Floorball is a fun, exciting sport that is easy to get into.  It’s similar to ‘unihoc’ and played with a puck.  Hastings Predators Floorball Club is a non-profit community sports club working primarily with young people and young adults in Hastings and St Leonards. The aim of the club is to promote teamwork, healthy living and community cohesion through sports activities in an educational and inclusive environment.

It runs weekly under-16s training sessions, a free of charge weekly after school club and an open all-ages training session every Friday.  Its ambition is to attract between 200 – 700 people with some indoor provision (as a fall back for bad weather on the day).  The Club decided to hold a Community Games to promote itself and Floorball, and was hoping to attract 150 or more regular participants.

The event took place on 23 August, in a prime location on The Stade Open Space on Hastings promenade. A Floorball exhibition arena was set up, along with a ‘come and try it’ area.  More than 400 people came along, and the other activities included an Ironman challenge, barfit, powerlifting, strength training, Zumba and dance activities. Prizes were presented by the Mayor of Hastings.

Volunteers from the Club encouraged anyone interested to have a go at floorball and then told them all about the on-going weekly sessions, which cater for all standards of player including beginners.

The day was a great success with 83% of adult participants interviewed saying they were going to go along to a local session in one or more of the activities they had tried.