Summer comes with friendlier weather, which always gets people thinking and planning everything they can do to enjoy the season. Great games have always had a way of spicing up the summer holidays, and ring toss has always been one of the favourite for lots of people.
Ring toss is a great pastime for many people because it is easy to play and fun to watch. You can find various games in stores and online, but why don’t you take your game up a notch by making this game yourself.
Yes, you can make this game at home using simple materials around you, and the beauty of the whole thing is that you can customize it to suit your personality. Today we will let you know how to make and enjoy the game.
The Origin of Ring Toss Game
Written history has it that ring toss started probably between the 1st and 5th Century in Roman-occupied Britain or probably in medieval Britain, where peasants re-purposed horseshoes into rings by heating them with fire. They then drove a metal peg onto the ground and then tossed the. Ring to bring the pet’s peg.
Because ring toss is so similar to the British game of quoits, which developed in the 14 century, people believed that the modern game of ring toss, which is played indoors, started as an offshoot of quoit because in at 19th century, quoit was a popular game among British children.
The game was very popular in then – Britain and even among Native Americans of then because it was a practical game that helped people hone their hunting skills; they played the game that perfected their ability to throw, run, and aim, and they became better hunters.
Why Play Ring Toss?
There are so many reasons why ring toss is still a game of choice for many people, even though it’s a game that has been played for decades.
For starters, the game is so simple to play that you do not need any special training to be good at it, yet it is not so easy to win that it will make people easily bored with it.
The anticipation that you will win in the game as you came so close to winning the previous game keeps people playing the game, much like most of the computer games we play.
Secondly, it’s a fun game that you can play with friends and family anywhere: be indoors or outdoors, on the beach, at a birthday party, at camp, and what have you. You have no restriction as to where you can enjoy this game.
Ring toss is a great game to play; hence, many people have come up with different variations of the game to give it a twist that makes it much more fun.
There is a variation of ring toss in which humans are the target, and big doughnut-like rings are tossed to see if they can ring the person. Is this interesting or what?
This game can help you constructively develop a competitive spirit that will help you in other areas of your life where it matters; this is asides from the fact that it helps you develop resilience, confidence, and an I-can spirit that helps to mold you into an emotionally intelligent person that has lots of benefits.
Ring toss helps to keep you fit physically and mentally by helping your gross motor skills, focus, body control, and the like.
How Is Ring Toss Played?
Ring Toss can be played by individual players or by 2 teams comprising of 2 players each. It is best to use rings of different colors to avoid confusion; each player takes turns and tosses all of his rings one at a time before another starts. The points are tallied when all the rings have been tossed.
The rings are usually made of metal or plastic, but others are still made with twines/ropes and the like. The number of rings a player tosses can be from 2 to 5, depending on the variation of the game.
Scoring in the ring toss game also varies, but a player who is first to score 21 points is crowned the winner. A ringer is when a ring is thrown onto a peg or stake and counts for 3 points. If a player gets 2 rings on the same peg, it is called a double ringer and amounts to 6 points.
The ring closest to the target gets 1 point, and if 2 players ring a given target, their points cancel out, and they get no point. When there is a tie in the game, the game continues until someone wins.
Variations of Ring Toss
You can take the classic game of ring toss up a notch by changing the rules a little or the game set.
For instance, You can play the game in the water with floating pegs and rings, and you can make your ring from almost anything like ropes, while your target can be a wooden stake driven to the ground.
1. Glass Bottle Ring Toss
This game is played with glass bottles lined up side-by-side, and the game’s goal is to toss a ring and have it land over the mouth and neck of one of the bottles.
The challenge of the game that makes it a little tricky is that the bottles are so close to each other that ringing any of the bottles can be difficult.
You will need at least 24 glass bottles, a low table, and 4 hard plastic rings that can fit the neck of a bottle. The players stand at a particular spot which is at least 4-feet away from the table.
They then take turns throwing the rings to see if they will land around the necks of the bottles. If a player lands a ring on the neck of a bottle,
The key to ringing a bottle in the whole stack is to keep the ring in the crease between your thumb and forefinger, just like holding a flying disc.
The trick to losing the ring toss says to ensure you don’t angle the ring while taking a toss, or else you will hit bottle tops at once, and the ring will bounce away. If you successfully ring a bottle, you get 2 points.
2. Human Ring Toss
This is a unique variant of the ring toss game because, in this game, a person is used as the target instead of a pole. You will need 6 inflatable pool rings ( 3 per team) to play this game. For adults, you should get the giant pool rings.
Before the game starts, you will pick your teams and divide the rings evenly between teams, and then you decide how far you stand away from the person you will be ringing (usually a distance of 6 feet. Is it not too far yet challenging? Enough).
