Hacking/hooking – good or bad?

Our games have started to get a lot more physical and there’s a lot of hooking going on. To set the record straight, before the mcr tourney I didn’t hook at all and then everyone started doing it and now I have too. I’m not trying to do it all the time but sometimes you just end up getting involved in it because your mallets are locked and neither of you want to let go. So, here are a couple of examples that I think illustrate the point and maybe we can decide if it’s acceptable. What I don’t want to do is start playing in way that would make me look a dick in a tourney but equally don’t want to stop doing something that's part of the game elsewhere.

• The goalie is leaning on his mallet and you ride past and hook his mallet. From what I’ve read this is acceptable and happens regularly.

• You’re riding alongside your opponent, who has the ball, and you hack the ball away with force.

• You are behind the attacker who is just about to shoot or dribble and you hook his mallet so he can’t shoot. Neither of you let go and your mallets go up in the air like you’re fencing. This is what happened with me and Mirek tonight. I thought this was an OK move as otherwise he would have just taken the shot and scored.

• You both go for the ball but your mallets hook each other and neither of you let go as you ride away, one of you loses your mallet.

My view is that we all started off playing far too cautiously, as is natural when you're new to the game but now I don’t know if it’s going to far the other way. I guess as skill levels increase across the group a lot of this stuff will stop as our dribbling, passing and timing skills will improve. I’m not sure PF helped tonight with the rain and as it’s too small to get a passing game on or any speed up but I’d be happier if I knew what was acceptable or not before we start getting too pissed off with each other.

INHO i think they are all acceptable, nothing bad there, nothign we should change. if anything Manchesters hard game brought us some praise from other teams at the tourney (altho im sure some criticism?)
Tongiht was not a good example, was a lot of hard games with hardly any room or speed to make good skilled shots so we (me) resorted to uber-hacking

tbh i think we do do it a little too much. if you are in net i think you should expect it.

it is maybe a bit much to hook off the ball. as in football you can only tackle the ball carrier, that makes sense.

i do think it is dangerous when mallet ends go above head height though. they are fucking sharp, my arm was cut up pretty bad on tuesday from this. if the contact had been to my eye or ears it would have been a lot bloodier and scarier.

the important thing is to keep playing the style that is played at tourneys. hooking can prevent goals and help score goals so let's not hinder ourselves by holding back. i think maybe it should just be more considered. however, tonight ste, i swiped you fair and square. i even said to mirek that he should delay the shot as i was going to take your mallet (fair dues you said you just weren't in the mood, bad day at the office i can understand). but i hate it when the atmosphere goes sour so it probably is important to discuss here what we think counts as unfair play.

one thing i don't like is when arms and elbows are used, i think shoulders are fine but when arms are extended it just changes the tone slightly.

i am aware that i am not the safest player out there, i know i have raised arms and mallets before

also for the last few weeks i have been trying to replace situations when i would have used physical contact with skidding, mirek uses it most effectively. i think it's the way forward, you can gain posession, disposess, block goals, look fucking cool, get women. skidding is the shit. lets do more of that.

also for the last few weeks i have been trying to replace situations when i would have used physical contact with skidding, mirek uses it most effectively. i think it's the way forward, you can gain posession, disposess, block goals, look fucking cool, get women. skidding is the shit. lets do more of that.

I think your definatly on for a winner ther Snoop Dogg, as we all slowely upgrade our bikes, pretty much all having back brakes and freewheel, our game will improve tenfold, and contact other than skids will drop, as will footdowns, i hope!

fo sheezy arms so breezy

But until we all get to a standard what do we do? We can't go back to pootling about saying sorry all the time, but we equally can't T-bone someone or skid your back wheel out from the side into someone who's attacking with the ball and is going in a straight line, forcing them to stop - I'm sure I've read that somewhere.

I don't think we do much of the off-ball contact, it's more when someone's in possession. If we were faster and all our passing games were slicker I can't see a lot of what we were doing tonight being effective anyway, but until we get to that level there's gonna be some hooking and hacking otherwise the good players are surely just going to run amok and the games will be too sterile.

We've all come off our bikes tonight more than once but as long as there's no malice (which I'm certain there isn't) and no pushing, elbowing, forearming (I've been guilty of this in the past but stopped it now) etc - we should be good.

