SINGAPORE – Whether you are a defender, attacker or goalkeeper, there are three important skills and attributes that you must have to excel in floorball.

Mastering the art of passing and shooting is key to success in the rink, says national women’s floorballer Siti Khairul Anwar, along with grit and hard work.

Emerging in Sweden in the late 1960s, floorball is a type of floor hockey that involves six players per side – a goalkeeper and five outfield players.

The sport is mainly played indoors – with a plastic/carbon fibre stick and a plastic ball – on a rink that is around 20 metres wide and 40 metres long.

The objective is to outscore your opponents within three 20-minute periods.

Floorball is popular in most Scandinavian countries and Europe, such as Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

It also has a significant following in Singapore, with over 10,000 active players and 100 clubs.

The Singapore Floorball Association was formed in 1995 and joined the International Floorball Federation the following year.

Since then, the Republic has hosted several World, Asia Pacific and World University Championships – with the most recent being the Women’s World Championship in December 2023.

The Singapore women’s team are the reigning SEA Games champions and ranked 12th in the world, while the men clinched bronze in Phnom Penh in 2023 and are ranked 16th globally.

Siti, 25, started her floorball journey when she was in secondary school.

A volleyball player in primary school, she had initially wanted to continue in the sport. But her friends convinced her to join floorball and she has been hooked on it since.

Siti said: “My group of friends were playing floorball so I thought, ‘let’s give this sport a shot’.

“From there, my coach then made me love the sport even more. I saw myself growing and made the decision to stay.”

She scored five goals in the world championship as the team finished 12th out of 16. They will compete in the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in November.

Floorball is well suited to Singapore as it can be played indoors and will not be affected by inclement weather, says Singapore national women’s head coach Lim Jin Quan.

“What I love about floorball is that it is a contact team sport, it is easy to play indoors and the beauty about floorball is that it is easy to pick up.”

For those who are looking to get started in floorball, Lim adds that there are clinics available at Our Tampines Hub as well as several academies that run classes for children and adults.

Three tips from a pro:

1. Train on your basic passing – work on simple passes with a partner and increase the distance for progression. Longer distance means more power is needed but be sure to maintain accuracy, with the ball directed to your friend’s blade.

2. Practise shooting – set up bottles as targets by placing them at different heights and then aim to shoot them down. This helps to improve your accuracy.

3. Hard work – in order to excel in the sport, off-the-ball training is crucial. As floorball is a fast-paced contact sport, go for runs to improve fitness and work out in the gym to build strength.

Fun fact:

No one actually knows where floorball originated. Many countries have claimed to inventing the sport, but they can all agree that it is actually a way to play a variation of ice hockey when it is not snowing.