Tourney: BFF 2010 Experimental Polo 17.10.2010

So, to ref it by sight, you have to be perpendicular to the bike at all times to be accurate, how are you proposing to do this?

Pinning a ball to the ground is a pretty easy thing to spot....

but behind or in front of the BB? (as specified in the Konstanz rules)

You do it as best you can, as all reffing decisions are made.

non-issue for me.
Pinning it, is pinning it. Regardless of BB alignment.

i agreed gponx, i think the BB rule is weak.

@gponx
People who works on their ball handling without that are pissed of.
Personnaly, i don't care. I used them before, but i think that im better without open side now. More control for receip the pass, and less time spent in air balling.

I was defending them because of the increasing ball control, but that's lil' bit usless, cause what you gain in driving, you loos it on your shuffle passing and controling (not in the only one open side).

One of the other reason im happy to have let these mallets down is because i don't want to get used to play with them and goes to a big NA tourney one day (or for the worlds) and get my old open mallet banned.

Gees, a side joint is a ball joint, a ball joint is when you pin the ball between your mallet head and the court... tournaments will have different rules to control excessive ball jointing and "cheater moves" (egg and spoon, etc), discussion over.

If you use an ECM, you risk being heckled for taking the "easy" option and for being a "cheat".
If you heckle ECM users you need to get out more and stop fretting, they haven't changed polo.

So, to ref it by sight, you have to be perpendicular to the bike at all times to be accurate, how are you proposing to do this?

Actually, I have a great idea.....
When you pin the ball it stops rotating a bit, right? Maybe Crack Fox's super half-red/half-white balls will solve this refereeing mystery once and for all.

Ha!, great idea!

@gponx
People who works on their ball handling without that are pissed of.

SJM (I refuse to call it "cheater") don't magically give you ball control. You have to actually learn how to use them (although it is a less steep learning curve).
If you follow that logic, we should ban freewheeling, because a lot of people work real hard on their pedalling and bike control....

Whatever... let's time decide.

Moving for standardisation of a sport that is in it's infancy goes against the whole idea of something evolving and developing. It's like banning studs for football, or some other such stupid ban. It's a Luddite attitude.

Depends what you see as innovation/progression. By standardising equipment, you force other areas of the game to progress faster than they otherwise would have. Focus for mallets could specifically shift to developing stiffer/whippier, lighter, stronger and more balanced mallets for example. As the sport becomes more established, the biggest developments will be in team's tactics anyway and not all this messing about trying to find tiny individual edges.

As the sport becomes more established, the biggest developments will be in team's tactics anyway and not all this messing about trying to find tiny individual edges.

Well said.

Standardised mallets... umm sure, one day.

(Currently we barely manage to make sure there are no dangerous mallet bolts/protrusions and tournament organisers can pretty much do what they want.)

@gponx:
Bad example, freewheel is shit.

:)

For the argument, yes i agree, open side joint aren't magical at all. It sucks too much when the ball bounce and the hole when you try to control, or when you make a lob that you don't want.
Learning how to turn without it isn't so complicated.

And again, if one time the time decide to ban these, i prefere to be ready.

@gabes and aufbruch:
Faciliting air play have a important influence in team tactical play.

And again, if one time the time decide to ban these, i prefere to be ready.

And if they don't get banned and everyone's using them, won't you have missed the boat?

what kind of boat?

If all the polo people goes to Open side cut, and that affect a lot of the game with incredible triks unbeatable with classical mallets, i'll take back the mickey boat.
But i don't really think it's gonna happens (get all people to play with these).

SJM (I refuse to call it "cheater") don't magically give you ball control. You have to actually learn how to use them (although it is a less steep learning curve).
If you follow that logic, we should ban freewheeling, because a lot of people work real hard on their pedalling and bike control....

Whatever... let's time decide.

well said...

we should ban streakers, I did not want to see some french sausage.

Makz worked hard on that sausage!

Haha :)
No but, seriously, i'm not against freewheel (and i'm a freewheeler now then..)
But i think gponx is right when he says that if you follow this logic you have to ban freewheel.

I really don't understand why there are this much people who think these are cheater mallet..
I don't feel better with this mallet head. Its just really lighter than the others and i prefer.

cut the side out of your sausage and then we'll see how you play.

Too small.

Standardise sausages.

hahahahaha!

Standard sausage FTW!!!