Is a Floorball Just a Wiffle Ball?

by Dan Torretta - 8/15/2026

Is a Floorball Just a Wiffle Ball?

A pet peeve of mine is when I hear people say that floorball is played with a Wiffle ball. I’ll explain why nothing could be further from the truth.

A pet peeve of mine is when I hear people say that floorball is played with a Wiffle ball. I’ll explain why nothing could be further from the truth.

Most people will call any kind of plastic ball a Wiffle ball. Wiffle is actually a brand name for a baseball variant that was designed for small spaces and indoor use which is surprisingly similar to how floorball got started.

Wiffle has its own website with their own published rules for how the game is played, and they only make one type of ball. That would be the classic eight oblong holes on one side of the ball design. Every other kind of plastic ball with holes in it IS NOT a Wiffle ball.

So, what is a floorball then? Simple -- it’s just a floorball. It was designed and engineered specifically for floorball to give the best performance while playing the sport. In any competitive floorball match you must use an IFF certified floorball which means it has to meet the following criteria:

23 grams
72mm in diameter
26 holes that are all 10mm in diameter

If you really want to go into finer detail the IFF Material Regulations talk about the breaking stress and surface fineness, but you get the idea. These are not random plastic balls that are being thrown out onto the court.

When you shoot a floorball you expect it to go straight. It is engineered to fly true. Try shooting a Wiffle ball with your floorball stick and see how straight it goes. Wiffle balls were purposely designed to curve so they could mimic baseballs without stressing elbow joints.

Pickleballs often get confused with floorballs as well (and are also often called Wiffle balls). Pickleballs are slightly larger and even have indoor and outdoor variations. They’re also designed with bounce mechanics in mind, whereas with floorball you don’t want that extra bounce when trying to control the ball. A pickleball could work for your recreational pickup game, but you’re also not trying to get maximum performance when you’re playing with friends.

There are countless other variations out there that look similar to floorballs and pickleballs. You’ll also find that they vary widely in size and weight which affects bounce and flight path.

All of this is to say that, no, a floorball isn’t a Wiffle ball. It’s also not a generic plastic ball with holes in it. It’s a uniquely engineered ball tailor-made for its sport. You wouldn’t play soccer with a basketball, and you shouldn’t play floorball with anything other than a floorball. Use genuine Floorballs with your floorball stick.

-Download or Print as pdf-

-Comments/Questions-

Would you like to comment on this article or ask a question? Please use this form: