Complex Floorball

A complex training session for kids

We have concentrated on adults in this blog. All of our writers have, however, coached kids and teenagers as well and junior floorball is very close to our hearts. Here’s a short example about a complex training session for kids, in this case let’s say U10 juniors. Rink time 60 minutes. 

Before the practice

We start the training session with a handshake / fist bump with all the players. We say “Hello” to each other and the coach tells key points about today’s session. After that we go to a circle, put our arms around each other and start with some positive words. Maybe we want to shout the team’s name together or something similar. 

Goals: Create a positive and safe atmosphere from the start, togetherness, team routines

 

Warm up 20-30 minutes

Warm up consists of play and games. 

1. “Everybody burns”

Equipment:

• 2-3 soft balls
• 20x20 meters zone (grass, concrete etc.)

Rules:

Everybody try to “burn” everyone in the zone. If you are hit with a ball, you get a “penalty” for 1 minutes and go outside the zone. You can get back inside sooner if the player who hit you with the ball is himself burned. 

• You can’t move with the ball
• You don’t burn if the ball bounces from the floor
• You don’t burn if you get hit to the head

Variations:

• You only get back to the game if the player who burned you gets burned
• You don’t get back to the game, “Last man standing” (not the best option for a warm up)
• More balls
• During penalty, you do some simple physical exercise, for example 10 X-jumps

2. Different tag games

Simple tag game but with variations with the movement and / or what you do if you get caught

• Normal movement
• Move with one leg
• Move with “bear walk”
• Move with “crab walk”

When you get caught,

• “Bridge tag” - wait in plank position - you are saved if another player crawls under you
• “Squat tag” - wait in deep squat position - you are saved when another player gives you a high five
• etc.

 

Floorball session (60 minutes)

The goals of the session:

Skills: 

With the ball:

• passing (with a purpose)
• Looking for space / scanning 
• Pass if your teammate is in better position - dribble if not

Without the ball:

• offering passing options (support)

Team level:

• everybody attacks, everybody defends
• Communicate with your teammate
• Positive encouragement to try, fail and try again

 

Example group: 

• 15 players with diverse skill levels + 2 goalies

 

1. a) 4v1 // b) 1v1+joker SSG  (about 15 minutes if familiar, 20 if first time)

 

a) Two groups of five play 4v1 Possession game

Zone: 10x10 meters square marked with cones

Players: 5 (4 attackers, 1 defender)

Rules:

Four attackers are positioned at each side. They try to keep possession of the ball against a defender who can’t defend outside of the square. The four attackers should pass the ball always without rushing. If the defender intercepts the ball, the player who passed the ball goes inside. 

Variations:

• set time as a defender - if the defender intercepts the ball, he gives it back to the attackers
• Set time as a defender - if the defender intercepts the ball, he tries to keep it while at the same time two attackers come to inside the circle and try to take the ball back

 

b) One group of five play 1v1+joker SSG with goalies

Zone: 20x6-8 meters, narrow playing field to encourage direct 1v1/2v1 challenges

Players: 5 (two teams of 2, 1 joker) + 2 goalies

Rules:

Play 1v1 (set shifts, 20-30 seconds) and a joker who is always on the side of the team that has the ball (numeral superiority). Encourage shooting to score to use that man advantage. 

Variations:

• joker plays with the team that doesn’t have the ball (underload)

Picture: On the left side we play 2 x 4v1 possession game, on the right side 1v1+joker SSG with goalies

 

Every group of five plays two times 4v1 and once 1v1+joker SSG. Play about 4minutes, 1 minute break and change of place. 

 

2. 2v2 to four goals (15 minutes)

 

Zone: 15x20 meters (x2, both ends of the field)

Players: 8+7 + 2 goalies (four teams of four*)

* one team of three

Rules:

Set up two playing fields where there is two goals at each end. Two goals can be big goals (goalies) and the other 6 should be small goals or if there’s not enough small goals, you can also use cones. Play 2v2 games, the team can score to either of the goals in their attacking end. The idea behind this game is to help the players to use the width of the playing field. 

Play 30 second shifts, 3-4 minute games, count the score (if you want) but start every time from 0-0. Change the opponent after each game.

Picture: 2v2 to four goals, 2 separate games at both ends. If you don't have enough small goals, use cones. 

