Polo Videos

yeh some Euro tourneys don't even have a ruleset you can refer to, mostly refs just keep time, if that.

Paris Blue Socks is a pants name.

But that game was ugly, lots of hacking and hopping of the back wheel into bikes.

re: greg's hack at the start : Greg told me this was some sort of retaliation for Andy's behavior in a previous game. I wasn't there, but it seems a tad brutal to me.

re: uglyness of the game : game was 100% clean apart from that move! I'm worried that British bike polo is becoming stuck into a vision of the game that doesn't exist elsewhere... Contact seems to become a complete no-no in the UK, whereas it's pretty much standard in Europe and the USA. Which makes for dramatic misunderstandings and inequalities in tournaments. I'm not saying violence and hacking are the way to go, but over-zealous reffing isn't either the future in my opinion...

Retaliating for a move in a previous game is pathetic. Sorry Greg, but it's true.

I see what you're saying Yorgo, and I have thought this too, that the brits are being whiney and not playing the same type of polo as elsewhere. It's evident every time we play abroad, people check hard and push each other around a lot more. I think there will always be an element of that in the game, of course, and trying to stop it all with endless rules isn't going to help anyone, especially us, if we're the one pushing for it.

It was a physical game, but I didn't actually see anything dangerous?

Clean play is one of the main reasons londn has such a large and happy scene. It would be sad if London ever forgot this in hope of the podium.

Clean play is one of the main reasons londn has such a large and happy scene. It would be sad if London ever forgot this in hope of the podium.

I agree with you, London has such a great scene. But there is a serious need for it to up the ante.

Clean play is one of the main reasons london has such a large and happy scene. It would be sad if London ever forgot this in hope of the podium.

I don't think it's true. I think it's because you're quite friendly people (except for that guy Ray, he's a douche. Oh and Vidal.), and it's an enormous city with a huge cycling community and a disproportionately high number of people in the polo playing demographic.

The kind of physicality that shows up in some of these high profile games is not the way most people play pickup, and it's mainly via pickup that scenes get to be "large and happy", right?

I don't think it's true. I think it's because you're quite friendly people (except for that guy Ray, he's a douche. Oh and Vidal.), and it's an enormous city with a huge cycling community and a disproportionately high number of people in the polo playing demographic.

I agree with Kev here - I know that the scene in Munich, home of the "brutal" Toros, or Barca, fiefdom of the "physical" El Club, is friendly too. So it's unrelated IMO.

• Insert joke about paris.
  

For me Will made bad commentary mostly because he missed all the shuster vs barben fight. Otherwise fuck yeah will rock it, he knows "one second before people what they gonna do". For me the only real bad move is the hack from Greg and that's not the hugest I saw, Andy can avoid it also because he know that they are both goin in a kind of dirty mood. By the way all the move that Greg are putting are pretty easy to avoid by using a forearm check to make some space around. This kind of polo is fine to me, nothing happen at high speed and all the pick, blocks, small whip are not so hard to avoid ou counter...
Reffing was just not here, and even with really good one I think only the slashing can be count, the other aren't fool or so small and hidden that nobody can wistle for that before 1000 years.

About the way you Londonian people play... i hope that if greg come close to you like that you gonna kick his ribs a lil' bit...
In Geneva we play pick ups in a different way than tourney one, or when we play harder we all agree about it before the game start. I think you can't play polo at one high level without being ready to get some bike on bike contact at low speed at least.

By the way, hooking not hacking (and the rik version "Roookin' not Rakiin') is a rule that london should fight for. Im all for this and stop slashing. Most of the mallets contact should be from behind to top, and when they aren't this way should be made without excessive force.

Anyone remember skid contests into those binbags at the Brighton tourney?

http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?v=10150895723510273&set=t.511791236&type=3&theater

http://vimeo.com/31094553
Thanks Chan, this is so nice.

Indeed

Clean play is one of the main reasons londn has such a large and happy scene. It would be sad if London ever forgot this in hope of the podium.

If you are good enough why play the player instead of playing the ball? If someone stoops low and be a dick, you need not go to that level and do the same. Play your own game and be a better player through skill rather than brute.

I have refused to play throw ins in the past when I deemed the game to be overzealous, I love bike polo, but I do not want to call in sick just because of some dick.