To keep the game and prevent any cheating, you mark the spots the target person stands and where the person making the toss will stand too.
At this point, the game starts, each person or team throws their rings at the target, and points are awarded appropriately.
If a person can get the ring down the human target or at least around the neck, it is called a full ring, and 3 points are awarded.
One point is given for a pool ring leaning on touching the human target. The winner is the first team to get to 21 points.
3. The Wood Ring Toss
This is one of the most common ring tosses you find on sale online; it is a game in which a wooden ring toss has 5 different dowels used as targets and attached to a base at which rings are made of ropes are tossed at it.
The beauty of this game is that each target has point values attached to it based on how easy or difficult it is to ring a particular target.
How To Make a Ring Toss Game At Home
(Homemade Guide To Making The Wood Ring Toss)
To make this classic ring toss set which can be used indoors and outdoors, you will need the following materials, which you can easily find around you.
Materials
- 1 x 2 – 8′ white wood
- ¾” x 6″ metal plate
- ¾” dowels (2)
- ¾” screws (4)
- Rope
- Polyurethane
- Acrylic paint
- Colored tape
- Acrylic paint pen
Procedure
1. Measure And Cut The Wood
Start by measuring the wood you got; the 1-by-1 wood should be cut into 1 18 inches long, 2 8 1/4″ lengths while using a clamp to hold the wood in place and a saw and a miter box to cut it.
Also, measure 5 dowels to 9 inches and cut the same way you cut the other wood.
2. Mark The Spot For Holes
To make the holes, lay the shorter 1-by-2 kinds of wood by their length on top of the longer piece and then make marks at the ends, resulting in a square in the middle of the longer piece.
You now lay the shorter pieces by their width across the longer piece and then mark the width of the 1-by-2 piece at both ends of the long wood.
Repeat the process for one end of each short wood. The markings you have made will show you the exact spot to drill the holes for the dowels.
3. Make holes in the wood for dowels
Now you are ready to make holes in the wood pieces, and you start firstly by adding a tape to a 3/4″ spade bit; this will keep you from drilling through the 1-by-2 pieces. To determine the placement of the tape, measure the length of the bit against the thickness of the wood.
To clamp down the 1-by-2 wood pieces and keep the drill from making a hole in your table, put a piece of wood under the wood to be drilled.
You can now drill holes between the ends of the 1-by-2 pieces and the lines you have marked. The moment the tape hits the surface of the wood, you then stop.
4. Clean Off The Pencil Markings And Sand
Clean off the pencil markings you made for the holes, and then use fine or medium sandpaper to sand the wood pieces to make them look smooth and free from splinters.
5. Time To Assemble Ring Toss Base
Use a metal plate to come to the 2 shorter wood pieces on the bottom, while the longer piece will fit in-between them. Then use the short 1-by-2 pieces to find the center of the long 1-by-2 piece on the bottom of the board.
Now, place the short 1-by-2 piece according to the marking on either side of the long piece and position the metal plate on top.
Use a 3/4 inches screws to secure the plate to a piece of the shorter wood, which you will then attach to the second shorter piece with the screws off-centered a little to draw the whole pieces together.
If you do this properly, the 2 shorter pieces of wood will keep the middle piece in place even though they are not attached.
You can glue a wood shim or some rubber feet at the edges of the base to make it more balanced, especially if you use it on a hard and flat surface. With the base assembled, insert the dowels into the holes.
6. Time To Make The Rings
For these rings, we will be using rings made of rope, and to make them, you will cut 15 1/2″ lengths of rope and secure the ends together with colored tape. The use of the colored tape is to distinguish the rings of one team or person from another
7. Paint and number dowels
Tape off some inches from the top of the dowel and then paint each dowel a different color as this will show different point values; then number the base of each dowel with different point values: use acrylic paint or a permanent marker to write the points on the dowels appropriately.
Five points are for the dowel that is closest to the players, while 10 points are for the one that is farthest away. The middle dowel should be 25 points. The dowel on the right is numbered 15 points, while the one on the left is numbered 20.
8. Apply protective finish (optional)
The last thing to do is apply a clear polyurethane finish using a spray or brush on the target you just made; this is to help protect your ring toss from adverse weather.
Conclusion
There are lots of games you can cram your day of fun like on the beach, birthday parties, or just a day out with your loved ones, and ring toss is always a delight to play and watch. With so many variations of this lovely game, you can be sure that there will be no dull moments.
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We trust this article helped you know the Best Ring Toss Game to buy. You may also want to check out The Best Ring Toss Game.
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