Happy Floorball Day - April 12

By Bold Apps

Happy Floorball Day - April 12

April 12- Happy Floorball Day!

On this Day April 12th, 1986, 3 Nations came together to form the International Floorball Federation (IFF).  

The International Floorball Federation was founded 12th of April, 1986 in Huskvarna, Sweden, by the floorball associations of Finland, Sweden and Switzerland.  Thanks to our dear friend, the late Andras Czitrom who became the IFF's first President.

Today we celebrate one of the fastest growing sports in the world: Floorball!

Where did the the name Floorball come from?

According to a report from the first official Board meeting in 1986, There was a deep discussion in the naming of Floorball.  Key points were that anything with the word hockey in it was already taken by The International Ice Hockey Federation (Ice Hockey) and The International Hockey Federation (Field Hockey)

At that point, They could have established the International Floor Hockey Federation (Floor Hockey) but that could have caused conflict and confusion in the "Hockey" world.  After much discussion, the IFF founders voted on "Floorball", a good name that describes the sport adequately.

However, even today the founding member nations of the IFF refuse to support the decision to have a unified global brand name and continue to pursue their own local variations. 

1. In Sweden, they re-designed the original blade design of a plastic Floor Hockey stick to look more like a banana blade from the sport of Ice Bandy, ending up with the name "Innebandy" which means "indoor bandy".  To this day, they still go with "Innebandy" as their own National term for Floorball.

http://www.innebandy.se/

2. The Swiss felt that what they were playing was universally accessible indoor floor hockey and should be named "universal hockey" aka "UniHockey"  

https://unihockey.ch/

3. The Finns also came up with their own name for the game suitable for their local interpretation...and that was "Salibandy" which loosely translated means Hall Hockey or Bandy that you play indoors in a sport hall (gymnasium)

http://salibandy.fi/

In our opinion, in this era of modern sport globalization carving out a unique identity and sticking with one name, like Floorball would be the smart way to go.

Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognizes the Sport of Floorball:

https://www.arisf.org/fed-15-iff_international_floorball_federation

https://www.theworldgames.org/sports/Floorball-56

Pathway to the Olympics:

Floorball has become a medal sport in these global multi-sport entities:

The International University Sports Federation- FISU http://www.fisu.net/sports/floorball

The Special Olympics                       https://www.specialolympics.org/floorball.aspx

In the Area of Para Games, Floorball is the preferred variant of off-ice, indoor hockey:

Manual Wheelchair Floorball:

https://www.facebook.com/wheelchair.floorball

Electric Wheelchair Floorball

http://www.floorball.org/default.asp?kieli=826&sivu=467&alasivu=467

The Roots of Floorball (Floor Hockey)

There are a few different versions of where and when Floorball truly began. 

It is our belief that the Birthplace of Floorball (Floor Hockey) was in Canada.

wikipedia source- Sam Jacks started his professional career in recreation in 1935 as Assistant Physical Director at the West End YMCA in Toronto. In 1936 Jacks created the game of floor hockey, and developed the first set of rules, and was recognized by the Youth Branch of the United Nations for the creation of the game.

In 1947, Jacks coached the Junior Olympic Floor Hockey Team which competed in the USA and finished third.

The Carlson brothers of Lakeville, Minnesota were the first true entrepreneurs of Floorball, when they formed the Cosom Corporation. Plastic Hockey style sticks, plastic puck and plastic balls sparked the movement of indoor gymnasium based floor hockey in schools.  Here is a video from 1964 promoting almost identical values to the sport we now know as Floorball.

 

Modern Hockey and FloorballPlus+

In 2006, We began to import Floorball sticks and grow Floorball as an off-ice training system for Hockey players. Modern Hockey Parts Inc. was the instigator of the North American Floorball for Hockey dynamic and we put major emphasis on building the foundation for Floorball to expand in the Americas.  We started Leagues, starting programs in Community Rec Centers, YMCA's, Boys and Girls Clubs, Church gyms, Multi-Sport Facilities, and Schools.  We forged strategic partnerships with Hockey organizations across North America, and built up our reputation in the Hockey community as the leaders in Floorball training and development.  

By the Year 2014, after serving on International, National and Provincial/State and Municipal sport development committees, FloorballPlus+ was launched.  Since then, the Beaudin family have accelerated the growth of Floorball by creating their own Floorball stick brand and teamed up with Pavel Barber to showcase Floorball as an emerging sport through Hockey Schools, Community Fundraising events, School Tours and a brand new purpose built off-ice training facility.

To enable the growth of Floorball, education materials and coach training courses were deployed with our territory partners.  With the following Eco-System (diagram below), years of hard work combined with our hockey foundation positions FloorballPlus+ as the leader and authority on all things Floorball development, education, and equipment supply in the Americas and beyond.

The Future of Floorball Looks Bright!

To Learn more about our Education Programs, TurnKey League Startup Platform, and our Floorball+ Equipment Line, contact us at FloorballPlus.com

by Greg Beaudin