How to play bike polo?

DFP, here’s the basics:

3 players on each side. We generally play with a street hockey ball.

About the court:

You can play just about anywhere with a flat, level, ‘hard’ surface, though 5-a-side football pitches or basketball courts generally have the added bonus of fencing / walls all the way round to stop the ball running away. There is a multi-story car park in use in London, which isn't too bad since it's dry.

Use cones for goals set at a bike’s length apart. As per an ice hockey match, the goals can be set out from the back walls allowing access behind the goals (stops people running into walls when attacking goal, makes for a faster game).

Mallets:

The preferred design tends to be a ski pole (or golf club for short reach or broom handle though wooden ones will break!) with a bit of 62mm or 50mm gas/water piping attached to the end. (See the thread on building mallets).

When playing, you can push the ball with any part of the head of the mallet, but when shooting at goal you must use the ‘end’ (i.e. the open end of the tube). If you score without using the end of the mallet it’s called a shuffle and doesn’t count.

Basic Rules:

The ball starts in the centre, both teams at their own goal lines. When both teams are ready (with bikes not moving, no feet on the ground) someone shouts 3-2-1-Polo and you rush the ball. (a note of caution; left-handed players rushing right-handed players can end in disaster).

The aim: Use the end of the mallet to get the ball in the goals.

As in football, a player can score an own goal any time the ball goes through their posts. Rebounds off any other players count as long as the shot is not a shuffle.

If you put your foot on the ground, you have to touch one of the sides of the court on the half way line with your mallet. (it’s called tapping out)

If your team scores a goal you all have to ride back and touch your own goal / post with your mallet. Again, this is tapping out (or tapping in), the point of which is to make the team that scored go back to their defence zone.

After that, the team which lost the goal starts with the ball.

You should wait for all of the other team’s players to tap out at their own goal before attacking (this means not crossing into their half until they’ve all tapped in).

First to 5 goals wins.

(one other useful rule, which makes more sense once you’re playing: if the attacking team passes the ball through the goal from behind, it should come out of the ‘D’ if your court has one, OR should be passed another once by the attacking team, before it can be scored.)

Contact:

Like for like contact is allowed, i.e. body to body, bike to bike, mallet to mallet. Other contact is penalised by a tap out.

Be gentlemanly! If you knock someone down in a full-on or stupid way and they have to tap out, it’s generally seen as good conduct to go tap-out with them.

Generally, no body to ball contact is allowed. (i.e. if the ball hits you on the arm/leg/body, that’s okay, but if you kick or punch the ball away you should go and tap out).

Time outs: are called in the case of serious injury or if you have a mechanical fail and there is no spare bike around. If you have a mechanical fail and there’s another bike, get on it, keep playing and call a time out after the next goal.

There are a few other more contentious rules that we’re trying to work through in London (i.e. how high are the goals?) and I’m sure I’ve missed a few obvious things, but this should be enough to get started.

Good luck. We’ll see you at the European Championships in London next summer.