 

3. 2v2 + 2v2  “The Cross game” (20-25 minutes)

 

Zone: 20x20 meters (half the field)

Players: 15 (four teams of four*) + goalies

* one team of three

Rules:

Play 2 simultaneous 2v2 games; one game is played vertically and one horizontally. Two big goals with goalies in one game, small goals in the other game. You must cross the (imaginery) midfield lane before you can score. The substitutes wait behind their own goal. 30 second shifts, 3 minute games and change the opponent. Key thing to ask players before the game - “What do you have to remember when there is two games played at the same time?” or “What should you do to avoid collisions?” (Answer usually comes quite fast). 

There are couple of big ideas behind this game - first of all, it’s a fun game. Second, the players will self-organise and reduce their running speed almost automatically and start to scan their surroundings. Third, and this is more of a training structure thing - all the players are very active all the time. You can actually make 32 - even 40 players active this way if you use both ends of the field. 

I like to play a small tournament in this cross game where we first play “a regular season” (2 points for win, 1 for draw) and after the regular season, we play the final and the bronze game. 

Variations:

• use jokers 

Picture: 2v2 + 2v2 The Cross Game. You can even play two 15-20 player Cross games simultaneously. 

 

After the practice

We might want to do some cool down and / or mobility exercise after the training session if you find it useful. In any case, after the session, the coach can ask if we had fun, what was the key points of the session and after that, hands together and shout the teams name. 

 

Few sidenotes

What I try to do with young kids sessions is to create a “street floorball” -like environment with simple games and lot of decision-making action. I sometimes might use 2-3 minutes to show some technical movements what they can try to do at home if they don’t have the possibility to play the game with friends. The goal is to make the sessions as fun and engaging as possible and the idea behind it is that the games would continue back home. 

There’s also some words to be said about the team structure. It is preferable to keep the teams local as long as possible to encourage the playing outside the training sessions - play before the practice with friends, come with the same friends to the practice and then go back home to play again with the same friends. This dynamic is threatened if we start to create “elite teams” where players travel longer distance. It also usually takes the costs up which then reduces the possibilities to do multiple sports.

As many as possible, as long as possible. 

 

 

Perttu Kytöhonka

Principles of self-organization and emergence

 

Patterns of play that are more or less similar appear repeatedly in floorball as in other invasion team sports. They are emergent and thus cannot be predicted or predetermined. They happen in a chaotic environment as a result of coordinated interaction between the players and the environment mainly without central control. No single leader commands the whole team during the play. The team shares principles of play that they conform to (in addition to the rules of the game). These may be learned explicitly and/or implicitly - usually both. Ideally a particular pattern is an outcome of functional playing, not a mean to achieve a result. 

 

Self-organization is a principle of complex adaptive systems that can explain such collective behaviour. The parts of a system organize themselves according to the information perceived from the environment and simple principles that they obey together. When the principles are functional and unambigious to each individual the system self-organizes itself as a whole. The team becomes more than the sum of its parts and has emergent properties that the individuals do not have.

According to the systems view, the essential properties of an organism or living system, are properties of the whole, which none of the parts have. They arise from the interactions and relationships among the parts. These properties are destroyed when the system is dissected, either physically or theoretically, into isolated elements. Although we can discern individual parts in any system, these parts are not isolated, and the nature of the whole is always different from the mere sum of its parts

-Fritjof Capra: The Web of Life

 

It is not enough to explicitly explain the principles to the players and walk through them a couple times. They need a lot of repetitions without repetition in a realistic context to learn the know-how of playing according to the principles. This way players learn to couple their perception (information) and action (movement) and can reflect on mistakes and successes. They need to be able to (inter)act under pressure in a limited time when there is less time for analysis. This implies also that it is important to keep along the principles in most of the team training and not separate perception and action.

Coaching the team according to playing principles implies the need to study the game deeply to form a game model that consists of explicit playing principles. Training is designed to teach playing according the principles both explicitly and implicitly. The environment should be representative of the game. Instead of simply demanding training hard and repetitions, the coach focuses on learning. Learning to play includes the technical and physical dimensions of course.

