Floor hockey is a lot of fun and takes some serious skills, it makes sense that physical education teachers use this activity to teach.  Floor hockey can help teach the many skills that physical education teachers are required to teach like: body management, locomotor, object movement, and behavior skills.

Let's look at the different skills and how they can be developed while playing floor hockey.  In the body management skills category you will learn: Spatial Awareness, while moving up and down the gym, players will need to be aware of their location and where the puck or ball is along with their opponents and team mates.  Moving balance is also needed to move the puck or ball down the gym toward the goal while keeping it away from the opposing team. 

Locomotor skills will also come into play: walking, running, hoping, galloping, and skipping can be all different ways a player gets to the puck or ball.  These skills seam pretty obvious with many games but while holding a hockey stick it throws a little bit of a challenge into these simple skills.

Body Fitness skills like aerobic development is also something that floor hockey can help with.  Running up and down the gym can be a real workout for many players and can increase the heart rate.

Object Movement like striking the puck or ball and understanding the concept of the game are important skills.  Floor hockey adds a different dimension to these skills as maneuvering with a stick in your hand while running down the gym can be quite a challenge.

Behavior skills are tested as well.  The ability to understand directions and rules: Floor hockey has a set of rules that need to be following in order for the game to be successful.  Following those directions and rules is another area that is tested.  Communication skills are needed for teammates to score successfully making communication a very important skill in floor hockey.  Last would be good sportsmanship.  There is no greater communication/behavior skill than good sportsmanship. 

I bet you didn't think floor hockey would be so important in the development of children.  As you can see floor hockey is great activity and when it comes to school budgets it's not that expensive to outfit a gym with a couple of complete sets.  For more information on floor hockey items go towww.morleyathletic.com.