First floorball
Inas Mazhar, Tuesday 8 Oct 2019


The first regional floorball Special Olympics Cup is set to be held in November 2019 in Egypt for the first time.

The decision was taken during the floorball coaches’ workshop which was held in Cairo after the regional technical committee’s suggestion to include six nations from the region to join the competition at the next Winter Games in Sweden 2021, reports Inas Mazhar.

Floorball, one of the Special Olympics winter sports, is to be admitted at the 2021 Winter Games to be held in Sweden.

The theoretic and practical coaches workshop was held at the Gezira Youth Centre. The sessions were held under the supervision of Special Olympics official and expert Stein Homan, and the president of the SOI Technical Committee.

Eleven coaches took part in the workshop representing Egypt, Morocco, the UAE, Jordan, Tunisia, Sudan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Libya and Palestine.

The second day’s agenda saw the theoretic part of the sport workshop where the participants were introduced to developing the players’ skills and setting the training plan while reviewing the final match of the last World Championship and highlighting the goalkeeper’s area of movement, especially that that area is already restricted to the goalkeeper and forbidden for any other players since the goalie is usually on his knees. The penalty kick spot was also noted.

SOI expert Homan also tackled the basic rules the coach should apply in his role of guiding the players, whether to enhance their basic skills, running with the ball, hitting with the stick and also maintaining high body fitness which is required in the match, especially when running for long distances. Coaches were also advised to make training sessions entertaining for the players.

Homan also identified four main stages in the building-up process of the player, which the coach has to consider when drawing up his training plan.

In the theory part, Homan focused on the fact that a coach should make sure to include all the players in the match, in equal intervals and pointed out that the officials’ table outside monitors this process. It was noticed in Austria 2017 that some coaches have denied some players, especially the weaker and unfit, from taking part in the match. Accordingly, the coach has to select players with the same in order to allow them all the chance to take part in the game.

Regional President and Managing Director of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Special Olympics Ayman Abdel-Wahab approved a suggestion submitted by the region’s technical director, headed by Emad Mohieddin, the sports and training director, and Sherif Al-Foli, general director of Games and Competitions, to change the dates of the first regional floorball cup to be held in November 2019 in order to give the chance to all six nominated nations to prepare for Sweden 2021. Altogether 50 nations are expected to take part in the floorball competition.

Floorball is a fast and entertaining sport and the development has been amazingly quick. Since the first floorball federation was founded in Sweden, the sport has spread all over the world and is now played in over 80 countries out of which close to 75 countries currently are members of the International FloorBall Federation (IFF).

Floorball is played in a match between two teams consisting of five field players and a goalkeeper in the rink at one time. The idea of the game is to score more goals than the opposite team within the limits of the rules.The basic roles of the players are forwards, defenders and goalkeepers.

Game time can vary depending on the age of players and the level of the match. In official matches game time is 3 x 20 minutes. During tournaments and in matches with young players, other game times can be used, for example 2 x 15 minutes.

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