Floor hockey
All styles and codes are played on dry, flat floor surfaces such as a gymnasium or basketball court.
Floor hockey codes derived from ice hockey were first officially played in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1875,[citation needed] but the game's official creation is credited to Canada's Sports Hall of Fame inductee, Samuel Perry Jacks, better known as "Sam Jacks".
At the time, Jacks was working as assistant physical director at the West End YMCA in Toronto.
[6] The CBHA runs leagues for men, women, and juniors, and organizes National Championships for each division.
[citation needed] In 1962, one of the first variants of organized indoor hockey games were created in Battle Creek, Michigan in the United States by Tom Harter who used plastic sticks and pucks.
[8] It is unclear whether other floor hockey codes using a ball or a felt puck were in existence in the USA at the time or if this marked a new emerging variant in the country.
This was during a period where this particular variant was being changed and adapted from its initial form in order to make it playable for the Special Olympics.
[citation needed] One version of floor hockey was introduced as a sport in the Winter Special Olympics in 1932.
This was during a period where this particular variant was being changed and adapted from its initial form in order to make it playable for the Special Olympics.
It is also important to note that when it comes to equipment, many floor hockey games today use some type of plastic, the first of which wasn't invented until 1907 by Leo Baekeland.
The material used to make floor hockey sticks varies and can include plastic or some type of composite.
Games which use a type of puck (closed disk) such as cosom hockey and inline hockey, will typically use a stick ending in a blade with sharp angle at the end of the shaft with a blade which generally lies flat along the floor.
The first is in the case of Sam Jacks's floor hockey, the Canadian variant developed during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The first three categories are floor hockey variants played on foot while the latter involves the use of wheeled skates.
The game uses straight, bladeless sticks and a disk made of felt with a hole in the middle.
[14] The Special Olympics variant of floor hockey uses a wide disc with a hole in the middle and a blade-less stick.
It is believed to have been derived from a much earlier floor hockey variant from early 20th century Canada whose rules were codified by Sam Jacks.
Floor hockey games start with a face-off, in which a player from each team has an equal chance to gain possession.
Overtime rules vary, but typically include extra time and/or penalty shootout.
The term "floor hockey" has at times been incorrectly called ringette and vice versa.
[17] Though one of the two floor hockey variants which use a disc with a hole in the center was codified by the Canadian Sam Jacks in the 1930s, gym ringette should not be confused with floor hockey variants due to the fact gym ringette was designed in Canada in the late 20th century as the off-ice variant of the ice skating sport of ringette, a sport which was also created by Sam Jacks in Canada in the 1960s.
