How Much Training Is Enough?

It is common knowledge, at least in Finland, that floorball players do not train as much as a true athlete should. In most conversations that at some point reference training and floorball people seem to dismiss floorball players as semi-lazies who might be very skilled in their sport but who don't really pass as a proper athlete when it comes to actual physical condition or commitment. The people holding that opinion are usually much more familiar with other sports but there is a quite vocal group even within the floorball community repeating the same mantra. Does it have any merit and what is the amount of work a "true" athlete should do?

If you just look at the top level of floorball in, for example, Finland, you can see people with widely differing bodies. There are the skinny floorball player prototypes as well as some that lean on the chubby side. Lately, though, the most common body type has converged towards a lean football player type, which in my opinion is the optimal. This change in the average build should tell you something but it is not the whole story. Some people are naturally that with just a little training and others can't reach it no matter what they do.

So, how much should you train to be considered athlete? The consensus currently is twenty hours a week. That's four hours a day, five days a week. Could also be considered half a working week. Time-wise that is a lot. If you have school and/or work to take care of along with a possible family there's not much time left for anything else like seeing friends and partying. Figuring out how to make sure you get that much training in a week can be difficult but let's try.

A floorball team usually is not a professional team and therefore team practice time is quite limited. It is not possible to have practice twice a day, six days a week, as people need to attend the above mentioned school and work. A semi-professional team usually trains four to six times a week together, and with an average training time of two or two and a half hours it totals way below the twenty hours needed. If a team could train eight to ten times a week it would be all there but as it's not possible it is important that the athlete adds to the total by training independently. A missed team training is important to compensate with additional individual training as well.

In many ways the need to train independently is a good thing. When the team trains together it tends to be a mishmash of what the team needs as a whole and personal needs have to subside. Of course in a professional setting the individuals can be taken as individuals quite well. But how should you train to get to that twenty hours a week? There's only so little time and so much to do.

An important thing to remember is what the biggest issues are. If you are physically behind in some certain areas it makes sense to concentrate on those issues without forgetting the big picture. Perhaps an extra high intensity interval run every week or an extra trip to the gym would be appropriate. These must of course be matched with the team training schedule to make sure the more taxing training happens in controlled manner.

Another thing to remember is that most of the extra training needed can be gained by doing ordinary things. If you live about thirty minute bike ride from work then biking instead of taking the bus or driving yourself will gain you five hours of exercise a week. Or if you live in the sixth floor then climbing the stairs each time will gain you a couple of hours too. Unfortunately walking from the couch to the fridge does not count. Add to that a half-hour interval run every morning and you're pretty much at the target.

It is quite important to consider the quality of the training as well. It doesn't really matter how much you train if you don't do it properly. A light jog will not improve your endurance and sitting at the gym watching other people lift weights while doing small talk with the cute girl/guy will not gain you any strength. Training is training even if it's done individually and with nobody yelling you to try harder. You must always keep in mind why you are training in the first place and concentrate on the important things.

Twenty hours a week is a huge amount of time in todays busy lives. Sometimes it might feel quite difficult to achieve that every single week. But remember that it is important. Very important. Floorball as a sport is physically very demanding and giving your opponent the edge by not being fit is not smart if you want to win. And winning is why we train, isn't it?

What Is Floorball?

A question I am pretty sure will pop up sooner or later is "What the heck is floorball?" so let's get that over with first. Other people have done a wonderful job at answering that question so I'll let them do it for you as well.

Please let Juha explain or read from Wikipedia. Or both. Either way, consider yourself informed.

Hello World

So, here I am. Starting a blog just like everyone else and their dog. I've thought about starting one for a long time but I never thought I'd have anything meaningful to say or the stamina to keep it going. I'm still not sure about the first and pretty pessimistic about the latter. We'll see how it goes, bear with me.

I'm not going to introduce myself more thoroughly but there's one thing I want to get out there. This blog is and will be in English. It'd be easier to talk about the things I plan to talk about in my native Finnish and most of the specialty terminology I most likely will need is not at all familiar to me in any other language. So why English? First of all, I currently live in Canada and nobody here speaks Finnish. It makes sense to write in a language the people you interact with daily can understand, right? The second, and perhaps more important, reason is that there's already a ton of good stuff in Finnish (and definitely in Swedish) but I haven't seen any in English. Perhaps it's just my limited view. I do, however, believe that there is a growing audience for English language conversation on floorball, floorball coaching and related matters. So there.

I have a bunch of ideas of what I will talk about but no set schedule. I'll write when the inspiration strikes but I wholeheartedly welcome any comments any time.

Welcome.