This post features yours truly taking the case for each size rink for broomball play.
Some background: If you don't know what broomball is, I suggest you pause in reading this and click here to educate yourself on a totally fun sport. I am currently playing in the PSL Competitive broomball league (organized by PUMP), which is both competitive and plenty of fun. However, I would like to continue the spread of the game in the area by not only having open sessions anyone can attend, but also having the ability to get a group together to travel to different sites and play in competitive tournaments. Basically, I hope to create a group that will follow the same sort of path of expansion and commitment to the game that the group I've been in since college, First State Broomball, has taken. Below is my describing the positives and negatives of each type of rink we could play on; ideally, I hope a large enough crowd wants to play so that we can use the larger rinks & more people can play at one time.
1.) Of course, with a smaller sheet of ice that you're playing on, it's less running back and forth to get in position to make a play. Whether you're well out of shape or in fine physical condition, it's easier on everyone to get to both sides of ice and get involved in the action.
2.) Because there is less room to get past opponents and score, the smaller ice gives everyone an opportunity to show off superior stick handling skills. As is evident from the above picture, the ceiling on the rink we play in the PSL is very low and has taken away numerous great lift passes I've attempted, but that obviously isn't the case at all rinks.
3.) Smaller rinks mean that everyone can worry less about the many hockey-based rules that broomball employs. There's no icing violation for clearing the ball away, and the only line we worry about regarding offside is the center line; even the offside line can be done away with in more casual games, though cherry-pickers aren't very fun.
AGAINST: Time to shut me down.
1.) If you're playing on a small rink with any amount of people over 3 or 4 per team, it's very liable to take away from a very useful tool some could use to their advantage, which is speed. Why take away a talent someone has in favor of everyone else who doesn't possess that talent?
2.) Almost necessarily, because you're playing on a small rink, you're probably playing with nets of standard hockey dimensions, rather than the larger broomball-specific nets. Combined with having less room to take a multitude of different shots like slapshots or variations of lift shots, you better either be a master of having the ball come to your stick to maneuver it past the goalie, or a master of having just plain old luck, or goals will be very hard to come by.
3.) No matter if you're wearing broomball shoes or your everyday sneakers, ice quality will probably be an issue for you. Full public skating sessions aren't held on that tiny rink I posted, so you're relying on almost entirely very young kids to carve up the ice enough for you to have sufficient traction to run on it; I don't like those chances. Also, if I'm getting a sheet of ice cleaned so that it's ideal for games with everyone wearing the special shoes, I'm much more likely to get the sheet of ice that allows you to freely run around on the ice rather than the continual back-and-forth of short ice action. So take that!
1.) It's exactly like hockey on shoes. With more area to work with comes more speed, more creativity with the ball on your stick, more ways to put one past the goalie with both finesse shots and shots that could knock a goaltender over, and more of the strategies employed in hockey that make that sport so intriguing to watch. These are exemplified in 5 on 5 clean ice action; checking out YouTube videos of 5 on 5 play further backs this assertion.
2.) Playing on a large sheet of ice gives you a better reason to use the broomball nets. By playing on these nets, you not only get to see more shots on net that could very well lead to high-scoring affairs, but you also get to see who has all the great reactions that you see in NHL games, rather than seeing who can occupy net space in the hockey nets better, as the ball is considerably larger than a puck.
3.) If you want the best preparation in order to go other places and take on the best that they have to offer, you have to play on the proper surface for those games. The only leagues I see that utilize smaller surfaces are the leagues that promote a more social environment like the PSL and college intramural leagues that generally strive to get everyone involved, playing, and having fun.
AGAINST: Open, competitive play? I see. I think it's time to drop some bombs on your argument.
1.) If you want to play on large sheets of clean ice, then you also want us to fork out around $60 for a pair of shoes, and those are just for more recreational broomball shoes. Outside of shoe rentals, the only way people are going to want to step out on the ice is if the ice is sufficiently shaved by open skating sessions or hockey games before broomball. The ice quality will thus cause people to either empty their wallets to play or maybe bruise their backsides while playing.
2.) How effective would a league really be on large rinks? Many of these leagues seem few & far between. You'd first need to have a large enough team so that not everyone dies of exhaustion out on the ice, then you'd have to think up line combinations for every game, especially considering that each team's roster for every game will very likely be changing every time out there. Sounds like a great deal of work even before worrying about the rules once you get out on the ice.
3.) So if a large rink helps players to potentially use their great speed, then what's the fun for the average person who's out of shape and wants to step out on the ice? Unless my not-so-fast team has unbelievable stick-handling skills, it sure sounds like we're going to take resounding defeats to teams that are merely in better shape than we are. This isn't the pros; this is our local league! Come on, man!
I better step in and stop myself from getting in a fight with...myself. Whichever rink that is chosen for broomball, I just want to grow interest in a sport/game around Pittsburgh/Western PA that's fun to play with friends and is one to talk and joke about with friends. Even if you have no serious interest in joining a traveling team that takes on other serious teams (note: I would say more about maybe starting a league, but I'm afraid of taking anything away from the weekly leagues that the PSL runs year-round, so the in-Pittsburgh broomball league seems fairly well-established already), many can tell you from experience how fun it is to step out on the ice and enjoy yourself for a couple of hours on a weekend evening.
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