Hardcourt Bike Polo

Beavers vs Guardians, NAHBPC 2013

European Hardcourt Bike Polo Championship 2013

Hardcourt Bike Polo is a variation of traditional Bicycle Polo in which teams of players ride bicycles and use mallets to strike a small ball into a goal. It may also be referred to as "Hardcourt", "Urban Bike Polo" or simply "Bike Polo".

The game

There are two types of hardcourt bike polo. One is the traditional style called "3v3", which is a team consisting of 3 players and games are usually around 10–15 minutes in length. The other form is "Squad". Squad is a team of 5 or 6 players and games are between 30 and 40 minutes, allowing for substitutions. Typically, players play in an enclosed rectangular area, called a "court". Goals are placed at each long end of the court.

At the beginning of the game, the ball is placed in the middle of the court while the players wait behind their own goals. Following a countdown or a whistle, a player from each team charges the ball in what is termed the "joust".

A player may hit the ball in two ways: a "shot" or a "shuffle". A shot is made with either end of the mallet head whereas a shuffle is made with the side. In order to score a goal, a player must hit the ball into the opposing team's goal with a shot; if the player uses a shuffle, the goal does not count and play continues.

Following a goal, the scoring team returns to their own half of the court. After the scoring team returns to their half, the scored-on team may cross the half line and resume play.

The game continues until a team reaches either a limit of a predetermined length of time, depending on the format. 3v3 games are typically 10–15 minutes, while Squad games are typically 30–40 minutes.

A player who "dabs", (touches a horizontal surface with their foot), must undertake some form of remedial penalty before making contact with the ball again. This usually involves "tapping out" (riding to a designated point on the court and touching it with the mallet). It is also common to have to say "foot down" or "dab" to let other players know you are out of play, but not required. You should avoid affecting play of the game at all cost after a foot down occurs.

The amount of contact in a particular game may vary but is generally restricted to "mallet to mallet", "body to body". A "check" is allowed as long as it's "shoulder to shoulder" and deemed safe by the referee.

As a decentralized and organically growing game, the rules and styles of Hardcourt Bike Polo may vary substantially from city to city. The North American Bike Polo Association has created an official set of rules for North America, which has been influential to standardizing rules world-wide.

Since 2009, various governing bodies have been created within the polo community for the purposes of advancing the sport and creating rule sets. The North American Hardcourt Bike Polo Association (NAHBPA) and European Hardcourt (EHBP) are the prime organizations, but there are others such as the Australasian Hardcourt (AHBP) and Bici Polo Latinoamerica (BPLA) organizations coming up as Bike polo spreads to other continents and countries all over the world.

Tournament format

There are currently two types of tournament formats in hardcourt bike polo: 3v3 and Squad.

3v3 is the more traditional format of hardcourt bike polo, where 2 teams of 3 players play against each other.

An alternate format is Squad, where 2 teams of anywhere from 5-6 players play against each other. In Squad format, there are still 3 players on each team on the court at one time, but there is a bench of players that can be substituted throughout the game. Squad format games tend to be longer in duration, typically 30–60 minutes. There is usually a team captain in charge of substitutions, who may or may not be a player.

Equipment

A well-used Street Hockey ball

Rather than use traditional wooden polo mallets, Hardcourt Bike Polo players started making handmade mallets in the spirit of the DIY ethic. Since then, a number of companies have appeared, which are producing more distinct equipment, specifically for bike polo. Typical mallets are constructed using heads made from UHMW, and aluminium shafts similar to ski poles.

The ball used in bike polo is typically made from PVC and is identical to a Street Hockey ball. In 2012, the company, Fixcraft, team up with D-Gel, makers of hockey products, to produce the first official bike polo ball.

Some players make wheel covers out of corrugated plastic, polycarbonate, plastic netting, or even thick fabrics to protect spokes and create solid blocking surfaces. Many of these covers are painted with elaborate designs to help identify riders or their city's club.

Freshly painted wheel cover

Low gear ratio single-speed bikes have advantages for quick acceleration and control on a small court. Although any bike is acceptable for the game, eventually most players customize their bikes especially for bike polo and their playing needs. Most riders prefer a short wheelbase for tight turning and a smaller "5-hole" as well as a medium to long stem for better turning. Front brake or dual brake setups are the most popular.

