Tag Archive for Bike polo Tournaments

Crusher | April 15, 2013
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Congratulations to the Means and to COMO bike polo

Editor’s note: So much haterade and so little time to drink it down. Anywhoo, I was looking at Podium in a Monday fashion and misread the morning bracket as the final outcome of the Eastside Regional. The 2nd placers  were not in fact the team called Philly, but the team called D G T. My apologies for the butt hurting.  

Just a quick note to wish well the winners of the Eastside regional qualifier and  the Battle for the Midwest II.

COMO beat out MKE with 16 goals to their 12 (with ten of those 16 being from the one and only Nick Kruse), taking the crown from the defending champions and looking sexy as hell while doing it.

In the Eastside Regional, The Means beat Philly D G T for the title. From the reports I’m getting back, it was an exciting second day up in Hockey Town, and lots of good polo to be witnessed and had.

While my involvement in either was minor (I just followed online), I did want to mention how awesome the coverage was of the Battle for the Midwest – great commentary and camerawork. It made all the beers I had go down so very smoooooth.

 

 

Category: Tournaments | Tags: ,
Crusher | January 8, 2013
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From Me to We: a few quick tips on building teamwork

ESPIs Seven 2012 (432)

The biggest difference between a team of bike polo players and just three people wearing the same colored shirts who play bike polo is simple: it’s the mindset of teamwork. Polo is a sport that promotes the idea of individualism in play (this is you taking the ball up, this is you shooting, this is you cursing as the ball makes a 90 degree turn away from the goal, somehow), but doesn’t reward a lone wolf sort of player.

So while it’s a natural feeling, I think, to conceive yourself as a single element that may or may not have a positive impact on the game, it’s not the right feeling to have, nor is it the right mindset to have if you hope to create a strong, dependable team.

ESPIs Seven 2012 (270)We here at Lancaster United bumped into this as I suspect many clubs have: when planning for ESPIs in Frederick last year, we wanted to come up with the best teams possible to send. Well, the best team possible, really. Instead of thinking about who plays well together, the 3 “best” players teamed up. This left six more of us that were interested in going but didn’t expect (we were, after all, not one of those three) to do well. Because of this, we formed up teams with each-other based on how well we played together and, generally, just because we were fond of listening to each other sleep in hotel rooms.

The A team we sent didn’t do nearly as well as all of us expected, and the reason was, frankly, because they weren’t a team. They were three great players who were all playing a 1 v 3 game against every team they came up against. No matter how good of a player you are, that kind of strategy won’t win a tourney and it certainly won’t win you any easy victories, either.

It’s teamwork that gets a, ahem, team, to succeed. While some people just come by this naturally, others need to work on it a touch during pickup. There are three elements that I want to touch on: Read more

Category: Tips | Tags: , , , , ,
Crusher | December 3, 2012
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How Much is Bike Polo Worth?

We started polo with gas pipe, ski poles and whatever bike we didn’t care about – I think that’s a pretty standard level of initiation for most everyone who plays polo.  Now, however, we’re willing (as a community, not strictly on an individual basis) to buy 25 dollar heads, fifteen dollar shaft, polo specific gloves and bombproof equipment on our polo-ready bikes.

As a sport community we are spending more and more money on getting the right equipment for our game, and that’s a great thing for both the people who have the know-how to make our equipment and for new players who won’t struggle to get the stuff we only dreamed of a few years ago.

So here’s the setup: We are spending hundreds of dollars a year (potentially) on equipment purchases, registration fees, travelling to tourneys, and a few bucks for cases of PBR. We’re buying new bikes that fine people are making for bike polo, and that can up the number per year to a thousand.

So why aren’t we paying any dues directly to our organizing body? Read more

Category: Tournaments | Tags: , , , , ,
Crusher | June 20, 2012
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Making Refs Matter: The Future of Tourney Officials

I’ve noticed a lot of scuttlebutt on the LOBP (ALL HAIL) boards about the need to enforce rules and have refs who know what is going on. Most of the conversation (at least this round of it, as it’s always discussed here and there) came after ESPI 7, though in being there I can say that the volunteer refs did a great job.

Read: I was one of the volunteer refs for 7 or 8 games.

But there are some inherent problems in our sport with getting the rules we create applied evenly and fairly in every game at a tourney (or even between tourneys):

1. Refs are only volunteering

2. Refs aren’t completely clear on the rules

3. Players don’t particularly care/understand

4. Refs fear making a wrong call

5. Everyone is drunk

When you look at that list, there are clearly some things that won’t change anytime soon (number 5, for instance, jumps out at me. So does number #1). I don’t want to spend anytime rehashing things I’ve seen others post on the boards, but rather explore three possible future outcomes that I think could happen.

1. Professional/Full-Time Refs

Ok – I hear you. Yes. Yes. Of course. I understand. Uh-huh. I get wha-STOP INTERRUPTING ME WHILE I’M SPEAKING YOU CLOWN.

