Ringette

Ringette is a competitive team sport invented in Canada during the 1960s and often likened to ice hockey. The sport is played on an ice rink, with players using straight, specially tipped sticks to attempt to direct a rubber ring into the opposing team’s goal. A team wins the game by scoring more goals than their opponent during the game.

Originally developed for female players as a non-contact alternative to ice hockey, ringette has since grown to include players of all genders. Internationally, the sport is governed by the International Ringette Federation (IRF), with the World Ringette Championships (WRC) representing the pinnacle of competitive international play.

Brief History

Ringette emerged in Canada during the early 1960s. Ringette Canada recognizes Sam Jacks as the sport’s founder. Jacks was a sports coach and civic recreation administrator in the Canadian province of Ontario who began his career in the mid-1930s. He became the director of recreation for the Ontario municipality of North Bay in 1948 and was elected to the presidency of the Society of Directors of Municipal Recreation of Ontario (SDMRO) in 1963. It was during his stint as SDMRO president that Jacks introduced ringette, a sport he began developing several years earlier as an alternative to ice hockey. At the time, ice hockey was played almost exclusively by male competitors, and the social values of the era generally discouraged girls from participating due to the contact sport’s intense nature. Seeking to engage girls in a similarly fast-paced, team-based winter sport, Jacks began developing ringette in the early 1960s. He unveiled the initial iteration of the sport’s rules at a 1963 meeting of the Society of Northern Municipal Directors. Following further development, Jacks and his fellow athletic administrators agreed to adopt an amended set of official rules in 1965.

Ringette became increasingly popular during the 1970s, with associations and amateur leagues spreading from Ontario to other Canadian provinces, including British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and Quebec. Ringette Canada was founded to function as the sport’s national governing body in 1974, and, by the 1980s, ringette had established an international foothold. The IRF was founded in 1986 with an initial membership of five countries: Canada, the United States, Finland, France, and Sweden. Ringette’s first official international tournament followed later that year, with the World Ringette Championship debuting in 1990. Owing to its dominance of the sport, Canada entered six regional and provincial teams rather than a national team, with Finland and the United States sending national teams to the 1990 event. Team Alberta won the inaugural title after defeating Team Ontario by a 6–5 score in the championship match. Ringette has since maintained its international profile, with five countries (Canada, the United States, the Czech Republic, Finland, and Sweden) sending teams to the 2023 World Ringette Championships.

Overview

Ringette has significant overlap with ice hockey. Both sports share common game objectives and team structures. In both ringette and ice hockey, six players per team occupy the ice during standard play, including three forwards, two defensive players, and one goaltender. Forwards primarily attempt to score goals, defensive players attempt to neutralize opposing forwards, and goaltenders stop shots at the net. Penalties are also assessed similarly: as in hockey, a ringette player who takes a minor penalty is relegated to a penalty box for two minutes, during which that player’s team loses one non-goaltender skater for the duration of the penalty.

At the same time, ringette has numerous unique rules that differentiate it from hockey. The most notable examples extend to red lines known as “free play lines” and rules governing a team’s legal entry into the opposing team’s defensive zone. Free play lines are marked with a thin red line, which extends across the width of the ice along the top of the faceoff circles in each team’s defensive zone. At any given time, only three players per team plus the defending goaltender are permitted to remain inside the free play line. As in hockey, each team’s defensive zone is marked by a thick blue line; unlike hockey, ringette players are not permitted to carry the ring across the blue line into the defending team’s zone. Instead, offensive players must pass the ring across the blue line to achieve a legal zone entry.

Ringette is also notable for its lack of face-offs. Following a stoppage in play, a team is permitted to make one uncontested pass to restart the game. Additional rules unique to ringette include the absence of a center-ice red line, which is used in hockey to limit the length of legal passes, and a thirty-second shot clock, which compels teams to attempt a shot on goal within thirty seconds of gaining control of the ring. A team that fails to attempt a shot within thirty seconds forfeits possession of the ring to the opposing team, which is then allowed a free pass to restart play. Intentional body contact is also illegal and can result in a minor or major penalty. In ringette, a major penalty lasts four minutes instead of two (unlike in hockey, in which major penalties are five minutes in length). If a penalized team surrenders a goal during a minor penalty, the penalized player is eligible to return to the ice. Major penalties last the entire four minutes, regardless of how many goals the penalized team surrenders.

Ringette games consist of two twenty-minute periods, during which time is stopped during breaks in play. In amateur recreational play and for younger players, periods are usually 15 minutes long, and time may be continuous rather than stopped during breaks. Due to the thirty-second shot clock and the rules requiring an offensive team to pass the ring into the defending team’s zone, ringette games typically maintain a high-tempo pace of play.

Bibliography

Clark, Wes. “Ringette in Canada.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2 Nov. 2016, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ringette. Accessed 5 Feb. 2025.

“History of Ringette.” Ringette Canada, 2025, www.ringette.ca/our-sport/history-of-ringette/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2025.

“Sam Jacks.” Ringette Canada, 2025, www.ringette.ca/inductees/sam-jacks/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2025.

“What Is Ringette?” North West Vancouver Ringette, 2025, www.nwvra.ca/home/resources/what-is-ringette/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2025.

“What Is Ringette?” Ringette Canada, 2025, www.ringette.ca/our-sport/what-is-ringette/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2025.

“World Ringette Championships.” Ringette Canada, 2025, www.ringette.ca/events/world-ringette-championships/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2025.