Courts

Players commonly play on courts such as tennis courts, street hockey rinks, basketball courts, or football courts. These are often customized using boards to keep the ball from rolling out of the court or getting stuck in the corners. The NAH currently mandates goals be 3 ft x 6 ft and must be placed no closer than 6 ft from the backboard. Court size does vary, but for a court to be used in an official NAH event it must be no larger than 155 ft x 80 ft (47.25m x 25m) and no smaller than 120 ft x 60 ft (37m x 18m), and have 4 ft high solid boards.

Polo Specific Courts

Some cities have worked with their local Polo club and have built facilities specifically for polo or suited for multi-use activities like Polo. Some courts like New York City's "The Pit" are repurposed spaces, while other courts like East Vancouver's court in Grandview Park, are specifically designed to meet the needs of the sport.

History

Modern Hardcourt Bike Polo has roots in early 2000s Seattle Originally started by messengers who had downtime in between deliveries, the game developed in Seattle and some of the earlier rules were founded (3 on 3, scoring with the end of the mallet). As people moved and traveled the game branched out. and is currently played in over 30 countries and 300 cities.

Tournaments

NAHBPC 2013

Since 2004, cities across North America have thrown inter-city tournaments such as the East-, West-, and Northside Polo Invites.

The first annual North American and European Hardcourt Bicycle Polo championships were both held in August 2009. The European tournament drew over 40 teams from Great Britain, France, Switzerland, Spain, Italy and Germany and was won by L'Equipe, a team from Geneva. The North American tournament featured 36 teams from Seattle, Vancouver BC, Milwaukee, Chicago, New York, Ottawa, Portland, Washington DC, and elsewhere and was won by Team Smile from Seattle. First prize for each tournament were tickets to the 2009 World Championships.

The first-ever world championships were held in Toronto in 2008 as part of the Cycle Messenger World Championships. There were representatives from Europe, however, hardcourt polo was still relatively new and the European teams elected not to play in the elimination bracket after seeing the level of play from the North American teams. Heat Lightning (Doug Dalrymple, Paul Rauen, and Zach Blackburn) became the first-ever world champions, using a high energy "die by the sword" playing strategy. The following year, 2009, featured teams from the US, Canada, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. The winners were the current North American Champions, Team Smile, who defeated the team from East Vancouver in a repeat of the North American final.

National championships have been held in countries around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, and Germany.

In 2016, the North American Hardcourt Bike Polo Association announced that they were changing the format for all of their sanctioned tournaments from 3v3 to Squad.

World Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships

Year	Host	Winners	Score	Runners-up	Third Place	Fourth Place
2008	Toronto	Heat Lightning		Balls Deep	Hunter Brothers + Kev
2009	Philadelphia	Team Smile		Balls Deep	Faceless Emotion	Wisconsin A
2010	Berlin	Beaver Boys	5-1	Machine Politics	L’Equipe	Toros
2011	Seattle	Crazy Canucks	5-4	Call Me Daddy	Guardians	Iron Ponies
2012	Geneva	Call Me Daddy	3-2	Guardians	Clobber Politics	Dead Rappers
2013	Weston	Beavers	5-1	Call Me Daddy	The Assassins	Edisons
2014	Montpellier	Call Me Daddy	5-3	Beavers	Outlawz	The Control
2016	Timaru	Outlawz Birds	5-4	Call Me Daddy	The Control	Temoilesnichons
2017	Lexington, KY	Mongrels United	4-1	Call Me Daddy	Bob Ross	Geneva Alley Cats
2019	Córdoba	Mongrels United	2-1	Prendi la Mira	Bob Ross	More Sugar

European Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships

Year	Host	Winners	Score	Runners-up	Third Place	Fourth Place
2009	London Great Britain	L'Equipe (Geneva)	5-3	Malice International (London)	Toros (Munich)	Discordia (Paris/London)
2010	Geneva Switzerland	L'Equipe (Geneva)	5-4	Cosmic (London)	El Club (Barcelona)	Rotten Apples (London)
2011	Barcelona Spain	L'Equipe (Geneva)	5-2	Polosynthese (Germany)	Hooks (Rouen)	El Club (Barcelona)
2012	Paris France	Call me Daddy (Paris/Toulouse)		Edisons (Frankfurt/Munich)	Hooks (Rouen)	L'Equipe (Geneva)
2013	Kraków Poland	Call me Daddy (Paris/Toulouse)	2-5, 5-3	Edisons (Frankfurt/Geneva)	Spring Break (London)	Lhooks (Rouen/Geneva)
2014	Padova Italy	Call me Daddy (Paris/Cambridge)	4-5, 5-3	Edisons (Frankfurt/Munich)	True Danger (Paris/Lyon)	Sophie (Basel/Bern)
2015	Zaragoza Spain	Call me Daddy (Paris/Cambridge)	3-5, 2-5	Octopussy (Frankfurt/Nurnberg)	Megadrive (Geneva)	Temoilesnichons (Annecy/Lyon)
2017	Perpignan France	Mongrels (Paris/Annecy/Munich)	2-1	Mohawks (Gießen/Hamburg/London)	Monstars (France)	Rasta Rocket (Montpellier)
2018	Pescara Italy	Octopussy (Nuremberg/Hamburg)	3-2	Excuse The Mess (Warsaw/Krakow)	Mongrels XL (London/Munich/Milwaukee)	Call Me Daddy (Paris)
2019	Zurich Switzerland	Mongrels United	2-0	Rasta Rocket	Call me Daddy	Superbe