So one of the possible outcomes in the future is having full-time refs (by this I mean refs who aren’t playing in the tourney at all and are solely there to ref). The benefits are pretty obvious: you’ll actually have refs. Refs who don’t try to scuttle away in between games.

The problem is that no current player is willing to drop their mallet and become a ref – yet. I know that as we all get older, fatter, and less interested in moving, there will probably be a few of us who are still interested in the sport – and then you’ll have your experienced refs, beer guts and all.

Again, we’ll run into the problem of having folks who are volunteering their time, and the idea of paying someone to ref is like oil and water in bike polo currently. However, it’s not out of the realm of possibility for a group of refs to be formed up and paid for services rendered. Read more

Category: Tournaments | Tags: , , , ,
Crusher | June 6, 2012
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Seven things I learned at ESPI 7

1. I don’t get nervous at Tourneys

I fully expected that I’d get the jitters with the thought of facing down some of the best teams around, and wore my Depends just in case. But as it turns out, I wasn’t worried in the least. There may have been a few fleeting moments of nerves – but those were when I thought the beer ran out or I was concerned with how I looked to the polo girls.

Spoiler: I looked like a furry barrel with a beard.

2. I didn’t feel completely out-gunned

This kinda feeds into no.1, but I also expected to be completely schooled at this tourney. I mean – we were playing against folks who have been in bike polo longer, practiced harder (maybe), and knew what they were doing (probably). Much to my enjoyment, Scrimmage held its own rather well the first day (5 wins, 2 losses), and didn’t make a bad show of losing our first 2 games the second day – we scored points, after all.

So what I learned was: you’re probably better than what you think you are. It makes sense, really. If you play at something each week for a year or so, you’re bound to have picked something up that’s beneficial.

3. Everyone is excited

Everyone.Wants.To.Be.There. It’s awesome. The whole of ESPIs was filled with this intense desire to be part of it. Everyone was approachable, happy, and willing to talk about what was going on. Community. I’m telling you.

4. Drink water, son.

I listened to Chandel’s advice about hydration and made sure to drink plenty of water. Lemme tell you – it was pretty clear by the last game that my body was pissed at me, and if I hadn’t hydrated, I’m sure I woulda woken up in the middle of the night with Charlie horses and my team mates thinking an intruder was assaulting my nether regions. Read more

Category: Tips, Tournaments | Tags: , , ,
Crusher | May 16, 2012
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Bench Minor will make bike polo a mainstream sport

How do you like that for 100% authoritative statements pal?

I was taking my weekly shower out of mason jars and the thought came across to me: what are a few reasons that our darling sport isn’t more well-known? I am aware, of course, that sports in general take a while to get into the public mind (American football began around 1892 and didn’t really become “the greatest game ever played” until 1958)(thanks Wikipedia!). But beyond that, what is going to propel our sport into the next phase of development.

The phase where we start growing hair in different places and noticing other polo clubs are changing, too.

People need a team to root for
Most major sports—short of tennis, which is kind of goofy anyway—have teams. Most times they have more players on those teams than can play at any given point. The idea of this team, this group identity that folks can get behind, is what makes them so damned loyal to that team.

Right now we in polo have 3 man teams that we draw up out of our club cities (mostly). While this makes 100% perfect sense, it doesn’t lend itself to that big team identity that people can stand behind.
Instead, you can have a club playing against itself, inconsistencies with those teams in smaller or more flexible clubs, and so forth. It doesn’t create a stable identity for spectators to get into.

In Bench Minor format, you do have that whole club feel because, gosh golly, most times it is your whole club or at least most of it. Instead of playing against your own club’s players you’ve got an “us against them” mindset – something that draws spectators into the game a bit more.

People need leaders
One thing that makes bike polo awesome is that a club is pretty autonomous. Sure, we have star players and decision making folks out there, but we’re an immensely democratic sorta operation.

This is also something that hamstrings us, though. Read more

Category: Tournaments | Tags: , , ,
Crusher | March 12, 2012
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Get Ready: Espi7

from DC Bike Polo

DC Bike Polo is proud to announce that the 2012 Eastside NAH Qualifier–aka ESPI 7–will be held on June 2nd and 3rd at our Polo Camp location in Frederick, Maryland.

 Visit DC Bike Polo for the announcement post and more info.

Let’s go, Lancaster United, Let’s go!

Category: Tournaments | Tags: , ,
Crusher | February 9, 2012
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PSA: Ladies Army and Coed Registration is Now Open

The lovely folks at Lexington Bike Polo have recently announced that registration is open for the next Ladies Army and Coed Tourney:

Ladies Army IV and coed tournament will take place on April 27-29 at the Lexington Bike Polo Courts located at the corner of 6th and Jefferson in Coolavin Park! This tournament is predicted to attract around 40 all-female teams from cities in North America, Europe, and Asia, as well as many of their male counterparts to partake in the coed portion play of the weekend.

Visit their post and follow the instructions to register, or visit the post about the event here.

Category: Tournaments | Tags: , ,