A.V. Bykov, associate professor, Ph.D., Master of sports in floorball
Institute of Shipbuilding and Arctic Marine Engineering (Sevmashvtuz), affiliate of Federal Autonomous Educational Establishment for Higher Vocational Education "Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov", Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk region

Keywords: floorball, offensive actions, shots and strikes, efficiency, accuracy, competitive activity.

Introduction. Floorball is one of young and rapidly developing in the world team sports. The floorball play activity has its own features and characteristics [1, 2, 6]. The study of competitive activity is a part of comprehensive pedagogical control. Objective information on the degree of realization of athletes’ capabilities in a floorball competition is a necessary condition for management of the training process.

The purpose of the research was to determine the offensive potential in the final round of the 2012 Men's World Floorball Championship.

Results and discussion. 43 matches were held in the final round of the 2012 World Championship in Switzerland among the top 16 men's national teams: 24 matches in the group round and 19 - in the play-off round (Table 1). Effectiveness of matches in the preliminary and in the final stages of the tournament was 15.7 ± 8.1 and 10.7 ± 4 goals per game, respectively. 5031 strikes and shots on goal or an average of 117 final offensive actions per game were performed in just 43 games, 582 goals were scored, with the overall rate of their performance being 11.56%. It describes floorball as a game with a big number of goals scored in matches and their staginess, which is important for audience and fans.

Table 1. Features of the matches of the final round of the 2012 Men's World Floorball Championship among national teams

Note. Here and in Table 2: p.s. – matches that ended with a series of postgame penalty shoot-out; s.d. – matches that ended by one team winning during the regular (“sudden death” principle); GR – group round; PO – play-off; OER – overall effectiveness rate.

378 goals were scored in the group round of the final round of the 2012 World Championship, 204 were scored during play-off (Table 2). The second interval was the most important part of the match at all the rounds of the tournaments, it was during the second “20 minute interval” when most of the goals were scored. It should be noted that 4 out of 19 matches of the final round did not finish within the regulation time: two matches required overtime, and two winners were identified during the series of postgame penalty shoot-outs.  

Table 2. Percentage ratio of goals in the matches of the final round of 2012 World Championship by game intervals

Note. s.d. – matches that ended by one team winning during the regular overtime (“sudden death” principle), p.s. – matches that ended by a victory in a series of postgame penalty shoot-outs.

It is interesting to analyze match time intervals which are most effective in terms of goals scored. Each period was divided into four 5 minute parts (Table 3). The most effective parts of the match were 25^th - 30^th and 55^th – 60^th minutes of the game.

Table 3. Number of goals in the matches of the final round of 2012 World Championship depending on the interval and the time of the match

Note. OT – overtime; P – postgame penalty shoot-out; GR – group round; PO – play-off.  

Game analysis showed that 83.7% of all the goals are scored at even strength games, when teams play in set offense or counterattack the opponent’s goal, 16 goals, or 2.7 %, scored were set-piece, 9.9 % – when the teams were numerically superior to the opponent (Table 4). Zone B is the most effective offensive zone (59.4 % of all the goals) [4]. Depending on the player’s position most of the goals (60.5 %) are scored by flankers. It should be noted that backs score 16.8 % of all the goals – indicating the importance of the participation of backs in the teams’ offensive actions.  

Table 4. Characteristics of effective offensive actions in the matches of the final round of the 2012 Men's World Floorball Championship 

In the games of the leading national teams of the world that took the first four places in the 2012 World Championship the following characteristics of completion of attack of the opponent’s goal were revealed (Table 5). The average number of shots and strikes ranged from 56 to 116 per game depending on the class of the competing teams, the accuracy rate (or the number of effective shots that reached the goal mouth) was 37.8 % in the matches with the top four teams and about 50% in the matches with the national teams that were number 5 and below. We believe it is interesting to look at the effectiveness rate parameters of shots and strikes on the opponent’s goal that were obtained as a result of our research: overall effectiveness rate ranged from 9.8 to 25.1 %, effectiveness rate of all shots on target – from 25.9 to 48 %. If we compare these figures with the data of the 2010 World Championship [3], we can see a clear tendency to increase of the effectiveness of the final shots and strikes.

Table 5. Parameters of games of men’s national floorball teams (Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Germany) which took 1-4 places at the 2012 World Championship.  

Note. Here and in tables 6-8: * – percentage of the total amount.