+1 it is worth remembering that nothing is done with malice. i'm pretty gutted my wheel got ruined on tuesday, it'll cost me about 70 quid to sort. but there is no use getting pissed off with others for what happens on the court.

as far as i'm aware there are no grudges between any of us, if someone swipes your mallet i don't think you should go on a mission round the court trying to swipe theirs back. just watch out for it next time, and also look out for good opportunities to utilise it in your own game. i hate it when i do something completely within the (admitedly unwritten) rules and begin to feel guilty about it.

as im sure is obvious from my 'style' of play (dont think its worthy of being called a style of play but anyway...) i think everything we do is fine and is part of the game

• obviously we should tone it right down when there are new players even to the point of not swiping goalies which otherwise is definately fair enuf
  
• no mallets above head height fo sho
  
• i reckon contact off the ball should be outlawed (tho i know i do it at the moment at times) but blocking people off is fair enuf and is good play IMO
  
  

Skidding FTW though for all the reasons Snoops mentioned -especially the women

yeah of course no grudges - its only polo!

The better we get, the less we should be doing this tbh. I try an avoid a "hack out" normally but last night i was getting my mallet hooked all over the place. And when that happens you give it back. Lets just stick to the rule of "don't be a dick" and we should all be fine.

INHO i think they are all acceptable, nothing bad there, nothign we should change. if anything Manchesters hard game brought us some praise from other teams at the tourney (altho im sure some criticism?)

I reckon it was more criticism to be honest, but not in a really negative way, just because we are all still new to the sport.

Roxy said something about the oxford toffs which rings true with us. She said they didn't need to hack because they are a good team...

So lets work on our passing and postioning and if someone comes to hack you, you'll have passed the ball by then and the "hacker" will end up just hacking the floor!

I know Mirek and I got a bit angry last night, but i see this as a positive. It shows that we care about the game, and we get frustrated when we can't play good polo. I was only in a mood because i didn't have my bike by the way, the hacking didn't bother me last night. I can already see people who use to do it alot calming down week by week.

I think your definatly on for a winner ther Snoop Dogg, as we all slowely upgrade our bikes, pretty much all having back brakes and freewheel, our game will improve tenfold, and contact other than skids will drop, as will footdowns, i hope!

Woody your game would improve ten - thousandfold if you didn't have your velodrome gearing ;)

Seriously though, try a proper polo gear will a freewheel. You'll never look back!

It shows that we care about the game, and we get frustrated when we can't play good polo.

So do I Andy, and everyone else. I'm not playing bad polo, at least I don't think I am, and I only changed the way I played 'cos everyone else did and I looked like a fanny riding around and letting everyone slip by. Everyone's games different and that's surely what it's all about?? It's like in football where a good attacker can make a shit defender look amateur but they still have to be able to deal with dodgy tackles. Granted, if you're getting hacked all night it can be frustrating but it still has to be dealt with.

I'm not the worst at hacking and I don't mind it happening to me most of the time, I know it means that I have to be quicker and I thought it was part of the game.

As Ben said, it's supposed to be a laugh, well it is for me at least. No one's getting hurt, we are all getting better and enjoying it. There's room for everyone's game at present however fast/slow, quick pass/slow dribble, big hit/total miss.

I was frustrated about not having my bike more than anything else last night.

Thats all sorted then- Hacking stays, for now, and it'll slowely get toned down as the skill gets stepped up.
I hacked way more than i ever have in the game when it was me Wayne and Ben vs Mirek Andy and Roo, but tbh that was a pretty uneven fall of the mallets, just didnt wanna be given the run around the whole game!

• working on gettign a non veoldrome gearing going, just need to sort out fuckign bottom bracket!
  

i agree with most points, however i think when we are playing a friendly game in shitty conditions we should calm it down abit, and there is nothing wrong with saying sorry to each other

there is nothing wrong with saying sorry to each other

• 1 (altho i am guilty of this often..)
  

yea i reckon that sounds fine. I think its just wen you get hacked outta the game people start getting annoyed.

yea i reckon that sounds fine. I think just went you just get hacked outta the game people starts getting annoyed.

English not your first language Rajan?

:( ow

so pushing off the ball bad, but you gotta be allowed to ride in awkward places to shield the ball carrier.

wayne's 3rd bullet point, hooking the mallet from behind and preventing shot is safe and IMO very good polo. he robbed me of a shooting opp like this on tues when i thought i was beyond everyone. it was quality.

ste - soz for toppling you into the wall on tues. i meant to lean on you but i didn't mean to simply fall on you like that!

thast ok Si wasnt your fault, i think we should tone the sneaky play down abit when practicing because thats whet were doing really, its like training and when we have our little league or a tournament we can be abit more bastardlike, how about more drills for passing/shooting like 2 people at once start down the court 2 passes and a shot then 2 more people go and keep practicing

in chorlton or plattfield the ppl not playing could drill with another ball. could be the thin end of the wedge though... won't be long till it's press-ups and drinking bans!

in chorlton or plattfield the ppl not playing could drill with another ball. could be the thin end of the wedge though... won't be long till it's drinking and press-up bans!
Fixed