Will “Short bandy” be a new member of the bandy family?

Have you ever heard of Short bandy?

For long Rink bandy has been the natural alternative to big ice bandy. In the northern countries in the world, like Canada, USA, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia, bandy is the biggest wintersport next to hockey. But nations in the middle or south of Europe with no winter climate, their alternative is to play on hockey rinks.

A few years ago the Czech Bandy Federation wanted to play more like bandy even on a hockey rink. They started to develop Short bandy. One ambition was to find a way of playing bandy on hockey rinks to prepare for bandy on big ice. After many tests, the Czech Bandy started playing and training in “Short bandy”.

CORNER SHOT IN SHORT BANDY

Short bandy might give nations that play in hockey rinks a smother way to be able to develop their skills for bandy. That could larger the number of  teams that want to continue to develop also in bandy on big ice. 

The Czech players believe this could be the way for the development of bandy around the world, because for the play you need “only” a hockey rink. 

Short bandy is not a recognised FIB discipline, but FIB evaluates and learns about it so far. The purpose is to take a decision later.

Egil Larsen

Egil Larsen is chairman of FIB Rules and Referees Committee and he recently attended some Short bandy games in Prague during the ISBL tournament and took his feedback on what he observed back to FIB. He had positive thoughts about the possibility to expand with a new FIB disciplin.

-One improvement I noted was the use of the endline, which prevented dangerous situations behind the goal. To instead have corner shots like bandy gives Short bandy a tighter connection to bandy, says Egil Larsen. 

Egil Larsen in Prague with Lukáš Turza, Chair of the Czech Association of Bandy

In an Short bandy team there are four field players and one goal keeper. The goals are in size somwhere between hockey goals and bandy goals. The number of players on the ice gives more speed and open spaces that more closely resemble the game of bandy. Now Egil Larsen and Frank Peters from FIB Technical Committee will continue to review the Short bandy rules to see if it is possible to adjust them to be more like bandy, before any kind of decision will be made.

Here are a couple of short videos from Rink bandy and Short bandy…