Floorball

Does this sport even exist? The Spelling Bee and the dictionary seem to agree it doesn’t!

Today’s New York Times Spelling Bee letters:

A, B, D, F, O, R, and center L (all words must include L)

Merriam-Webster says…

Silly little dictionary! You’ve disappointed me today by agreeing with the New York Times that floorball is not a word!

Shame on you!

For further fascinating facts, check out the Spelling Bee Master.

What’s your favorite dord* from today’s puzzle?

My Two Cents

It’s a minor miracle that I was able to find a photo of floorball using Medium’s Unsplash feature. But it does help prove this word — and the sport — actually exist.

How do I know that picture shows floorball? Well, the game uses a very specific kind of plastic ball:

You’re probably thinking I just found a random photo of a whiffle ball. Well, I promise I didn’t. Here is a random photo of a whiffle ball I did find:

Now you’re thinking I took a whiffle ball and carved up all the indentations. I’m flattered but, trust me, I’m not that dedicated to making up an international sport with official tournaments and results.

Whiffle hockey?

Floorball is also known as unihockey in Switzerland and Ireland, and as innebandy in Sweden, a country that claims to have invented it in the 1960s. However, both Canadians and Americans also say there were playing the game around that time, or even before. Since Sweden has won the majority of the men’s and women’s world cups, I’m leaning towards believing them.

However, it took until the early 80s for official rules to be established and written down. In 1986 the International Floorball Federation was founded in Huskvarna, Sweden. As a result, many people outside Sweden learned about the existence of Huskvarna.

In 1992, the IFF held its first official Congress in Zurich, Switzerland — yes, people knew about Huskvarna, but google maps was years away and no one could figure out how to get there. During that meeting, the first IFF rule book — which I promise was not upload by me — was approved. A year later the first Men’s European Championship was played.

Over the next decade and a half, great strides were achieved by the IFF as it added more countries, obtained recognition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and signed the anti-doping code. The World Floorball championship is held every year, alternating between the men’s and the women’s event.

As explained in the sport’s Wikipedia article — which I didn’t author — floorball is played on a rink whose length and width are about 50% smaller than an international ice hockey rink. The rink is surrounded by 20-inch boards with rounded corners. The basic equipment needed to play the game are goals, the stick, and the ball, although some players wear shin guards and other protective gear.

The ball does look like a high-end whiffle ball and is made of plastic. The dimpled design helps reduce air resistance. There have been games in which ball speed has been recorded above 100 miles per hour.

The game itself is very similar to ice hockey, with five players on the field plus a goalie. Unlike hockey, floorball does not allow goalies to use sticks. The game also frowns on fighting and has a bunch of infractions that result in two-minute and five-minute penalties, all with their proper numerical codes. Also like NHL hockey, the game is played in three 20-minute periods.

On its website — which was certainly not created by me— the IFF describes floorball thusly:

• Strength, speed & skill all in one package — without any acceptance for violence
• Easy to learn, yet eye-catching to watch due to a combination of tremendous tempo, quality teamwork and unbelievable individual efforts
• A popular sport amongst the youth
• Exceptionally equal with a very strong participation of women and girls

So either a more evolved version of hockey… or one that ruins the game, depending on your point of view.

Living proof

I know floorball exists because the son of my bromance started playing it here in Spain years ago, as a young teenager. I’ve seen him play. In 2019 he was called up to Spain’s under-19 national team for their qualifiers to the World Floorball Championship played that year.

They didn’t qualify, unfortunately. But I was able to watch the games live-streamed on YouTube. Trust me, I did. You have to believe me!

I have photos taken over the years that prove everything I say. Now, because I live in Europe, where privacy rules are much stricter than in the U.S., some of the photos I’m going to share with you might appear a bit blurry.

This one is from 2010, when I was visiting my friends in Madrid and their son had just started playing after school. He was ten years old! I was invited to one of the games:

This one was also taken during a visit to Madrid, in 2013. Look how tall he got in just three years!

By 2016 I was living in Spain. This picture of the entire team was taken at the high school league finals that year. My friend’s son is second from left.

And finally, a screencap from the 2019 under-19 World Championship qualifiers I mentioned earlier. The qualifiers were played in Moscow and the entire family traveled there with him to cheer the team on.

As you can clearly see, I have hard evidence that the game of floorball exists. It’s not like I went to all this effort to make up a sport, create a website for its federation and a Wikipedia entry about it, and take fake photos of my friend’s son playing the game… just so that I could publish this article on Medium and make $0.13 from it. Right?

Right?

In any case, despite my best efforts today, the editors of the Spelling Bee — and Merriam-Webster, for that matter! — still think the word floorball is a dord.*

You can check out my previous entry on another dord* here:

*What the heck is a dord, you ask? Here’s the answer: