The Waist Rule: Traffic-Light Dribbling

A free-dribbling warm-up where students react to color signals. From minute one it locks in the key safety rule: the stick never goes above the waist.

How to play

1. The teacher demonstrates the waist rule: on the backswing and follow-through, the blade never rises above the hip. Each student grabs a stick and a ball (2 min).
2. Free dribbling around the space. Green: dribble fast. Yellow: short taps left and right, almost stopped. Red: stop the ball under the blade (3 min).
3. Add blue: change direction, keeping your body between the ball and the nearest classmate (2 min).
4. On green, pass softly into one of the scattered cones and get your own ball back before the next signal (2 min).
5. Wrist, shoulder and trunk mobility holding the stick level at hip height (1 min).

Rules

• The stick never goes above the waist, not even on the backswing.
• Dribble with your head up; if two players are about to collide, both stop.
• No touching anyone else's stick or ball.
• If you break the waist rule, sit out the next signal standing still with the ball under your blade.

Variations

Adaptations

• Deaf or hard-of-hearing students: the teacher uses large colored cards instead of calling out.
• Limited mobility or wheelchair users: a shorter stick or a one-handed grip, plus a side zone with fewer classmates nearby.
• Students nervous with the stick: start with a tennis ball, which rolls slower and is easier to control.

Learning goals

• Make the waist rule a habit as a safety norm.
• Dribble the ball while looking up.
• Warm up the body gradually.

Equipment for a class of 25

• floorball sticks: 30
• floorball balls: 30
• cones: 8

Teacher tip

Model the rule with your own stick before handing out equipment, and repeat it out loud every time someone breaks it. The classic mistake is a big backswing: ask for short wrist taps.

More activities like this

More warm-ups for Middle School