Dallas Stars use Floorball to Fight Obesity

Kids from all around the world love floorball. Photos by Adam Troy from the Storvretacup in Sweden.

The NHL's Dallas Stars have recently started a Fitness initiative that includes floorball. Michael Borg at Floorball Central has interviewed Ms. Frances Gulick, Youth Hockey Development Manager with the Stars.

It is now a few weeks since you announced the Dallas Stars Fitness initiative. Could you describe how the response has been at the schools you have visited so far from both the students and also from school officials?
- The program started right before the holiday for some schools and most are doing their units this month.  The teachers cannot express their gratitude enough and have had nothing but wonderful things to say about the equipment.  They love how easy it is to store, transport and above all, the weight difference between that and a traditional street hockey stick.  Thrilled would be an understatement.

Adam Troy from the Storvretacup in Sweden

The Stars Fitness initiative include Floorball as a new activity to fight obesity. Are you really able to have overweight students to run around hard using Floorball?
- Absolutely!  By targeting elementary schools, we're tapping into "playtime" for kids by having them enjoy themselves first and the exercise is an afterthought.  The kids are having so much fun that they tend to fight through the "pain" of exercise.  We've found a lot of kids are actually helping other kids a lot more, encouraging them to keep going, instead of  bullying them because they can't.  It's been such a wonderful thing to watch on our end!

Are you able to send some good instructors from the Dallas Stars to school or after school programs?
-  We hold a "Train the Trainer" session for each school or district with our Dallas Stars street squad to go over how we teach floor hockey at our camps and clinics.  Besides teaching the fundamentals of Floorball, we focus on how to teach the drills so they're easy for kids to understand and pick up.

Read the entire interview here.