Polo Videos

Invading cockpit space only really comes into things when it's reckless (when bikes are in motion). Generally you can reach over someone if you're static, but you're still not allowed to make contact with their bars and can't "hold" them if they try and set off away from you.

So yeah, not always an issue, but generally frowned upon if you're in someone's cockpit/reaching across them.

I agree with the comments above, but in the case shown above, Hugo makes no contact with the ball that I can see, so I would have called that a foul.

I can't see what happened after, ie whether black came up with the ball. If they did, no turnover, just double tap to Hugo.

It look to me like the player falling over was trying to lean on his mallet which the leaning in player hooked, which would be fair, right?

scratch that looks like he's falling off before he gets hooked.

Yeah, I think it's really tough to say which is why I flagged it. At speed it would be really dangerous, but in this case it's not, just a bit aggro. Similar case with 't-bones' in my opinion.

will is indeed a scoring machine. so is quentin. and many teams played very disciplined. the big story for me was bordeaux, two great teams, i think both top 10. it was also great to watch Alex (formerly cambridge) and Felix on the Toulouse team called Shaft Punx (maybe a name resurrected from Cambridge?).

Many teams used interference based offensive strategies, which was boring to play against, and watch. i've never seen so few passes in a tourney (and Hugo and I couldn't get our passing game organized, so i'm including DTGP in that!)

My biggest complaint was that between the interference strategies and the uber-small courts, there was tons a ton of bike on bike contact. half the time people didn't even realize they're doing bike to bike, because they're also throwing very light shoulder checks/blocks, so they're aware about body on body, while their front or back wheel is banging around. or some players who turn their front wheel to box you in, when you've already started moving, so they end up t-boning. the side of your wheel with their turned front wheel. very difficult stuff to ref. i'm now back to be in favour of outlawing intentional interference (first put in place at the original Bench Minor, as well as ESPI last year). also difficult to ref, but it makes the game that much prettier, especially on a small court where interference is actually a half-decent strategy.

I think the game has evolved differently in mainland Europe and London (can't really comment on it outside of Europe). I feel like London teams came away from the worlds (and the London Open) last year thinking about how to develop their passing and movement and recognising a need to push their game to the next level. After the Greifmasters in Karlsruhe, I really felt like Euro teams were busy refining the strategies they already had.

We've seen a marked change in London team's strategies from league v2 to league v3. It seems to me that Euro teams right now are highly evolved v2 teams.

For what it's worth, I am very much in favour of outlawing intentional interference.

wrong!! squirtel evolves into wartortle, then blastoise. sheesh.

What do you mean by intentional interference? Screening?

yep

not play the ball if not the man

Offensive screening = blocking someone when you're both off the ball to make space (a route) for your teammate who has the ball.

It's boring to watch and fairly easy to play against if you can hop around and use some "like-for-like" shoulder action. It's also a tactic that seems to over-commit your team to the attack (you're easily broken on), etc.

I think it's more successful as a tactic than you give credit, Jon (as two recent tournaments show). I find it incredibly frustrating when its done constantly (the occasional block is what it is and not worth even thinking about), and not that easy to play against (without getting physical to break away). But that could just be me.

I also don't think this is a Europe-wide thing. Although I do think there could be a split in the style of play between Southern Europe and Germany/Benelux/UK (the French being split), but we'll see if this holds out in a couple of weeks.

Well, screening in attack seems fairly normal here, I constantly see London players do it. So I imagine banning it would be quite a change. It certainly would be for me.

Imagine, people would actually have to play polo.

^heee

Imagine, people would actually have to play polo.

I've never seen anyone on Nice Touch screen.

I've never seen anyone from Degeneration screen someone else on their team, cause them to go crashing to the floor while someone rides over their glasses.

AHA. gold.

Prevented a shot on goal though. That's just the way we roll.

You normally prevent shots on goal by falling on the goal though.

Tough day at the bank, James?

I have many questions about screening;

scenario a:

I accidentally screened Emmet in his attacking half in the game I subbed for Degen. He got all antsy about it, and at the time I said "Oh, sorry sorry, I was just riding over here to help out Bill/Vidal". Plus I really didn't intend to screen him out, so felt bad for doing it.

If I had have deliberately gone there to prevent Emmet getting a pass and a clear shot on goal, that's kind of shitty, yeh? Or, it might be ok because I am in my defensive half?

Mark, not particularly. No rate change from the BoE, waiting for the ECB press conference.

Emmet only complains when people are playing better than him.

Sounds thrilling. I guess you are just normally this bitchy ;)

If I had have deliberately gone there to prevent Emmet getting a pass and a clear shot on goal, that's kind of shitty, yeh? Or, it might be ok because I am in my defensive half?

In my mind it's fine, and no different to man marking in other sports. In defence I don't see how you can ban screening, or why you would want to. I guess the alternative is pure zonal defence.

In attack it's another matter, you don't see many other sports where attackers screen a defender, but it happens quite a bit in polo.