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What is wheelchair floorball? 

Wheelchair floorball is an indoor wheelchair team sport played using composite sticks with a plastic vented blade where the aim is to put a light plastic ball into the opponent's goal. Wheelchair floorball is most popular in Sweden, The Czech Republic and Switzerland. In The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium they play different kind of floorball called H-hockey with is similar to it.  Wheelchair floorball is played in a court by six players per side. The objective of the game is to score goals by playing a plastic ball into the opponent's goalnet, which is placed at the opposite end of the rink. The players may control and redirect the ball using a stick with a blade that is often curved at one end. Players must not use their hands, arms or head to play the ball on purpose.

A wheelchair floorball team consist of 5 field players and one goalkeeper, whose primary job is to stop the ball from entering the net, and who is permitted unique gear towards that end. The goalkeeper can permitted a stick. Every players has to use wheelchair. The playing field is 40×20 metres and enclosed by a board with rounded corners (50 cm tall). The goal cages are 1.60×1.15 m and 65 cm deep. The sticks are made of plastic or carbon and a bit over 1 metre long. The shaft is no longer than 99 cm and a blade of a different kind of plastic is attached to its end. The ball is made of plastic, is 72 mm in diameter, has a maximum weight of 23 grams, and has 26 holes in it.

The game 

Floorball as a game comes from northern Europe. It is similar to Bandy, a kind of sport considered the predecessor of ice hockey. Floorball is sometimes likened to ice hockey without the ice skates, but there are considerable differences in the rules. In Switzerland, floorball is commonly considered to be a kind of hockey.

Floorball is a fast and dynamic sport with much of the time played near the goals. The mixture of endurance, power and precision make floorball a popular game in schools, although in that case minor rule changes are not uncommon (such as smaller goals and that the keeper is allowed to use a stick and sometimes even a glove hand thus making his behavior more similar to a hockey keeper).

Floorball is usually played on a standard size court (40×20 metres) or on a smaller court measuring 24×14 m. On a smaller court a team consists of three players and one goalie. The rules do not differ, except for some adjustments for the smaller court. In the initial years of floorball, the goalkeeper was permitted to use a special kind of stick, but today no stick is used.

On the standard court, the game is played by five players and one goalie on each side. The team consists of a larger number of players which can be substituted at any time. A floorball game is usually played over 3 periods of 20 minutes. Time is stopped in the case of time penalties, goals and timeouts. There is a break of ten minutes between the thirds. If the game is part of a tournament, the time may be shortened to 2×20 minutes and the break to 5 minutes. In tournaments the rules can vary so that in the last three minutes the clock is only running when the ball is in play, otherwise the clock is now stopped for all stoppage in play in regular games. Each team is allowed a timeout of 30 seconds. There are two referees to oversee the game, each with equal authority.

The goalie wears special equipment. His trousers are long and padded. The shirt is padded and might be long. The goalie is allowed to wear gloves (though not commonly used), but a mitt is not permitted. The goalie wears a helmet to protect his face. All the equipment worn by the goalie has the purpose to protect the goalkeeper and must not augment the area as covered by the goalie without the protective wear. The goalie can use a stick. The field players on the other hand only wear long trousers, a jersey.

Although floorball is not as physical as ice hockey, the sport has evolved in recent years to allow increased levels of bodily contact. For example, shoulder to shoulder checking is permitted when opposing players are competing for a loose ball. Floorball has also seen a rise in checking when the play is concentrated in the corners or along the boards. The best comparison in terms of legal physical contact is soccer, where checking is used improve one's positioning in relation to the ball rather than to remove an opposing player from the play. The purpose of this is to reward dexterity and skill over physical aggression.

If a player commits a foul, a free shot is awarded to the opposing team. There are time penalties of two and five minutes for harder fouls; ten minutes are reserved for unsportsmanlike behaviour. For extreme cases there are match penalties (red card).