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Chicago Bike Polo



Last Updated: 10/18/2008

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Gender: Male
Status: Single
Age: 101
Sign: Taurus

City: CHICAGO
State: Illinois
Country: US
Signup Date: 4/29/2006
Wednesday, July 11, 2007 
I got such good (and fast) responses from so many places that I thought I'd catalog them all so we polo-ers can all see what we're all thinking about this. Seems almost universal that playing the ball as opposed to playing the mallet (of which I am very, very guilty) is the consensus best way to keep the game skilled and a little safer.

And can anyone from Madison answer a question without a working in a critique?

***Original post:***
Here in Chi-town we try to keep the rules simple, "The mallet can only touch the ball and other mallets, not players or bikes". But here's a situation that comes up often enough to cause me a little concern:
Two people are driving towards a loose ball. They start smacking each other's mallets before they get to it in hopes of de-sticking the other, or at least putting them far enough off the mark that they can get the ball.
Twice yesterday in doing this I drove people's mallets down into their front wheels and sent them over the bars. At speed, this was a race for a loose ball, not slow, technical riding near the goal.
Does this happen in your games? Have you put in a high sticking (no mallet to mallet contact above the handlebars) rule? Do you advocate restraint and personal responsibility (try not to do what could hurt someone)?
***Responses***
We've started to talk about a high mallet rule here in Vancouver. We haven't done anything about it yet. I find more often than not when I'm malleting someone that I end up riding up the mallet to their hand as opposed to throwing a mallet through the wheel. OUCH! Sounds as though you guys are one of the few groups out there that play as hard as we do. I'll keep you posted. - L'il Miss Used (Vancouver)

In portland we never play to hurt each other, but mallet to mallet is a huge part of the game. Try more controlled mallet grabbing instead of just slapping the mallet, it is more effective anyway in my opinion. - bjorn (Portland)

fuck rules I like blood. - Vancouver Polo wyatt.

no highsticking and dont use you bike and mallet as a weapon!!! we have that happen all the time. we more trying to concertrate on bike skills and ball handleing. - g (Dallas)

We have a high sticking rule of a different sort. If players approach the ball from opposite directions and are within 3 bike lengths of the ball you can't raise the stick above the wheels. We don't want people thinking they will get a mouthfull of mallet. I can't the mallet into the spokes situation arising in our games. The need to get to the ball first generally means that the mallet is on the handlebars as the rider goes for it. - John (US Bike Polo, Sacramento)

We don't have a rule, but we suggest that mallet-to-mallet activity be of the hook and pull variety, not the light-saber/sword-fighting variety. This is mainly because of the high-speed drive-by smashes against players parked out in the goal, leaning on their mallet, which has resulted in a number of needlessly broken mallets. Hooking and pulling someone off their mallet-lean can be more effective, anyway. And this rule doesn't prevent people from lifting sticks of opposing players as they come up on the ball, in the open field, which again, seems more effective than a big swinging hit. - (Madison)

It is kind of lame when people play the mallet more then the ball and i can see someone getting hurt. It generally pisses someone off and doesn't improve anyones ability to play bike polo. Generally we want peoples skills to improve so it seems that playing mallets should be discouraged but i don't really think a rule should be made. There are times when playing a mallet makes a ton of sense though like when you can't reach the ball but can hook a mallet to prevent a breakaway goal or such. So that is my two cents. Play polo not fencing. - Jonny (Madison)
1:32 AM
 
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madbikepolo

 
people might start getting pissed at me for always referring to hockey, but it makes sense to so again here. slashing is dangerous and is not strategic, while lifting sticks is safe and fundamental to effective defense. and once mallets are hooked (which doesn't happen in hockey), i'm down with the tug-of-war.

lucky, is that critique?

-kev
 
Posted by madbikepolo on Wednesday, July 11, 2007 - 2:50 AM
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Chicago Bike Polo

 
***More responses***

We play rough... but nice. We use the mallets to hook one another and to trip a bike by jamming it under a front tire (2" + concrete), but spoking someone or hitting another player with a mallet is a definite no-no.
High sticking is called out as a warning for safty measure. t-bone wrecking is off limits, but pushing and foot to bike contact is fair.
We generally play rough with other rough players and go easy on the women and newbies.
Yall have a unique problem. We'd probably allow a little mallet-smack given the inherent danger. Restraning oneself in this sort of instance says to me "they just wanted it more".
Good game, - LABP (Dirty South)

If you don't play like an asshole then you should just go buy some lip gloss and maxi pads and sit out on the sidelines (no offense to actual polo ladies out there). There are no "sorries" in bike polo and there should be as few rules as possible. Have fun and be safe, sort of, Lucky. Hopefully we'll get to play like assholes together one of these days out on the paved court. - David in Dayton

We play the mallet a lot, it would be difficult and a pain to enforce taking it out of the game or even to stop people from doing it-- it's a valid play not only under our rules, but indeed also a strategic and skillful one. It takes a lot to pull off hooking someone's mallet successfully and even more to slip away from such a maneuver. Arguments that it is not a 'skill' or doesn't require dexterity are bogus in my opinion. It takes practice, but clearing a route for your mallet to strike the ball is what good players are capable of, regardless of who is defending them.

Obviously you can't stick your mallet in someone's spokes while you're hooking them, and certainly little stops your opponent from sticking their own mallet in their own spokes as a result of you making contact, but this can happen even if I'm the one taking the shot.

So we don't have a rule about mallet on mallet contact, and we won't be having one anytime soon. My feeling is that we should keep the rules to an absolute bare minimum in order to not get caught up in regulations that are either duplicitous, unenforceable, or worse, undesirable. Getting into an on-court debate about whether mallet contact was incidental or intended would be the death of polo, or at least of polo that was any fun to play. Next you'll be telling me I can't use my bike to block someone, because essentially, what is the difference?

Thus, in East Van (and everywhere else on the west coast) we keep it simple. "Mallet on mallet, bike on bike, body on body" covers most contact. "Be in control of your mallet at all times" covers most of what's left over. - (Le Jackal in Vancouver)

***Me again***

This is a healthy discussion. It's pretty cool that we can have it here, now, before we eventually all find a way to meet up to play some international games. Go internet age!

Anyway. My rebuttal of sorts: I have no intention to stop playing the mallet all together. I agree that it's a big part of the game, and a skill same as ball handling and passing. What this discussion has convinced me of is to try to keep it below the top tube and closer to the ball (see Le Jackal's awesome pic in the comments section). Before, I would smack a mallet anywhere on the field just to rattle people, and have been especially vicious when chasing down a loose ball with an opponent. Hitting on their stick way before we got to the ball just so they'd be worried about something else when we got to it.
I'll keep playing rough with the people who like it rough, and I'll keep trying to get other people's mallets off the ball, but I'm going to try (as much as I can) to be making a play for the ball at the same time.

-Lucky
 
Posted by Chicago Bike Polo on Wednesday, July 11, 2007 - 12:21 PM
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