Ringette is a type of hockey. What is the distinguishing feature of this sport?

Ringette is a Canadian invention that has become one of the fastest team sports on ice. Sam Jacks, a recreation director and sports enthusiast from North Bay, Ontario, invented the sport in 1963 when he saw the need for a winter team sport for girls. Interestingly enough, Sam Jacks was also responsible for the development and introduction of floor hockey in 1936.

Since the early 1960s, the sport has continued to grow and currently boasts nearly 32,333 registered players on nearly 2000 teams, with over 8000 coaches and over 1700 officials. While it is primarily a female sport, there are currently over 700 males playing ringette across the country.

Ringette, like hockey, is played on ice with skates and sticks with six players per team on the ice at once. The objective is to score goals by shooting the object of play into the opposing team’s net at either end of the rink during stop-time periods of play. But this is where the comparisons between ringette and hockey really end. The stick is straight. The object being pursued by the players is a rubber ring, not a puck. There is no intentional body contact. And the rules of ringette make it a wide-open and dynamic sport.