Floorball for all! - floorball4all.info

It was not easy to prepare for the coach training programme that was to be conducted in Melitopol near the Black Sea. We had very little and sometimes contradictory information about the infrastructure that would be available, the programme itself, and the expectations. We got there to discover that not much had been organized. However, the local people made themselves available in large numbers. This allowed us to chalk out a good schedule for the programme. The coaches that we trained gave a good feedback about what they had learned and this has encouraged us to conduct one or maybe two programmes next year as well.

We have been involved in Ukraine since the last two years and were able to hold two weeks of coach training programme during this time. In 2008, the focus was in the western Ukraine, whereas this year we were working in the eastern side of this vast country. The large distance (about 1000 km train ride) and related cost meant that only two participants from the last years programme could be involved in this year's training at the Black Sea. Training continues in Rivne and similar sessions are being started in new locations as well. Dima and his co-coaches have made great progress and we hope that floorball continues to spread throughout Ukraine. During this years training programme we had with us head coaches from Latvia and Russia; and even a Latvian who currently resides in China.

A 15 member team traveled to Ukraine in July. Primary purpose of this visit was to organize a coach training week in the city of Rivne. Some of us worked in orphanages and other pitched in with a practical hand to achieve this. We hoped to work with coaches from all of Ukraine. This could unfortunately not work out and we could work mainly with youngsters from Rivne and some interested participants from Kiev. Many participants were quite motivated and were regular with their training, some wanted to kick on and others wanted to learn new skills. Project participants came from Winterthur and the surrounding area, while most of the Floorball players were connected to HC Rychenberg. This was a pleasant and encouraging experience. Direct onsite translations helped overcome the language barrier in this project. Unfortunately, all our preparations were not ideal. But we will certainly do a lot better next time, now that we are familiar with the situation. The interaction with the Floorball team from Kiev was quite pleasant. Towards the end of the project we were taken for a city by the players from the Floorball club. We also played a game against the team from Kiev to round it off.