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Written by Staff
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As far back as I can remember hockey has been my single biggest passion. In fact I’ve held a stick in my hands more than I have just about any other, um, device. I’ve had a few championship successes but also a number of defeats. I’ve scored highlight reel-worthy goals and enough blooper plays to fill a compilation DVD. More than anything, I’ve enjoyed the rush of wind in my hair as I run down the rink to either lock in on an opposing goal or defend my own.
Wait a minute, run? Yes, instead of hitting the ice, I have taken up floor hockey as my sport of choice, and I am most definitely not alone.
Whether it’s floor hockey, or its sister sport ball hockey, non-ice shinny has taken Winnipeg by storm. On any given night, you’d be hard pressed not to find a group of athletes with a stick in hand and runners slung over their shoulders, entering gymnasiums and prepping for a couple solid hours of fierce off-ice competition.
“In the last five years, it’s really started to take off,” says Kelly Huff, executive director of the Manitoba Ball Hockey Association, which came into existence just 20 years ago.
The reasons for its popularity are countless. One factor is the affordability of the sport compared to its ice-bound counterpart. Floor hockey is a much cheaper game to play—at the most basic level, sticks, a ball or puck and some street hockey gear will get you through a game.
There are, of course, other factors though. Shael Glesby has been playing on-and-off since he was 18. Now the head of a Monday night pick-up league that has been around for well over a decade, he has the opportunity not only to get a good sweat outside the gym and have social time with his peers, but also share in an experience that you won’t find in a lot of sports.
“Floor hockey is almost as Canadian as ice hockey,” says Glesby. “It is a great opportunity to get a good workout and to play a game at the same time. I now also get enjoyment out of the fact that I have lasted long enough to be able to play in the league with my son, even if we are often on opposing teams.”
As diverse as the reasons are for playing floor hockey, so too are league and game formats. Though some operate pick-up style, akin to a road hockey scrimmage, full-out leagues with formal teams are also very prevalent across the city. Included in these are both winter and summer leagues run by the MBHA, as well as co-ed and the newly formed women’s division.
For these leagues, the NHL rulebook acts as the law of the land. Others will adopt their own set of rules, with guidelines including slapshot regulations and others.
For Glesby’s pick-up league, there is one guideline that supersedes all others. “We have very few rules of our own, but the one we stress the most, is that it is a no-contact league,” he says. “We know that incidents do happen from time to time, and when they do, we stop play, an apology is made, and we resume play. We have been quite fortunate in that nobody has suffered any injuries of consequence in 15 years, and that is something that we are proud of.”
Of course, the way floor hockey is played goes hand-in-hand with its equipment. The dynamics here are different in that a lot of the padding and protection normally seen in hockey are not present. Huff comments that his leagues have only two mandatory pieces—hockey gloves and soccer-style shin guards. He does point out that some guys will also wear a cup.
While the shoulder pads and helmets are rarely worn for “skater” positions (i.e. forwards and defensemen), netminders will still go all out, as Huff explains, though they won’t necessarily go to the ice hockey level. Rather, street hockey or mid-range pads, masks, blockers and trappers are used, both for affordability and for one other reason.
“It’s for comfort,” he says. “The guy who isn’t used to playing goal will find [ice hockey equipment] bulky.”
Huff adds that the choice in padding is also relative to the most important piece of equipment for any hockey game—the puck. While batting around a tennis ball or a felt-covered puck will be fine against lighter equipment, standard hockey balls, being harder, have more potential for injury. Thus, as Huff notes, MBHA leagues, which use the familiar orange balls, require tougher goalie gear.
Not only will pucks differ from league to league, but sticks will as well. While ball hockey, traditionally played on rinks, will allow wooden sticks, gym-based leagues may be stringent about it and only allow other materials like plastic or fiberglass composites.
Though finding the right equipment for floor or ball hockey is fairly easy, finding a place to play has become a bit of a challenge. “Gym space is the most difficult thing to find, right now, in Winnipeg and they’re getting even tougher because indoor soccer uses them for practice, and Winnipeg minor basketball is using them a lot of the time,” Huff says.
For those lucky enough to have a space, or who have found a league, now is definitely the time to start getting set for the year ahead. With the application process for rentals taking place during the summer for the ’07-’08 season, as well as proper equipment being rolled out at sporting good stores across the city, leagues will soon be getting prepped for another great year of the “good ol’ hockey game.” � |
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