In case of the next four teams the number of shots and strikes performed per game ranged from 40 in  matches with the leading national teams of the 2012 World Championship to 101 in matches with the outsiders of the final round. Shots accuracy rate ranged from 38 to 44 % depending on the class of the opponent. With regards to the overall effectiveness of the final offensive actions and shots that reached the goal mouth, the teams which took 5-8 places have parameters that differ from those of the leaders of the world championship, which indicates a higher skill level of players of the leading national teams (Table 6).

Table 6. Parameters of games of men’s national floorball teams (Norway, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia) which took 5-8 places at the 2012 World Championship.

Shot fitness parameters of the third quartet of teams including the Russian national team are presented in Table 7. There is a noticeable falling behind in the number and quality of performed shots and strikes during matches with the top eight teams – we believe, this is one of the reasons why the teams ranked 9^th – 12^th did not get a better table position. Thus, it is necessary to make adjustments to the training process of the Russian national team while getting ready for the final round of the 2014 World Championship, and one of the aspects the training staff of the Russian team should be focused on is actions to improve effectiveness of shots and strikes on the opponent’s goal.

Table 7. Parameters of games of men’s national floorball teams (Estonia, Russia, Poland, the USA) which took 9-12 places at the 2012 World Championship.

The four outsiders of the World Championship final are characterized by the low percentage of final offensive actions implementation that did not exceed 9 %, as well as the low effectiveness of matches – from 1.75 to 5.6 goals per match depending on the skill level of the opponent (Table 8).

Table 8. Parameters of games of men’s national floorball teams (Canada, Hungary, Japan, Singapore) which took 13-16 places at the 2012 World Championship.

Conclusions

1. There were defined indices of accuracy and effectiveness of shots and strikes performed by members of the men's national teams in the final round of the 2012 World Floorball Championship in Switzerland.

2. Trends of improvement of efficiency of offensive actions were detected compared to the 2010 World Championship.

3. The findings are of considerable practical importance for trainers of national and club teams of the world and can also be used while planning the training process of elite floorball players and assessing its effectiveness.

References

1. Bykov, A.V. Analiz igr chempionatov mira po florbolu sredi zhenskikh i muzhskikh komand (1996–2009): istoriya, statistika, rezul’tativnost’, reyting (Analysis of matches in women’s and men’s World floorball championships (1996–2009): history, statistics, goals, rating) / A.V. Bykov, L.N. Sutugina, N.A. Trukhin // Uchenye zapiski universiteta im. P.F. Lesgafta. – 2010. – No. 11 (69), P. 19–23.
2. Bykov, A.V. Kharakteristika matchey final’nykh turnirov kubka evropeyskikh chempionov po florbolu (Characteristics of matches of final tournaments of the Cup of European floorball champions / A.V. Bykov, L.N. Sutugina, N.A. Trukhin // Uchenye zapiski universiteta im. P.F. Lesgafta. – 2010. – No 12 (70), P. 20–23.
3. Bykov, A.V. Parametry atakuyushchikh deystviy komand vysokoy kvalifikatsii vo florbole (Parameters of offensive actions of elite floorball teams) / A.V. Bykov, N.A. Trukhin // Uchenye zapiski universiteta im. P.F. Lesgafta. – 2011. – No. 7 (77), P. 31–35.
4. Bykov, A.V. Tochnost’ i effektivnost’ vypolneniya broskov i udarov komandami vysokoy kvalifikatsii po florbolu (Accuracy and efficiency of throws and shots made by elite floorball team players) / A.V. Bykov, N.A. Trukhin, A.P. Skirdenko // Uchenye zapiski universiteta im. P.F. Lesgafta. – 2011. – No. 11 (81), P. 40–44.
5. Bykov, A.V. Rezul’tativnost’ broskov i udarov v mirovom zhenskom florbole na sovremennom etape razvitiya igry (Effectiveness of throws and shots in woman’s world floorball on current stage of game development) / A.V. Bykov // Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kul’tury. – 2012. – No 11. – P. 73–76.
6. Olin, V.N. Prezentatsiya novogo vida sporta: otlichnoe nastoyashchee i velikoe budushchee florbola (New sport presentation: remarkable present and great future of floorball) / V.N. Olin, A.V. Olin // Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kul’tury. – 2004. – № 7. – P. 26, 39–42.

Corresponding author: floorball@list.ru