 

Floorball example

An example of a principle-based defensive organization that promotes self-organization according to local interactions could be as follows. This defensive system aims in minimizing the spaces to defend close to the opponents ball carrier. A well working and adaptive defensive organization may emerge even from a team with "less talented" defensive players this way.

“If I have to defend this whole garden, I’m the worst. If I have to defend this small area, I’m the best.” -Johan Cruyff

Defending principles for the defensive zone:

1. Pressure the ball carrier on the defensive zone (assuming numerical balance)
2. Every defender has an opponent on his responsibility (awareness of the positioning of the opponents players)
3. Make gaps smaller close to the opponents ball carrier. 

Sub-principles for these main principles:

1. Direction of pressure: Try to steer the game towards the sides and out towards the opponents defensive zone
2. Mark closely any opponents in the centre. Directly dangerous off-the-ball opponents are defended "man-based".
3. Help the teammate who is challenged as much as you can without letting your own opponent free in a dangerous position. If your opponent is out in the corner or far away on their defensive zone, you may even double-team the ball carrier.

If a team learns these principles and their application well enough, the defense is able to adapt to the opponents offensive organization. Some kind of adaptation would anyway happen but this principle-based defense will allow the self-organization to happen without constraints of a defensive formation. The order in this system is dynamic, not static. Defending players get support from teammates and shouldn't have to defend a big space 1vs1 against the opponents ball carrier. The space behind the player defending the ball carrier and the gaps in between teammates close to ball is minimized which makes it more challenging for the opponents to find space to penetrate. 

  

Moving the striker closer to the defender on the strong side is nothing new in floorball. With the principles of this example, if the ball is passed to the red defender on the strong side, the same forward should return to pressurize him. A common alternative is to move the weak side forward towards the centre but this might create a vicious cycle of compensations and exceptions.

According to the principles above, the striker may scale their supporting action to suit the situation. She makes the decision on how low to drop so that she still makes it in time to pressure her "own" opponent if a pass is made to her. For example, the blue defender needs more support against a very skillful dribbler - especially if the defender is positioned further away and does not shoot often or well. Instead of having constant formations and triggers for double-teaming "all-in", this organization leaves room for self-organization of the defensive formation. 

The opponent is allowed to make some passes on the sides where the receiver is not directly dangerous. As the ball carrier is pressured, mistakes are more likely to happen and a bad pass may be intercepted or the receiver pressured immediately after one. Two players may double-team the ball carrier when all the opponents players are not posing urgent threat. The players make the decisions themselves, but they are thoroughly prepared and to conform to the shared principles.

Training the principles

The principles may be trained in different game scenarios from the whole 5vs5 game down. To model game-like repetitions, a simple 4vs2 rondo could be used as an example. The players off-the-ball (blue) are coached to defend according to the team principles:

• The player pressuring the ball carrier tries to steer the movement and passes away from the corner
• She will try to take away the option to pass the ball towards the end of the defensive zone.
• The second blue player drops close enough to close the gap in between the blue players and cut the pass to the centre
• She will try to cut passes or "arrive with the ball" to pressure the red player close to the middle line of the field

By comparing the game situation above and this example of a rondo exercise we can observe similarity between them. Now the players get to practice their skills with specificity to the game and get repetitions with a clear purpose. They can adjust their technical and physical actions to the opponents (as well as the teammates) and learn to couple their perception and action better during the process. The team learns interpersonal coordination as the players get used to each others ways of interacting in these situations. Training happens in a playful and competitive environment to engage emotions.

Other rondo or positional play exercises may also be built to suit the needs of an individual team, coach and specific players. Teammates and opponents may be added and the playing area modified to adjust the skill level needed, physical actions profile or complexity of the training. For example a progression could be using of a 5vs3 exercise (4+1 vs 3) to move towards the whole game situation.

Now the team may also self-organize to play a more compact defense against a strong opponent and maybe spread a little more to give pressure faster against a weaker team. As the spaces to defend are constantly made small collectively, even less talented defenders may succeed in their objective. This is an emergent property because it is specific to the team that is organized this way. It is a result of interactions between players, not only players learning individual skills or improving their properties. Not saying they wouldn't improve and learn those properties and skills while training this way. 

Disclaimer: this is not an attempt to define a "correct" way to defend, just an example of a defensive organization that is based less in individual execution of a system and more in flexible interaction and cooperation between teammates.