North American Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships

Year	Host	Winners	Runners-up	Third Place	Fourth Place
2008	Chicago, IL	That's What She Said (Ottawa)	Philadelphia	East Vancouver	Madison
2009	Seattle, WA	Team Smile (Seattle)	Balls Deep (Vancouver)	Beaver Boys (Milwaukee)	DD Booster Club (New York)
2010	Madison, WI	The Odds (Richmond/Philadelphia/New York)	Team Smile (Seattle)	East Van (Vancouver)	Super Polonics (Seattle)
2011	Calgary	The Guardians (Seattle)	Clobber Politics (Chicago/Ottawa)	The Crazy Canucks (Vancouver)	The Outsiders (Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver)
2012	Milwaukee, WI	Beaver Boys (Milwaukee)	The Guardians (Seattle)	The Means (Richmond/Ottawa/New York)	Portland United (Portland)
2013	Roseville, MN	Beavers (San Francisco)	The Guardians (Seattle)	The Assassins (Seattle)	Portland United (Portland)
2014	Roseville, MN	Beavers (San Francisco, Milwaukee)	Portland United (Portland)	The Guardians (Seattle)	The Ringers (Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco)
2015	Lexington, KY	MF Monster Truck (Portland, London)	The Guardians (Seattle)	Prospectors (Portland)	The Control (San Francisco)
2016	Folsom, CA	The Control (San Francisco)	Albatross (Seattle)	Wood Rats	Prospectors (Portland)
2017	Frederick, MD	The Control (SF)	Bob Ross (SEA)	Crunchy (POR/HOU/SLC)	Mosquito (SKS)
2018	Milwaukee, WI	The Control (SF)	Bob Ross (SEA)	Superpolo (MEX)	Mosquito (SKS)
2019	Seattle, WA	Mosquito (SKS)	Bob Ross (SEA)	More Sugar (SEA)	Snake Oil (SEA)

North American Club Bench Championships

The North American Club Bench Championships was discontinued after 2015, when the North American Hardcourt Bike Polo Championship changed formats from 3v3 to squad.

Year	Host	Winners	Score	Runners-up	Third Place
2014	Lexington, KY USA	Portland	13-5	Milwaukee	Lexington, Boston
2015	Guadalajara Mexico	Guadalajara	8-5	Kauyunamari	Guadalajara B de buenos

Australasian Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships

Year	Host	Winners	Score	Runners-up	Third Place	Fourth Place
2009	Melbourne	Meat & Two Veg (Melbourne)		Scheisse Katze (Melbourne/Germany)	Bush League Bushrangers (Melbourne/Toronto)	Jailbreakers (Castlemaine)
2010	Brisbane	Johnny Crash (Melbourne)		The Screaming Baguettes (Sydney/Paris)	German Bells (Brisbane)	That's What She Said (Adelaide)
2011	Adelaide	Storm Boys (Perth/Sydney/Melbourne)		That's What She Said (Adelaide)	L.S.V. (Sydney)	Neil La Robolution (Adelaide/Melbourne)
2012	Perth	NASFWG (Perth)	1-5, 1-5	Triple Dutch Rudder (Brisbane)	Dog Soccer (Sydney)	L.S.V. (Sydney)
2013	Timaru	NASFWG (Perth)		Melbourne Anchor (Melbourne)	Triple Dutch Rudder (Brisbane)	C4 (Christchurch)
2014	Sydney	The Fist (Melbourne/Seattle)	5-2	Alchemists (Perth)	The Sentinels (Brisbane)	C4 Christchurch (Christchurch)
2017	Melbourne	Spectres (Melbourne/Perth/Sydney/Brisbane)		The Huntsmen (Melbourne/Sydney/Brisbane)	Inspectre Keanu (Brisbane/Melbourne)	Timaru Bike Polo (Timaru)

