To:
U.S. Floorball Players

Re:
Challenge

I am writing to you about something which is very important to me - the development of floorball in the USA. In the Spring of 1995, I learned about this fantastic sport at a Physical Education conference. I have been hooked ever since, playing with a nice group of people 1-3 times per week for the past seven years. During these years the game evolved for us tremendously; we went from playing on small goals with no goalies to playing with goalies and regulation size goals, following IFF rules. However, we play in almost total obscurity, struggle to get court times and have difficulties maintaining our numbers.
I believe that other floorball groups in the USA have similar problems. I have asked myself why it is that this fun and exciting sport has not yet caught on even though it seems ideal for girls, boys, men and women? It certainly has the potential to fill a niche for people who love hockey. It is inexpensive, does not require the skill of skating and prohibits hitting and checking.
There may be several answer to my question:
Many floorball groups are made up of adults. They got into the game through co-workers or friends from Scandinavia who have played the game there. The adults play to have fun but for the most part they do not concern themselves with making the sport of floorball more popular, attracting more players and developing youth players to keep the sport alive.
There is a lack of uniformity in how the game is played amongst the different U.S. groups. Some play on inline hockey rinks, some in gymnasiums, others on astro turf or tennis courts. The size of the goals differs from group to group and some do not even play with goalies. The rules that are being played by may be heavily adapted from the official IFF rules.
This lack of uniformity contributes to the difficulty of attracting new players to the sport. To someone watching the game it may appear to be more of a "kind of fun, helter skelter" game that emulates hockey, played with plastic sticks and on feet; a watered down version of street hockey rather than the sport that it is. Someone who watches a game in California may not even recognize it as the same game when seeing it in North Carolina.
In order to grow floorball in the U.S. I have set a few simple goals:

*The development of youth teams through volunteers from already existing floorball groups to introduce the sport to recreational centers, churches, schools and YMCA/YWCA facilities.
*Forming connections between the existing groups and urging them to play by IFF rules and whenever possible, play on standard courts.
*Get the existing groups to play against each other in tournaments if possible to develop a floorball history and culture in the USA.
*Urging existing groups to go beyond just playing pick-up and dedicate some time each week to practice and skill development.
* Using the usafloorball website as a source of help and information as well as a means to communicate and share experiences with other floorball players in the USA and around the world.
* Becoming involved in floorball by making people aware of the existence of this and similar sites and perhaps advocating floorball by contacting local news media to make them aware of the existence of the sport.
I predict that there will be similarities in the way floorball will develop in the USA to the way soccer has already developed here over the past 25 years. Soccer used to be looked upon as an alternative sport for girls and for people who wanted to be play a team sport. It did not require special skills (or so it was thought), people of any body type could play and it did not cost much money to get into, unlike (American) football, basketball or baseball.
Floorball can emerge as the alternative to inline hockey, ice hockey, street hockey and even soccer, all sports that either require special skills or body types, are very expensive or have become so crowded with players that kids are subjected to tryouts for teams, often with the result that they are cut, causing feelings of failure and rejection.
I hope that there are those of you who love the sport as much as I do, who will make a personal sacrifice and give of their time and energy to help develop floorball in the USA.
Please feel free to give me your input or feedback by contacting me via e-mail at president@usafloorball.org.