 

Deep simplicity

With a coaching and learning process according to principles of complex adaptive systems, achieving transfer into the match performance might become simpler (though maybe not "easier") than the reductionist manner of separating physical, technical, tactical and mental dimensions and individuals. The principles of self-organization and emergence are intuitively quite appropriate to understand an invasion team sport phenomena. There is even research showing how basketball teams and games have similarities to self-organizing systems of the nature. 

"Many researchers consider basketball to be a random sport (according to a Poisson probability distribution), but the reality is actually much more complex, just as in natural systems," -Yves de Saá Guerra

“If the world is complex, then acting congruently with that complexity can be simpler than trying to control a machine that does not exist.” ―Embracing Complexity

“We need another paradigm that informs us to make better decisions.” -Jean Boulton

According to the complexity paradigm, a team really may act as a whole, may be observed that way and can have its own collective intelligence. The team should also be coached as more than individuals - training interaction, not just action.

 

Antti Hänninen (@AjHanninen)

 

References/Links:

Basketball games mimic nature: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160330123454.htm

Design and flow in basketball 

Collective intelligence: An incursion into the tactical performance of football teams

http://www.human-current.com/episode-075-embracing-complexity-an-interview-with-jean-boulton

A short video giving an overview to the term self-organization https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kllwof87kR0

Glossary

Emergence = Emergence occurs when "the whole is different from the sum of the parts". Interactions between the parts of a system and the environment allow the system to develop properties that the individuals do not have.

Self-organization = Larger scale order arises from local interactions between the parts of a system and its environment

Complex adaptive system =  A system that cannot be understood by looking at the parts only. Such system is capable of self-organization, learning and evolution.

Working backwards from the game

Again, not a long blog post. There has been some debate in social media about identifying a problem in a team’s game and the possible solutions for that problem. The last debate took wind from Mikael De Anna’s blog post about the complexity of floorball in which he questioned the linear analysis of Finnish Women’s national team’s head coach Lasse Kurronen (Kurronen tweeted that Finland's U19 Women's team had no chance against Sweden in World Championships final as they lost the 1v1 -situations). Another debate rose from an article written by Jussi Leppälahti in Finnish sports magazine “Elmo”, in which he stated that in modern team sports coaching it is important to acknowledge the utmost importance of optimising the time available and to do that, one should integrate the tactical, technical and physical work in game-based sessions. To no one's surprise, the statement was questioned because it was seen to understate the importance of physical training. 

If we respect the complex nature of an invasion sport like floorball, we can’t simply state “Because A happens, we should do B so that A doesn’t happen”. As many things affect the outcomes of even a single moment in a game, we should work backwards from the game itself and identify the problem while respecting the complexity in any given situation. 

An example 

This is an offensive moment, “Build up under high pressure with three players”. First we should analyse if the players involved are respecting the team’s main principles.

Picture 1: NST Lappeenranta's main principles in build up moment under pressure

We can say that yes, the players are executing the main principles regarding their positioning at an acceptable level. 

However as the game proceeds, we lose the ball. Now we must analyse why does that happen. The “simple” answer is that there is an individual mistake but in complex invasion sports, that is almost always a very lazy - and wrong - answer. The positioning is ok, the player who starts with the ball (Ere Laitimo) is doing lateral movement with the ball as is expected; we have central support (Samuli Huppunen) and also passing option in the weak side (Konsta Koskimies). There isn’t any bad (or too weak) pass, the positioning is ok but still we lose the possession (for a moment). 

Now the linear answer could be that the player offering a support in central lane (Huppunen) lacks technical ability when receiving the ball and thus isn’t able to control it under pressure - he needs a lot of closed technical work with special focus on receiving. The physical “A->B” -answer could be that Huppunen lacks linear speed and needs to do a lot of strength training to improve his first steps. 

But again, as floorball is an invasion sport, the key to understand the problem can be found from the interaction of the three players. If Laitimo would have made the pass half a second earlier, then Koskimies would have had a bit more space to make the following pass to Huppunen who then would have probably received the pass in front of him instead - now he has a good body position but as he receives the pass behind his body, he can’t observe the surroundings and open space very well.

