It all started with floorball: How a sports hater became a sports embracer
I'd gotten myself into a conversation about sports and as an avid avoider-of-all-televised-sports, I was sorely regretting my life choices that had led me to this moment.
"Floorboard. You know, that sport that all Finns love."
"Floorboard?"
I racked my brain for something remotely intelligent to say, but couldn't manage to shake the distracting image of people rolling around on mahogany floors…or something.
"FloorBALL. You can't seriously tell me you haven't heard of this."
The thought of humans attempting to slither across waxed wooden floors vanished abruptly. And with its disappearance began my stuttered attempt to salvage the disintegrating remnants of this conversation.
I went home that evening and starting googling this sport furiously. Wikipedia enlightened me to the fact that floorball is actually a breed of floor hockey with five players plus one goalkeeper. Interestingly, there's no puck, just a plastic ball with holes. Unrelatedly relevant, I remembered the amusing time I put cheese in a plastic practice golf ball and watched my dog entertain itself endlessly.
Aside from other such distracting flashbacks, my night was filled to the brim with new sports information and floorball facts. Like that it started informally in Canada in the early 20th century, then the Americans pretended they invented it, and then Sweden really developed it into an organised sport. A decade later, and all the Nordic countries were embracing the sport.
I also learned that the word for floorball in Finnish is salibandy.
Plus for those Finnish patriots out there, Finland beat Sweden in the biannual Floorball World Championships 2016 held in Riga, Latvia.
And for those Aussie sports fans, I've got news for you yet!
Floorball has made its way over the seven seas to the land down under, and is even played regularly in Canberra. And you know something's cool if the Canberrans have got their hands on it, so this definitely sparked my curiosity ignition. The timing of this discovery (definitely not slightly tweaked for creative writing purposes) coincided perfectly with the visit from Australian Floorball Association founder Rainer Martiskin to the Embassy. As soon as I heard that he loved to talk floorball, I gave him a ring to scope out the floorball scene in Australia.
His passion for the sport was apparent as soon as I got him on the phone. Without much prompting at all, he launched into a history of the sport's development in Australia, and to my surprise, it was much more interesting and successful than I might've originally thought.
It was in 1995 that Rainer stumbled across the sport. There was an amusing correlation to the way we'd both mistaken it for something else; his thinking that it was a Monopoly game, my thinking of endless expanses of wooden floors. He'd thought it was a great looking sport, established the Australian Floorball Association (AFA) in 1996 and then had set off around Australia together with his younger brother Leif and cousin Toni Kokkonen to start promoting the sport. His friend Jason Cowland has helped to keep the flame and spirit of the sport alive until the present day.
Make no mistake, floorball is known as a Swedish sport, yet the Finns were instrumental in bringing it to Australia in a unique intercountry collaboration. In just two years (1998) he'd gotten an Australian team of more than 20 players together to go to the World Floorball Championships in Prague! Since then, floorball has gained increasing recognition and while growth is slow, it's still definite.
Rainer began to talk more about this interesting relationship between Finland and Australia. From 1998, hundreds of new people exposed to this sport are going to Finland. The juniors get to travel to Finland as well; oftentimes it's their first experience overseas and their presence in Finland generally generates a fair bit of media attention as well. And (rather predictably) they all end up loving Finland and the Finns seem to love the Australians as well.
"The Finns have always been very open and accommodating to the Australians. And the players notice and appreciate it. I've never heard any negative feedback about Finland."
Recently, any time that the Australian teams have travelled to play in Europe, they've always gone via Finland, which is frankly, a marvellous idea. Floorball is in Finland what cricket is in Australia. Kids play these sports growing up, in university and sometimes through adulthood; it's a significant part of the culture. The players in Finland are very good at what they do, given they have a lot more exposure to floorball. So when the Aussies pass through Finland to play matches arranged with local clubs, on their way to the various floorball competitions around Europe, there's a beautiful sense of learning and collaboration between the two nationalities. The Finnish players mix with the Aussies; the Aussies are immersed in Finnish culture (sauna!), literally immersed in Finnish nature (swimming in ice cold lakes – brutal but necessary) and exposed to the quiet serenity Finland encompasses.
There have been fantastic opportunities for the Australian floorball team as well. For the World Floorball Championships in Riga, Latvia, Petteri Nykky actually coached the Australian team. If you don't follow floorball (like me), you'd probably be thinking (like I was), who is Petteri Nykky anyway?
He's one of the most well-known coaches for floorball. In fact, he's the next coach for the Finnish national team, necessary for their preparations to defend their title of World Floorball Champions in Prague in 2018. To say even more about the progress of the floorball scene in Australia: recently, the first ever Australian coach went to coach in Finland. Finland, the country that has won numerous World Floorball Championships; Finland, the land where babies are born with floorball sticks in their hands; Finland, the place where no one thinks salibandy is salibrandy. Basically, if you hadn't gotten the hint already, it's a remarkable achievement with surely many more to come.
There was a pause in the conversation, and I took advantage of it to showcase my inept knowledge of sports. Slightly afraid to cause offence, but deathly curious, I asked it anyway:
"What's the difference between hockey and floorball?"
Rainer paused, took a deep breath and told me how he never liked to speak badly of other sports. I sensed a 'but', so I waited.
He described hockey as a dinosaur sport. Which I can totally understand, because have you seen what the goalkeepers have to wear? Enough protective gear to last a lifetime, probably. Hockey is played with a wooden stick in a massive field, with a massive ball and is only for the 90% of the population that is right handed. That elicited a frown from me, being a member of the cleverer 10% of the population.
On the other hand, floorball is cheaper, cooler, with "street gear", can be played by both right handed and left handed people, and being quicker and smaller isn't a disadvantage at all. It's fast, easy to learn, flows easily and non-aerobic. If you're not at the peak of your fitness, don't worry, because there's an unlimited interchange of players. Which means you can sit out, catch your breath and get back on the floor… However. Many. Times. You. Want.
He did it. Rainer did it. He sold floorball to someone who was predicting to be floorbored by floorball talk, not floored by how addictive and fun the sport sounds.
Aside from having volunteers in the floorball scene who are miracle workers, the Australian floorball community is a wonderful thing for foreigners in Australia. Many times, Finns come to Australia for their studies or for work and it's a great way for them to learn about Australian culture in a safe and fun community all while playing a sport they're familiar with, and probably relatively good at.
So if you're curious and want to find out more, or if you're already a skilled floorball player, or even if you've never played but want to start this weekend, check out the website below for more details. Remember, if I can be convinced, it means that their slogan is scarily accurate – that floorball is indeed the sport for all!
The Australian Floorball Association: http://www.floorballaustralia.org.au/(Link to another website.)
Winter Series 2017 Registration Day for social floorball (29-04-17): https://www.facebook.com/events/435489293462420/(Link to another website.)
Karen Khoo