Smart Youth Floorball Players

Smart and well trained floorball players are a floorball coaches best assets. Well-conditioned smart floorball players will beat less intelligent, yet bigger and stronger players almost every time! If a floorball coach trains the minds of his floorball players while he is drilling them, he will be rewarded in the long run.
The best time to engage your floorball players’ minds is when you are drilling their bodies. This goes like a hand in a glove with the idea of keeping your drills fun and challenging (a post couple of days ago)!

Multidimensional floorball practices and drills

Work on several things at once in your floorball drills (multidimensional practicing), but get the basics in place before adding more dimensions to the floorball drills.
While the assistant coaches are observing technique performance, a smart head coach will be drilling his floorball players minds, teaching them game situations, preparing them to think for themselves when the time comes. Never waste an opportunity to succeed, and make a point of never wasting time.

Floorball practice warm up

Why this floorball drill or practice?

Know why you are running the drill! You can use the leadership model on this page and apply it on your drills and practices (why, goal, how, result and feedback). Don’t just find some floorball drill in an old floorball coaching manual and decide that you can waste twenty minutes on it at the next practice. Locate floorball drills that will improve what your players have been doing poorly or strengthen even more what you are strong in. If your players are making poor tactical decisions during the floorball games, find floorball drills that will teach them to think about that specific game situation. There is no sense in running them through another floorball drill that teaches them something that they already know by heart.

The floorball drills found on this page are created to develop your players’ skills in game like practices and drills.

So, keep your floorball drills fun and challenging, keep your players focused and challenge them to think ahead. Do this, and you will be a successful, floorball coach!

Fun and Challenging Floorball Drills and Practices

Every floorball coach knows that successful floorball practices and drills involve a lot of teaching. Floorball players learn the proper techniques and skills through hours and hours of repeating the same movements, and yes, this can be boring, but should it be? Of course not, since drills and practices are the key to teaching and learning in any sport.

Good floorball coaches manage to minimize the boredom, and great floorball coaches make the most boring activity entertaining and engaging.

Multidimensional Floorball training

I try to start to build up a floorball drill from a very basic format, just to get the foundation in place, and when you see your floorball players manage the skills, you add a new part to the floorball drill, one extra player, forward or defensive player, an extra shot, or a pass. To keep the development and the challenge. Competition is also a good motivational factor for very many floorball players.

Floorball skill practice drills

Mental training in Floorball

You can also add mental training into your floorball drills and practices, each time a defensive player goes out into the floorball drill he/she could have a mantra in his/her head repeated “I’m strong and I feel confident”, or something else that is building up them mentally, so when they manage the technical part of the floorball drill, you can add a mental part to develop and challenge your floorball players.

Eliminate waiting in Floorball Practices

Another thing you can use to keep your floorball drills fun and challenging is to eliminate the waiting time, waiting and standing is waste and boring for your floorball players, keep your players activated and focused! While they are waiting to perform the floorball drill, they can work with stick/ball handling and ball controling drills.

Waiting time at floorball practice before a drill

Focus on development – avoid status quo

Make your floorball drills fun and challenging! Don’t be stuck in status quo. This cannot be emphasized enough. It is also important that your floorball coaching staff is in place, during the floorball drills, and you have clear defined responsibilities and roles in the coaching team, making sure that your players are using the proper techniques and get the teaching they need for their development.

Make your players enjoy and look forward for the next floorball practice! You have their bodies, now work on getting their brains.

Floorball Breakout Practice

Break outs in floorball tend sometimes to be a bit static, at least in my “hockey” eyes. Three players are passing the ball to each other in a triangle near own goal and after a while a long pass on chance towards the two top forwards. This is visualized in the floorball game picture below. The opposite team is just passive and can easily keep a correct positioning.

Breakout Floorball passing triangle

Do you recognize the set up? Do you agree?

Floorball breakout option with more movement involved

What if… we start to be more active, move a little bit more and force the opposite team to do the same…

Breakout option in floorball

D1 passes the ball to D2. D2 starts to move towards the border, D1 moves into the position of D2, D2 passes the ball to D1 in centre and continues the running towards the border. P1 runs into the centre and either the opposite teams offensive player will follow him to the middle and we have a free space for a pass to D1 (pass B). If the opposite player decides not follow P1, P1 will be free in the middle (pass A). The two top forwards will switch positions and create confusion for the defensemen on how to act.

The next passing options will be:
If A then A1 or A2 (or D1 at border, not visualized in the drawing).
If B then B1 or B2.

Could this work, what do you think?