If there is something Huppunen could have done, it’s that he could have observed the field better before the eventual pass and when the pass didn’t come in front of him, he could have let it slide to his other side and move forward. 

Picture 2: If Huppunen (white player in the middle) would have observed the space behind him better, he would have had more options. Question, players mistake or the coaches who hadn't succeeded in teaching this? 

How to solve the problem?

The linear answer would neglect the interaction between the three players. That is also why the answer would be if not totally wrong, not the best available. If there is a problem in a game, it should be dealt with game-based approach in a training session. 

The best way to deal with the problem is to create a similar kind of situation in a training session and get repetitions without repetition.

3+1v3+1 build up under pressure

Set up:

3+1v3+1. 3v3 in “pressing zone”, 1v1 in the attacking zone. The coach throws the ball to play and the three players closest to the ball (yellow in the picture) try open up the play under pressure by using the team’s principles (mentioned before). To make the build up more difficult, the ball must dribbled outside the pressing zone. If the three players succeed in this and the ball is dribbled outside the pressing zone, the other players are not allowed to follow and there will be a short 2v1 -situation in the attacking zone (1-2 seconds). If there’s no goal, the coach shouts “Play!” and the game proceeds 4v4 without restrictions for a while. 

Progressions:

• allow a long pass to the attacking zone
• Make the field bigger and add another pressing player

In possession (offensive organisation): always one player in the central lane, positive / side body position; immediate floorball actions with the ball

Out of possession (defensive organisation): prevent the player with the ball from moving or passing forward; cover the central lane

Positive transition: Securing the first pass

Negative transition: prevent the player with the ball from moving past you

Feedback: individual, special focus on the player supporting on the central lane (observe the surroundings, side / positive body position)

 

”...we should try to improve a physical quality (or a technical, tactical, or phychological one, for that matter) only if it’s a limiting factor in a game performance. The quality should also be enhanced in a realistic context that’s applicable to competition.” - Dr. Fergus Connolly (from Game Changer - The Art of Sports Science)

 

As we put emphasis on the game-like situations in the training session, we might notice that a player is having difficulties during the exercise. We must analyse the situation and communicate with the player what could be the problem. Usually good discussion and more practice time will solve the problem but sometimes we might identify a specific limiting factor. Then we could plan an individual specific training program (technical, tactical, physical, psychological) in which we try to concentrate on the problem at hand. The individual program shouldn’t in most cases interfere with the team’s training program. We must monitor the player’s development closely and analyse by watching the game if the player develops in the identified moment. If not, we must re-think the individual program and adjust it accordingly, then repeat. 

So, there is time and place for individual work also in team sports but it should always respect the game itself. 

 

Perttu Kytöhonka (@pkytohonka) 

 

Sidenote

A short sidenote from the video clip. If the players weren’t trained to solve the high press of the opponent with clear principles, the moment could have easily ended up in a situation where Koskimies would have received the pass from Laitimo even later and the opponent would have been able to press him. Then Koskimies would have been forced to turn his back to the field. Then the situation would have been more unfavourable for the white team. There could have been a “1v1” situation and if lost, the coach could have made the linear conclusion, that the team needs more physical work as they lose 1v1-situations. 

The game happens between the players. 

Simple but complex session example

A session of small sided games for teaching tactical game principles

Yesterday's blog post from Mikael de Anna (in finnish here) started a discourse on the actual practice design by coaches in different clubs. Here I will open up a very simple session from the SC Classic C1-juniors. We do most of our training by playing different game-based exercises that are built for learning the principles of play of our pretended way of playing.

These training games are meant to be played with high intensity to simulate a game of floorball. It is demanding physically, technically and engages the players emotionally (scoring and allowing goals). It also gives the opportunity to learn the know-how instead of know-what of the principles of play. The opponents will make the time and space limited and challenge the players somewhat as a match would. If we can express the desired way of playing fluently in these games, maybe some of it will transfer into a real game situation better than merely drawing and talking about the tactical decisions and training in isolation.

This kind of training makes it possible to simulate real game situations with a high frequency of the game situations we want to train. It is also repetition without repetition: the opponents are allowed to try their best to play against the other team. The desired situation will occur more frequently than in whole field 5vs5 play with stoppages and may be trained simultaneously on multiple zones on the training field. It preserves all the main moments of the game: offence, defence and the transitions. This is the core in our way of teaching players relationships in the game and perception-action. It is about learning “game intelligence” while training floorball fitness and technique in a real context.

