Innebandy

So let's say that you kind of like hockey and you would play except either you just can't skate, or you don't like all the body checking and rough physical stuff. Or maybe you just don't like the cold, or how the helmet messes up your pretty hair. Well if this is the case for you, you might want to give innebandy a try. Innebandy is basically the same thing as floor hockey that you played in elementary school gym class, or street hockey out in front of your house. Except instead of using a real hockey stick and one of those hard plastic orange balls, these hard-nosed athletes showcase their skills with a wiffle ball and basically the wiffle version of a hockey stick...plastic with holes in the blade. This way, if someone does get struck with the ball or a wayward stick, it doesn't hurt too much. A relatively pain free experience being one of the reasons in choosing innebandy over hockey. Now, within the confines of 6th grade gym class, or the odd Friday night with your buddies at the local sporthall, this is actually a pretty fun game to play. However, here this game is taken a couple steps further and there are actually professional leagues. Almost any town will likely have a team with sponsors, a booster club, and ambitions of qualifying up to Swedens All-Svenska innebandy league. Ranks right up there with pro frisbee golf or the rock-paper-scissors world championships. Check out the newspaper and you can read up on your local team right next to the bowling and ping pong results. Once a year are the innebandy world championships and Sweden has traditionally had a lot of success at this event. They consistently finish in the top 3, which is quite impressive even if there are only about 8 countries in the world that are aware of the sport. If you are in Sweden and get invited to play a pickup game it can be a good time, just a couple of points to remember. Do NOT contact another player or their stick with your stick or any body part. And make sure to style your hair with plenty of gel so it will hold in place for the duration of the game. This seems to be important.