I have on many occasions not played in throw-ins because of certain players getting in to the game, that I deem to either be generally dangerous, or because they are in a shitty mood at that moment in time.

I don't think it's true. I think it's because you're quite friendly people (except for that guy Ray, he's a douche. Oh and Vidal.), and it's an enormous city with a huge cycling community and a disproportionately high number of people in the polo playing demographic.

Absolutely, the size and well being of the scene are due to various factors, but I would repeat that the mood of the london game is a strong contribution to it.

The kind of physicality that shows up in some of these high profile games is not the way most people play pickup, and it's mainly via pickup that scenes get to be "large and happy", right?

I can see this being the case, unfortunately, I have quite a skewed vision of throw-ins in other scenes as I have only played in them when there has been a tournament on. In these cases most players seem over zealous to prove themselves to the larger polo family.

Essentially, I think it may be time for London to accept the way the game is progressing and desist in being shocked by physical play in tournaments. However, I do not think that London should necessarily change its game and become more physical itself.

#reactionarypolo

Great vid, was wondering when that song would pop up in a polo vid-chan you used it really well.

Would love to see this style of shooting in a polo vid, beautiful.

http://vimeo.com/27260633

them some sexy slow-mo dudes

Anyone remember skid contests into those binbags at the Brighton tourney?

http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?v=10150895723510273&set=t.511791236&type=3&theater

Nice find Woody!

(another angle for PBS vs IP)
Iron Ponies-Paris Blue Socks_Konstanz 2011 on Vimeo

Just wondering about what the rules have to say about a few things in this video.....

checking into the boards, there are a couple times in this when players are checked into the board so hard that they wipe out, is there a level when checking into the boards becomes to hard and dangerous to the receiving player?

a couple times woods skids into the player with the ball, thought that was not a illegal move, or am i wrong?

just wondering.......

a couple times woods skids into the player with the ball, thought that was not a illegal move, or am i wrong?
just wondering.......

wich move exactly are you talking about ? when in the video ?

wich move exactly are you talking about ? when in the video ?

3.07 although no contact is made and 7.11 when contact is made.....nothing against you woods, just wondered what the rules are on that as i have been called up for it a couple times.

Checking in the boards is allowed in some tourneys when the boards are high enough to prevent the "victim" from boarding over. I think there is nothing about or against them in konstanz ruleset, so when we played against Paris Blue socks we thought it was kind of legal, also because greg and hugo spend some time in NA and know how to play this game.
The check on hugo near in the middle of the board from Quentin is hard to call or not. Hugo try to go trought a door who become to be close. The question for me here is not the checkin' on the board but when Quentin did it:
1) good timing, they are both at the same level on the court and Quentin have the right to close the door.
2) Quentin is late, hugo is already gone too far and Quentin come too late on him, so he don't really close a door but just run into hugo
3) there is no rule about timing in checking, if that's not an elbow and stay body body that's fine, so nothing to say.

there is plenty of quesiton about checking, but clearly, when you watch the way boards become to be made, higher and way stronger, all around the world, and first in NA, it become really clear that checkin is or gonna be allowed. If you are next a solid board and know a lil bit your opponent, you know that you gonna get some trouble if you try to go trought without using your body to create a space to go.

For the tail whip, i think that's illegal in a lot of ruleset. But it seems that low speed tailwhip are unoffcially allowed.

The main question is also reffin', if the ref wistle nothing and nobody complain about it on the court (as in Iron ponies vs PBS) there is no real matter in letin' people play the polo they like.

I understand about the fact that checking is allowed, but surely there has to be something introduced into the ruleset that says that makes dangerous checking illegal. there is the question about timing, clearly in the check on hugo the check is late, should there be a need to call up checking like that? or should it just be common sense that tells a player when and when not to check....taking a player out is not cool.

As for nobody complaining about it on court, but it not being legal in the ruleset that is the strange thing about reffin' for me.
I remember watching a game in the euros where two teams were playing hard and fast, hacking mallets and t-boning and the ref only said like for like contact. so if one teams plays dirty and illegally then the other team plays the same way, the game will just turn into chaos (as i remember one game did) Refs need to call up illegal play and not just let the game continue and become dangerous and out of control.