Yesterday saw the Match Schedule announced for the Canada Cup. It can be downloaded here.

There are 14 Teams competing in the Intermediate Division of the competition (31 Teams in all levels!). BC WaveRiders are in the Excel Group, and will play Round Robin games against Boston, Floorball Club of Toronto 3 and Girls with Balls 2. It’s an 8am start for the first game on Friday, with the other two games at 1.15pm and 5pm (all times EST).

It will be a big Floorball day as four of the WaveRiders will also be part of the Team Canada game against the USA starting at 6.30pm Friday Night!

Monday Night Floorball this week will see the last practice before most of the team flies off  to join  the BCFF President Greg Beaudin who is attending the IFF Development Seminar prior to the Canada Cup.  So come on down to the Roundhouse on Monday Night, our normal Monday Night drop-in and give the WaveRiders a fantastic send off!

There’s only seven days left before this years Canada Cup. BC is represented this year by the Vancouver WaveRiders and you can help their preparation by coming out this coming Monday for their final practice session as part of our regular Monday Night Floorball.

Stay tuned for the Canada Cup Schedule and team updates …

This is a great site by
Patrik Lönell who lives in Kalmar, Sweden. In each of the 38 Videos, a different type of shot on goal is shown, with repeats and slow motion. It would have been cool to embed the videos in the site one day at a time Maybe Patrik will develop the site to allow this and perhaps give an English translation for each of the shots. However, there is an English version of the site so it’s easy to find your way around.

As Patrik says:

"The best top scorer in floorball is the one capable of several
shooting techniques and at the same time capable of using different
shots in different situations in the field during the game."

He also says that most players master only 2-3 shots. This site has 38 to choose from! Which will be your choice ?

Vancouver WaveRider and Team Canada’s
Blair Zimmerman went down to Anaheim for a floorball tournament a week of so back. The actual tournament has been very well documented on the Floorball Ontario website but I wanted to add a few more insights from the BC player:

The tourney was held in an arena with two rinks that are mainly used for roller hockey. 6 intermediate teams, including San Diego, Fresno, San Francisco, Anaheim x2 and Cal Tech and I believe 6 beginner teams who were mostly playing
for the first time.

The teams were quite serious about their floorball.A
similar make up to Vancouver. Most were Europeans who had played the game and knew the rules. There were quite a few ex-Canadian Hockey players along with some who were new to the sport and loved it for a hard run and workout.

The skill level was good. The teams were even and play was organized. With a bigger surface, passing and getting set up were more evident. Most teams came from a small core group who play religiously
together a couple of times a week. San Diego, the team that won, plays on a tennis court
outside! Fresno seemed to have a bigger mission, like us, trying to grow the sport and introduce it to schools.

The games were two 15 minute periods, running time, with the last two minutes being stopped time with a 5 minute intermission. 

As the tourney got started late … and was behind all day. The 5 minute intermission was cut to 1 or none.

Our team, Anaheim, had 4 subs to start and 2 for our last game.  We played 4 games and could have played up to 5. Our first game was at 8:40 and the last one at 4:30. Between reviewing the game, meeting new people, simply resting or trying to watch others play, the day flew by.

Thanks for the report Blair!

Blair also shared with me that he believes the standard of Vancouver compares really well with California and if the WaveRiders had been there as a team may have done very well! There’s lots in common between us and our West Coast Neighbours – let’s hope some of them can make it up to Vancouver in May for the 1st Annual BCFF Floorball Challenge!

Further to my posts last week the BCFF have now issued their first ever Press Release! You can download it here.

As a prelude to our own 1st Annual BCFF Floorball Challenge tournament on May 26th, the Vancouver Waveriders are heading to Toronto at the start of April for the Canada Cup. The latest bulletin for the tournament explains the TV Coverage of the finals on Rogers TV, the IFF Seminar and much much more.The full text is available.here. (70.2K)

BC’s Vancouver WaveRiders will field a strong side including four of the five players selected for the Team Canada games against the Team USA. WaveRiders Captain Greg Beaudin explained the story behind the Waveriders logo and shirt …

On the West Coast of Canada, Orcas play in the waves; swiftly, gracefully, artfully… they also move with power and purpose. These WaveRiders represent the raw beauty and pure athleticism of the West Coast inhabitants.

Strength, Power, Creativity and Flow is how the WaveRiders play the game.

Greg would like to credit Kevin Coughlin, the artist responsible for the logo design and Brett at Gaia for the sweet uniform hookup. Great work Kevin!

GO WaveRiders !!!

Exciting News!!!

BCFF is pleased to announce the 1st Annual BCFF Floorball Challenge

A one-day tournament with 8 teams, selected by draft of registered players.

Food,  Prizes, Shootout Challenge, Floorball Demonstration area and much much more.

Stay tuned for the full Press Release or Register Early by clicking the Register Now button top left on this page! Spaces are limited !!!

Note: You can also print this registration form for completion and send in a cheque.

BC Floorball Federation is thrilled to announce that Five players from BC have made the Team Canada Roster for the two games against the USA on April 5th and April 7th.  Harry Hannelius made the announcement this morning. These games are taking place at the same time as the Canada Cup where BC will also be represented (stay tuned for more on that!).

Congratulations to:
Blair Zimmerman
Greg Rozitis
Aaron Hoffman
Shea Esselmont
Michael Lindgren

Well Done Chaps! and Congratulations! I am sure it will be a great experience.

Harry Hannelius went on to say in his announcement:

Today USA is ranked number
17 and Canada is ranked number 24 in the world.

Canada fields a great team against USA. There are
26 players in the roster. Some of them will play both games and some will play
only one game. We have both young  players and older experienced hockey
players. We were also lucky to get some of our european based team members to
travel to Toronto for this event.

Go Team Canada!!!!

Greg’s comment on the Rules of the Game post were well made. So well in fact that I decided to post them up as a post in their own right. The basic rules (things NOT to do!) are:

•     Check, Block, Trip, Hit, or Hold your opponent
• Hit, Kick, Block, Lift, or push down opponent’s stick
• 
      Hit the ball with your stick or foot above knee level
• 
      Lift stick above waist level
• 
      Kick ball twice
• 
      Jump to reach ball
• 
      Play, if any part of your body except feet touches ground
• 
      Touch ball with hand
• 
      Pass your stick between players legs
• 
      Question or comment on referee’s decision

The latest Rules of the Game are available form the International Floorball Federation website. Following this link will take you to the pdf file which you can download.