The story of Dribla
Dribla was born out of a desire to move, develop skills and have fun.
Dribla is a long-developed Finnish patented quality product for football training, mobility enhancement or rehabilitation.
Janne Moilanen, who played professional football, developed an activity mat to increase children’s physical activity and develop footballers’ technique training.
First steps on the carpet
“The first idea of the Dribla activity mat was actually born in 2000. At that time I was playing football professionally for FC KTP in Kotka. I trained a lot on my own, as I had to be in top shape for the tests of the Dutch club FC Heerenveen.
I wish it were possible to do this workout
indoors,
One evening I had cycled to the football pitch. I put down some training cones, or “cones”, and started to pass the ball between them, sometimes stopping the ball and touching the cones. This exercise allowed me to make a lot of quick changes of direction, braking and touching the ball with different parts of my foot in a short distance. The exercise developed versatile ball control and the heart rate increased well. It was also a hell of a lot of fun. It was pouring rain. I was like a dog in a bath. If only this workout could be done indoors, I thought.
The second stage
The second impetus for the development of the activity mat came from my work as an entrepreneur in the sports events industry. Since 2013, I have organised several hundred events for children and the whole family in my company.
all over Finland, including Moving Children’s World and Bouncy World events. The idea is to bring the joy of exercise to children through play.
When we have added entertainment equipment to events to encourage physical activity, I have seen tens of thousands of children moving around excitedly without anyone forcing them to.
I wanted to develop a product that could bring the same joy of exercise into the home and get them active instead of on their phones.
Few children go out on their own to play in the sand any more.
In Finland, training outdoors is not even very meaningful and developmental in winter. Exercise has to be fun, otherwise nobody does it.
Lockdown
The final launch of the Dribla worm took place one night during the corona lockdown in 2020. I rolled over in bed awake. I remembered myself training in the pouring rain in Kotka 20 years earlier. I thought of my football-playing son, who liked to do ball training outside. I also thought of the children who enjoyed exercise but were now cooped up at home because of the pandemic.
Could ball training be done interactively and gamely, right at home?
The next morning, I set up the pumpkins on the living room carpet. My 11-year-old son and I tried different ways to move the ball on the carpet, sometimes stopping the ball and touching the pegs, sometimes dodging them. We continued to develop games in the hobby room at home.
I cut small discs out of cardboard to replace the dice. Among other things, we invented a game of potholes, where you have to move the ball quickly without hitting the pucks.
Dribla is born
Over several years of development, Dribla has been honed to its final form. We have sought and found the quality materials for its manufacture. We have developed
sensors embedded in the carpet that react to the ball and to touch. We’ve designed an easy and fun mobile app that makes your phone part of your gaming experience.
From the beginning, it has been important to me that I want to create a product that is durable, high quality and safe. I hate cheap technology.
That’s why Dribla is made from start to finish in Finland.
The artificial grass mat is manufactured by Saltex in Alajärvi, the sub-mat by NMC Termonova in Inzola and the sensors by the 3K electronics factory in Savonlinna. The game application is made by
Metatavu, a Mikkeli-based company specialising in application development and digital solutions.
The games have been developed largely through experimentation with our own children and have also been tested with a variety of users, including players from football clubs. I myself have spent many hours rolling the ball around on the carpet to make sure it works as well as possible. It makes you sweat!
Janne Moilanen
Design and development of the Dribla
Dribla Ltd
info@dribla.fi
+35845 208 6680
Played professional football, including:
- FC KTP Kotka
- FC Jokerit
- KUPS
- AC Alliance
- FC Trollhättan
- FC Lahti
After an active career as a coach and coaching manager, he worked for:
- Lahden Reipas
- Mikkelin Palloilijat
- Mikkelin Pallo-Kissat