Broomball By Jonathan The-Daring McMahon

Imagine a sport system as pro as hockey, more ghetto than basketball, and surpassing the shrewd competiveness of soccer. It’s called broomball. Conceived from two bodies of pure awesomeness, broomball was sent to earth as a divine gift from the gods… —erm… that’s not quite right.

Broomball is a full contact sport believed to have originated from Montreal, Canada during the 1890s. Mythology proposes that this epic game came about during lunch breaks by streetcar employees to kill time. Ironically, now participants would most likely kill just for a chance to get some game time.

Played on iced-over tennis courts or hockey rinks, it shares a dominate resemblance to ice hockey, with gameplay somewhat similar to indoor soccer.  In broomball, the objective rests on transporting a little, miniaturized summation of a soccer ball to the opponent’s goal. To accomplish this divine task, competitors are allowed to manipulate the ball with a specialized stick, or “broom”. The broomball stick consists of a shaft with something of a rubberized rectangular strike zone on its end. Though goals are only accomplished through stick maneuvers, players are allowed to kick the ball at leisure, slap it to the ground, and flaunt fancy footwork with passes, hesitations, and offensive techniques. Broomball is an extraordinary being in that, though encompassing traits from multiple sports, it remains truly unique.

Broomball physics (considered in terms of an ideal system) is simple kinematics. The ball is slapped (rotational/linear motion, dominantly inelastic collision) across a low-friction surface. Players bounce off walls during (mainly elastic) collisions, attempt transfers of momentum during subtle “checks”, and concentrate deeply on getting maximum speed and accuracy from their shots (pressure and area manipulation, rotational motion optimization, kinetic energy transfer from collisions).
 
The result is beautiful.

Image courtesy: broox