Asia Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships

Year	Host	Winners	Runners-up	Third Place
2015	Kaohsiung, Taiwan	Yattarus (JPN)	Country Boy (TWN)/(Bangkok)	Homamon (JPN)
2016	Kaohsiung, Taiwan	UZUUZU (JPN)	Country Boy (TWN)/(Bangkok)	262 (TWN)

Latin American Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships

Year	Host	Winners	Score	Runners-up	Third Place	Fourth Place
2011	Santiago de Chile	Monopolientos (Santiago)		Underdogs (São Paulo)	Hágame Famoso (Bogotá)	Viveza Criolla (Quito)
2012	Buenos Aires	Underdogs (São Paulo)	5-0, 5-3	Monopolientos (Santiago)	Jinetes del Apocalipsis (Buenos Aires)	Viveza Criolla (Quito)
2013	São Paulo	Mala Pata (Santiago)		Untitled (Buenos Aires)	Hágame Famoso (Bogotá)	Underdogs (São Paulo)
2014	Bogota	RompeBolas (Mexico City/San Luis Potosí)	5-3, 4-0	Underdogs (São Paulo)	Vandalos (Mexico City)	Hermanos Korioto (Mexico City)
2015	Quito	Las Viudas del Loco (Buenos Aires/Santiago)	2-1, 4-1	Dios los Cría (Rosario/Buenos Aires)	Korioto (Guadalajara/Portland)	Tres Gallos (San Juan, PR)
2016	Rosario	Mucho Niño (Guadalajara / Houston)	5 - 3	Super Polo Team ( DF / Houston)	Pulp Fiction (Santiago)	Guacamaya (Bogotá)
2017	Guadalajara	Mucho Niño	3 - 2	Marabunta	KRT	El Dorado

Ladies Army

Year	Host	Winners	Score	Runners-up	Third Place	Fourth Place
2009	Vancouver	Bushwackers (Vancouver)		In my back pocket (Ottawa)	Vagic Moments (Vancouver)	Killer Ladybugs (Victoria)
2010	New York City	Delta Force (Philadelphia/Toronto/Portland)		Beer, Bacon & Babes (Seattle/Minneapolis)
2011	Austin	Cunning Stunts (Toronto/Milwaukee/Seattle)		The C.L.A.P. (Seattle/Vancouver)
2012	Lexington	Cunning Stunts (Toronto/Milwaukee/Seattle)	3-1	Bear Hugs (Toronto/Geneva/Vancouver)	Hot Links (Lexington/Athens)	Tornadoes (London)
2013	Vancouver	Valkyries (Vancouver/Cincinnati/Geneva)		Hot Honey Biscuits (Seattle/Mobile/Athens)	Great White North (Ottawa/Toronto)	Cobble Polotics (London/Lexington/Seattle)
2014	Toronto	Cunning Stunts (Toronto)	5-4, 4-3	Hot Honey Biscuits (Seattle/Mobile/Athens)	Valkyries (Vancouver/Lexington/Geneva)	The Cuntrol (Vancouver/San Francisco/Oakland)
2015	San Francisco	Valkyries (Lexington/Geneva/Vancouver)	1-0	Hot Honey Biscuits (Seattle/San Francisco/Salt Lake City)	Shit Twins (Madison/Raleigh)	Ruckus (Frankfurt/Strasbourg/Seattle)
2016	Guadalajara	Peligrosa (Salt Lake City/Seattle/Saskatoon)	2-1	Ruckus (Frankfurt/Strasbourg/Seattle)	Dropbears (Santa Cruz/Oakland/San Francisco)	Feliz Accidentitas (New York City/Vancouver)
2017	Grand Rapids	Weirdos (New York City)	4-3	The Annie Oakleys (San Francisco/Oakland/Saskatoon)	OK (Salt Lake City/Seattle/Toronto)	Yes Mum (San Francisco/Madison/Bristol)
2018	Los Angeles	Cool Sports Team (Milwaukee/London/Geneva)	2-0	Brujaja (Mexico City/Raleigh/Seattle)	Notorious (San Francisco)	Baba Yaga (Seattle, Saskatoon, Toronto)

See also

• Cycle polo

External links

• European Hardcourt Bikepolo Association
• North American Hardcourt Bike Polo Association