SC Classic C1 3.10.2017 20:00-21:00, 20 players, 2 goalkeepers

Before the actual floorball training, we had a video meeting of the previous match and some warming up. On the training field, we usually have 2-5 minutes of free time for the players and after the training, 10-15 minutes of easy recovery activity, feedback, information about the next match and chilling together.

 

3v2 offensive zone play, corner/deep support. Both ends of the rink run same exercise. 2 x 6 shifts, 1 minute each.

This game situation might occur at least momentarily in a match: we have an overload on this part of field if the other defender is tied on the weak side and an forward is late from the situation or unable to drop below to defend one of our players

• Starts with a pass to the wing, one player deep, close to the goal and one player in the centre
• The ball carrier dribbles towards the goal/centre and attracts a defender
• This player must continue the movement also after a pass to the corner support.
• The player from the goal moves towards the corner to offer an easy passing option
• Try to score and transition to defending the mini-goal (counterpressing) if the defending team gets the ball.
• Starts with a new ball after a goal or if the ball goes off limits.

This principle of corner support is one of the important building blocks of our offensive zone play. Besides the positions and movements of the players in the exercise, the quality lies in manipulating the opposing defence. In order to build a good scoring change in this game situation, it is important to challenge the defenders with all the 3 attackers being continuously dangerous. A dribble may attract one defender to man-mark the ball carrier and after a pass to the corner, the new ball carrier might make a new quick dribble towards the goal, attracting also the second opponent to mark him. Either one of the dribbles is succesful or there is a free man in a scoring position if a pass may be completed. The players get to make their own creative actions to solve the problem according to these sub-principles:

• When a ball carrier is pressured in the wing of the offensive zone, a corner support must be offered to him
• After passing to the corner support, the player must move out of the way to make space for the deep support to move in to. He should try to dribble out of the corner and preferably towards the centre to present a threat to the defence, searching for a passing option to the centre or a new corner support if he is pressured.

 

This exercise could be expanded to run wider. Just add an offensive player to the weak side with the instruction to stay wide and be ready to score. A defender and a second mini-goal could be added to make it 4v3 to simulate the whole deep end of the offensive play. The mini-goals simulates a pass to the forwards for the red side, so they may also work on attacking againts a high pressing or a counterpressing opponent:

4v4+1 bottom support, 4 x 4 minutes

Effective and balanced offence has roles for each 5 players. In addition to the deep/corner support there should be options, so we also want the lowest player to offer a support below the wings when there is pressure. The supporting player must actively move to support the ball carrier close enough to the edges for a direct, clear passing lane.

For this (sub)principle, we built a game where there is a 4v4+1 running in each end of the rink. The space is limited with this many players in the deep zone, which forces the frequent use of the bottom support. This game was created by my assistant coach and brother Aleksi Hänninen.

In the game, the ball is allowed to travel as the green arrows show. The bottom support -player must move towards the edges to receive the pass down. The players are allowed to move on the whole half rink, so the defending team is allowed to press the bottom support and the offensive team may come down to offer support for him. This is a very simple game, where the play in the deeper end is a bit less organized. This makes the physical intensity high. We still wish to play according to our other principles also there, but it is not as directly controlled as the principle of the bottom support.

• Start with one team attacking, the other defending. The attacking team has the yellow player on their side.
• Ball may travel down and up the two zones according to the green arrows
• Players may move freely, you could also allow the bottom support to move in the deeper offensive zone and make the player change roles with him that passed down
• After receiving the pass, the bottom support should try to switch play or start moving towards the centre of the field while searching for an opportunity to get the ball back in by dribbling or passing.
• There should be width in the positioning of the attacking team when the ball is played down to the yellow player

5v5

The rest of the session consist of simply playing 5 against 5. First we start playing and observe how well the previous principles work. Then maybe stop the play and remind the players about them. The very end of the session is play without stoppages to observe the learning effect in less organized setting.

The principles in action in some video clips from our matches this season:

I am also open for discourse with other coaches who are interested or have opinions on this type of coaching.

Antti Hänninen (@AjHanninen)