Sonderborg’s floorball club, the Vikings were advertising the setting up of a new team for women in the new year. The first training session was yesterday, so I decided to go along.

What is Floorball

Floorball is a type of floor hockey, where two teams with sticks try to get a holey plastic ball into opposing goal nets. It is mostly popular in Scandinavia, having been developed in Sweden in the 1970s. I had never heard of it before moving here, but it seems to be a common sport played in schools, so most Danes know the basics.

First Training Sessions

The first training session was, I would say, a success. We were 22 women in ages from older teenagers to (according to Sonderborg Floorball Club) 61. The participants varied from what looked like quite experienced players to at least one person who had never seen a floorball stick before (me!). We first did some basic exercises, walking with a ball and passing a ball back and forth between us, before being divided into 4 teams and playing some short games between us.

Want to Join?

If you are over 15 (and a woman) and you’re looking for a sport (or something to do on a Monday evening!) I would encourage you to give floorball a try. The club has all the equipment needed, so all you need to do is turn up. Being a fairly new thing also means that there will be other people in the same boat as you and, hopefully, we can all get better (and fitter) together.

Training sessions: Mondays 19:00-20:00 at Kløvermarkhallen

If I had to say something about my experience, I quite enjoyed it and will definitely be back. It is, of course, very Danish, which means that there was barely an introduction, I still have no great idea how to hold the floorball stick (or how to select one) and no one told me their name (unless asked directly…a couple of times)! I hope that over time I will learn all this. But anyways, don’t let this scare you off! It’s all part and parcel of getting along with Danish people in Danish spaces. So it’s all good!

Other teams

Sønderborg Floorball Club has three other teams which are Youth 7-11, Youth 13-15 and a Senior Team for men. You can try and contact the club via the website if you are interested in one of these teams.