Shinny (also shinney, pick-up hockey, pond hockey, or "outdoor puck") is an informal type of

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

played on ice. It is also used as another term for street hockey. There are no formal rules or specific positions, and often, there are no

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as goalie or netminder) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their own team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays ...

s. The goal areas at each end may be marked by nets, or simply by objects, such as stones or blocks of snow. Body checking and lifting or "roofing/reefing/raising the puck" (shooting the puck or ball so it rises above the ice) are often forbidden because the players are not wearing protective equipment. Shinny is a game that all levels of hockey enthusiasts can play because it requires no rink, requires no skills except ability to hold a stick and at the very least to try to touch the puck or ball when it goes by. Shinny may be completely non-competitive and recreational. In his book ''Country on Ice'', Doug Beardsley claims that most

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

hockey professional players have played some form of shinny in their youth.

Team formation

There is a common ritual for choosing teams, which has each player "throwing" their

hockey stick A hockey stick is a piece of sports equipment used by the players in all the forms of hockey to move the ball or puck (as appropriate to the type of hockey) either to push, pull, hit, strike, flick, steer, launch or stop the ball/Hockey puck, puc ...

into a pile at centre ice, or the middle area between two nets. A player then divides the pile into two smaller piles, ostensibly at random, but perhaps strategically assigning sticks to one side or another. Players then pick up their own sticks, the teams having been formed. Teams are often formed with intent to divide the group into approximately equal levels of skills among the players. Players joining after play has started are usually told "which way they are going" (which net they should shoot towards) based upon the score of the game and their skill level. Some games continue for many hours with a variety of players participating for as long as they want.

History and name origin

A game with similarities to shinny, but played on dirt, not ice, is widely reported in memoirs and ethnographic literature among Native American tribes throughout North America and may be its origin – for example, Thomas Jefferson Mayfield's memoir of his adopted boyhood among the Indians of Kings River, California (''Indian Summer'', Berkeley, Heyday, 1993). Sports historian Margaret Ann Hall describes this indigenous game as using curved sticks to hit a small ball, made of wood or stuffed deerskin, across a field of dirt or ice and between a pair of posts at either end of the field. According to Hall, the game was mainly a women's sport while

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

was mainly played by men. Shinny, generally believed to be a precursor to

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

, was informal enough in its formative years that the pucks and sticks were often makeshift. During the Great Depression, for example, northern boys used tree branches or broomhandles as sticks, a tin can, a piece of wood, and even a frozen road apple (horse dropping) as a puck. Any object about the right size might serve as a puck. The name is derived from the Scottish game

shinty Shinty () is a team sport played with sticks and a ball. It is played mainly in the Scottish Highlands and among Highland migrants to the major cities of Scotland. The sport was formerly more widespread in Scotland and even played in Northern ...

and indeed shinny was a common name for one of shinty's many regional variations in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. Shinny, a primarily

term, is usually called "pick-up hockey" or "pond hockey" in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. A myth perpetuates in Canada that the name is derived from children tying Eaton's catalogues around their legs (especially goalies) as a makeshift type of shinguard.

Institutionalized usage

In some municipalities around the world where the climate permits, part of a city's taxes may go to the formal set-up and maintenance of skating rinks designed specifically for shinny. In some cities, such as

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

, and

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

, numerous rinks are erected and are maintained by civil servants throughout the winter as long as the weather allows their usage to continue. The city of

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

hosts free or low-cost shinny sessions and also has programs for adults to learn how to play hockey on city rinks. Toronto has more outdoor mechanically cooled rinks than any city in the world, with 54 outdoor mechanically cooled rinks currently in operation The programs, expanded in 2011, include parent/child shinny and two levels of beginner, and are supervised by city-paid coaches.

References

External links

U.S. Pond Hockey ChampionshipsShinnyUSA - Lifetime Adult HockeyPickup Hockey - Local Toronto Pickup Shinny Group for Beginners & Intermediate Players
{{Team Sport Pond hockey Amateur ice hockey Variations of ice hockey Native American sports and games *http://www.cityrinks.ca/wiki/wiki.php#about