Equipment
Comments about this discussion:
Started
In the rules we have 4 types of equipment (unicycles, sticks, goals, balls) that are defined but except for unicycles we generally refer to other sports for the definitions. I was thinking if it might make sense to clear some of this stuff up a bit. It might also be good to reference equipment that's easily available to buy.
Sticks: we allow floorball or ice hockey sticks but have never enforced the length or weight restriction against floorball sticks. I think it would make sense to consider if we want floorball sticks that might be modified for length in the game or it would be better to just require ice hockey sticks.
Goals: the dimensions of an ice hockey goal is slightly larger than the dimensions we specify in the rules. I was thinking if it would make sense to update the rules so ice hockey goals are explicitely allowed given it's what we most often play with anyways.
Balls: the rules just specifies a tennis ball must be used without more into the specifications of tennis balls. Should it be specified further, especially now there's balls for paddle tennis and it might give a different game to play with slower or faster tennis balls?
Comment
Sticks: In my opinion, we can remove floor ball sticks. However, in the end this should be up to the players who use them (danish team).
Goals: I don't think ice hockey goals are often played on. At least never in Switzerland. If we want to take a size from a different sport, I would suggest floorball goals. At least in Switzerland, they are available in every gym. Overall, I would keep the rules as they are.
Balls: How exactly would you specify more which kind of tennis ball? I think it should be clear that no paddle tennis ball can be used, as this is no "real" tennis ball.
Comment
To respond here:
Sticks: I'll put a feeler out with the Danish team but since it's never been an advantage to use the short sticks and we end up having a rule that's not enforced (namely about length) I think it would make sense to consolidate on using ice hockey sticks.
Goals: floorball goals are 160 x 115 cm so they're somewhat smaller than what we stipulate. Seeing as they're already widely in use I think it makes sense to allow them. Ice hockey goals can be either 4x6 feet correspnding to 121.92 x 182.88 cm or 120 x 180 cm. I think we should just allow all 3 sizes to be used but maybe stipulate we still use the bigger goals at Unicon. Making this change explicit can give organisers some more flexibility and make it clear to players why the size of the goal might differ.
Balls: I just double checked the difference between tennis balls and paddle balls and they're the same except for how pressurized they are when first used. Both should be fine to use as long as they can bounce as much as specified. Mixing the balls in a tournament would probably be confusing similar to mixing new and old balls but if all new balls were used paddle tennis balls might be more similar to what players are used to playing with at home.
I don't think these changes make a big difference to how the game is played (except with the floorball sticks in Denmark) but they might make it easier for organisers and make the rules match the reality of how the game is played better. We do rely a bit on the rules for other sports here but the benefit is that it's then easy enough to go buy the equipment since it's carried in most sports stores and will match our regulations too.
Comment
Sticks: I would like to remove floorball sticks as I think the Danish will be stronger opponents after some time training with ice hockey sticks. But it is up to the Danish on whether they are removed as they and the swedes are the only ones who use them. If changing the rule gives them the push to use ice hockey sticks 100% of the time then I am all for making it.
Goals: I think floorball goals are too small to stipulate as the required size. In the previous rulebook we decided not to allow the floorball goals as the minimum size as allowing floorball goals might mean that organisers don't try to get bigger goals. They would think our floorball ones are in the rule book as being acceptable so no need to try and get bigger. In my opinion getting ice hockey goals really isn't hard, if we can get folding ice hockey goals affordably in Australia, where we have no ice, surely all of europe and USA can get ice hockey goals for important tournaments.
Balls: This will be covered by the bounce height rule so should be fine.
Comment
So it seems like there's some consensus on
Sticks: I think it would be good to agree to remove floorball sticks sooner rather than later so we have time to prepare in Denmark. There's already a bit of a shift happening and this will obviously make the shift go faster and give us more time to prepare.
Goals: if we stick with ice hockey goals does it still make sense to go with both sizes (180 x 120 and 182.88 x 121.92)? Would be just an edit at this point.
Balls: I'm not sure if it makes sense to update the language but it seems like something that could confuse people unnecessarily.
Comment
I think we could allow both sizes for the goals as they are almost identical.
If we anyway touch these rules and change them, I think it would be good to better structure them at put them (except for goals) in to a common ‚equipment‘ section (with unicycles).
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Great. I agree it would make sense with an "equipment" section since most organisers and clubs would probably look there to see what needs to be bought (which can include loaner sticks)
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Did not the floorball sticks win Denmark the B-championship in 2016's UNICON?
I thought the floorball sticks enable a unique playing style which is pretty different from ice hockey stick playing style. Why would we want to restrict that?
What are the length and weight restrictions to floorball sticks? Are there similar restrictions to ice hockey sticks? Neither of them are enforced or checked at all.
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I don't think the floorball sticks is what helped in 2016 as much as having a team of really fast players and a field that was bigger than normal. In ice hockey there's 6 players per team and they can go faster, so it really just came down to being able to outrun the players from the other team. There might be a slight benefit with shorter sticks in being able to slalom at high speed but for ball passing and interception it's much worse so the playing becomes more dominated by solo riding and less by passing and playing as a team.
As to restrictions there's a rather short length limit on floorball sticks and a weight limit of 350 g. As you say these limits are not enforced but there are players who modify their sticks to be longer and I think it could present a safety issue to play with non-standard sticks. For ice hockey sticks there's a limit of 165 cm and I don't think anyone is playing with longer sticks for the simple reason they aren't generally available.
We've started to introduce ice hockey sticks in training in Denmark and it's been received well, so I think it would make sense to make the change.
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The biggest users of floorball sticks are the Danish, if they support removing floorball sticks I fully support that to make our game more uniform. I do think floorball sticks are not as useful as ice hockey sticks due to the short length and lighter weight and I think currently the Danish manage very well based on there exceptional riding skills not necessarily because of their floorball sticks