you look over to their side of the field and the head coach seems to have a ton of help. Floorball parents seem to positively flock in to help winning teams! Or just maybe it’s the other way around, maybe the floorball team is successful because of the staff around it. Maybe the real truth is this, behind every successful floorball coach, there is a helpful coaching staff.

Talk to long-time floorball coaches and you’ll discover one thing mighty quickly. Most of them have several people that have been working with them for years. They have an assistant coach, maybe even two or three. They have some parents that help with fund-raising; they may even have the same sponsor year after year.

Youth floorball coaching, training, practices and drills

This isn’t just luck, it’s smart planning on the part of a head coach. Smart floorball coaches make sure that they have plenty of help, and plenty of the right kind of help. Before the floorball season has even begun, they probably have decided on a program and gotten their assistants to commit to another season. Even first year floorball coaches can do this, they might get off to a later start than the returning coach, but they certainly should spend the floorball pre-season finding as much help as possible.

Floorball – Motivation

Posted on by

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 – Build them up

Posted on by

As the season progresses, keep after your floorball players. Build them up, compliment their improvement, reward them for it! If your floorball team is competitive, don’t forget what got you there! Continue to speak of floorball team cohesion and learning opportunities. The worst thing you can do is to forget your plan and start focusing on the title, all you are doing is setting your players up for an even greater disappointment. You’ll make them tight, nervous, and in the end… will they still be having fun then?

Floorball youth skill drills and practices

Remember, even if you’re not feeling particularly positive during some point in the floorball game, your attitude and your face, your posture, your entire being  must reflect that you are positive and believe in your floorball team, and each individual. You have all the faith in the world in your teammates. They can do this and your positive attitude shows them that.