TT floorball team set to compete at 2022 Games

THE Special Olympics TT (SOTT) is presently preparing a floorball team for the 2022 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Kazan, Russia.

This is the first time TT would be competing in this discipline, having previously featured in floor hockey at the past six editions.

Floorball is a versatile indoor team sport played in a rink with five field players plus a goalkeeper in each team. It’s played with plastic sticks and a light ball and with a goalkeeper without a stick.

The sport has similarities with other forms of hockey (field, indoor and ice), and the main objective is to score more goals than the opposition.

For Special Olympics, the game is slightly modified from the 'regular' form of floorball. Matches are played three versus three with goalkeepers on a smaller court that measures 20 metres long by 12m wide.

This form of floorball was developed for the intellectually disabled and was introduced as a demonstration sport at the 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

TT was introduced to floorball at a special workshop hosted by the International Floorball Federation in Jamaica, last February. Athletes Kezie Grant, Shanivar Grant, Alarm Hassan, and John Laldeo were joined by two SOTT officials – SOTT sport/training director Ferdinand Bibby and Droopatie Samaroo – at the workshop.

Upon their return home, the TT group passed on their knowledge to local coaches. Owing to the covid19 pandemic which forced TT sports into lockdown mode a month later, SOTT was unable to begin any formal training with athletes.

Bibby, who also serves as SOTT’s floor hockey and floorball coach, said they have already introduced some of the skills, via Zoom, so athletes could have a view of some of the preparations and pre-skills for the sport.

“We are in the process of now introducing the game to the special athletes of TT. The four athletes that represented us in Jamaica were two Trinidadians and two Tobagonians.

“This was done so that when they returned with their knowledge of the sport, the information/rules could be easily shared to all special athletes on both islands,” he said.

Unlike the Olympic Games, the Special Olympics does not use qualifying meets to affirm country participation. They use quotas. For the 2022 Games, the Caribbean was given two quotas, one for Jamaica and the other, TT.

Jamaica will participate in speed skating and floorball while TT will prep for floorball only.

However, to be selected to the national team, the athletes are required to compete in a national tournament before the Kazan Games.

In August, SOTT will host its national floorball tournament where the athletes would play to meet the requirements of the international body and for national team selection.

Training is usually done at the Chinese Association’s indoor facility (St Ann’s), Jean Pierre Complex (Mucurapo), as well as the Chaguanas and Pleasantville indoor sporting facilities.

“We have not yet shortlisted any athletes as yet. A team of 20 players should be shortlisted by the end of February to further their training. From there, we have to break down the team to 11 players,” said Bibby.

Presently, SOTT has approximately 22 athletes preparing for the Games. If and when TT’s covid19 restrictions are eased, they hope to get more athletes on board before the final selection.

This way, according to Bibby, SOTT can expose more players to the sport and to being shortlisted.

“Most of our higher functioning athletes have already been playing floor hockey so it’s an easy transition from floorball to floor hockey. The only difference is one is played with a puck and the other with a ball.

“The transformation is a bit easy although the game is a bit faster. The athletes pick up faster, especially those who have already been familiarised with floor hockey,” said the national coach.

Bibby said that ‘stick handling’ – how to handle to the implement to hit the ball – should be the trickiest transition for players.

SOTT has also begun introducing some of its special sporting disciplines to the general population. Most of their special schools have partnered with some secondary schools in their vicinity to help the sport grow.

They have also joined forces with local hockey clubs such as Paragon to help players adjust and familiarise themselves to the game.

To help players transition, SOTT uses a programme called ‘developmental skills’.

Bibby continued, “There are certain skills that pertain to the sport that the athlete must be able to do, even under pressure in a given time. There are specific training methods the athlete must go through first.

“There’s a training regime called ‘shoot for accuracy’ where the goal is divided into six segments and points are given if the athletes has the ability to place the ball into the corners and along the ground etcetera.

“There’s also defensive training where one athlete faces off against two coaches with his job being to retrieve the ball from the coaches who would be passing to each other. If he captures the ball he gets a certain amount of points.”

If the athlete has the ability to do all these activities, only then he/she would be placed into a ‘game’ situation. Bibby added that there may be athletes who would only be able to do the developmental skills segment but would not be able to transition into the game situation.

Bibby has been involved in SOTT since its inception over 50 years ago. He was also a former track and field coach with Ministry of Sport and also worked with the education sector. According to him, he may be the oldest person still active in the SOTT movement to date.