Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Contact info

Post your contact info and when your available to play in the comments on this post! There is a "wichita bike polo" group on facebook - that's the preferred way to keep in touch - but if you don't use facebook I'll make an email group as well. Also, if enough people use twitter I'll use that too.

Brian

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Rules

via nycbikepolo.com

-Two teams of three players.
-Any type of bicycle is allowed. Handlebars must be plugged.
-Mallets must resemble a croquet mallet with a wide side and a round end. Modified ski poles and plastic pipe are the most common materials. The handle end of the mallet must be plugged.
-The ball will be a street hockey ball.
-Goals will be a pair of orange cones spaced one bike length apart.
-If a goal cone is disrupted it is the responsibility of the player who disrupted it to fix it.
-Some games are timed and end after 10 minutes. Some games are not timed.
-Start of a game: Each team will be stopped behind its own goal line and the ball will be positioned at center court. Play will begin with a “3 2 1 GO!” from the sideline.
-Players may not play the ball with their feet at any time.
-Scoring a goal must be made from what started as a hit. A hit is made from the end of a player’s mallet. A “shuffle” does not count as a goal; if the ball is shuffled through the goal, play continues uninterrupted.
-After a goal is scored, the team who scored returns to their half of the court. The team who was scored on takes possession of the ball.
-Call out the score after each goal.
-Passing “backward” through the goal (from behind the goal line to in front of it, through the goal, a.k.a. “goal offsides”): When the ball is passed through the goal in this way, a goal CANNOT be scored by the first player to play the ball. Any subsequent player to play the ball may score. If a ball is shot from in front of the goal line and does not go through the goal but bounces off the back wall and comes out through the goal, the ball is in play and can be scored. A ball that crosses a goal line backwards must be “hit” before it can score.
-Players must not touch the ground, or “foot-down”. Each time a player goes foot-down, that player is out of play and may not play the ball until they ride to the side line at center court and ring the bell. Then they may return to play. It is poor etiquette not to go immediately and directly to the tap-out bell once you go foot-down. Only one side of the court has a bell, not both.
-Contact rules: “Like” contact is allowed. Player to player (body to body), except grabbing or pushing with hands. Mallet to mallet (generally, hitting another player’s mallet is poor etiquette if that player is not attempting to play the ball or in front of the goal, playing goalie). Bike to bike.
-Everything else is NOT allowed: Mallet to player, player to bike, mallet to bike, etc.
-Throwing of mallets is not allowed at any time, in any situation.
-Most games are played to 5 points. Some games are played to 3 points.
-Trash talking is allowed.

Yo

A while ago I read about bike polo on the internet. I industriously made a bunch of mallets soon after. Then they sat for about a year until I started hanging out with other people who ride bikes. We played our first game a couple months ago in the parking lot by the Delano clocktower. Since then we've played a few times and improved our game (no collisions at our last game!). The first game we played was 3v3, but we've been playing 2v2 which works really well.

The plan is to start a regular time for pick-up games so let me know what day/times work best for you. I have enough extra mallets, balls, and cones to play 2 2v2 games already so just bring a bike (be aware you or the bike might be damaged - crashes happen).

Brian