Tourney: WHBPC 2011: Seattle 08-11.09.2011

Yorgo is a giant..more here: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/photogalleries/localnews2016171196/1.html

Busted! dirty play..

Looks like forearm to me...

yorgo has been photoshopped, where is his chest carpet?

great photo

it's mating season, the yorgos shed their summer fur to attract potential females

it's all about the background

was just about to post that one too.

Busted! dirty play..

Looks like forearm to me...

It's mallet arm to mallet arm (right to left), so I can't see anything in the pic that's dirty, certainly not a chicken wing, and both the elbows are below shoulder-height, and the elbows are bent, so not a potential clothes-line, no contact...

nothing to see here, etc.

Although the dude on David's right is a little high in the elbow, and from D's expression you could guess that he has just given a shove in the shoulder, but it's hard to say from that angle.

but is that Max standing all alone in the background?

looks like a high elbow to me, thats why.

Although the dude on David's right is a little high in the elbow, and from D's expression you could guess that he has just given a shove in the shoulder, but it's hard to say from that angle.

The dude on David's right is taking the photo isn't he?

Was this shot posed? Outrageous...

Nice new edit of the final:

Worlds Final on Vimeo

Can we cut out the hand-on-back/shoving/"arm play" shit though please?

4:05 - Dirty elbow
4:32 - Dabbing t-bone (head but?)
8:02 - Shove
8:24 - Dabbing shove
12:27 - Shove off the ball
15:32 - Awful shove from CMD
17:03 - Shove
20:15 - Blind side check from Rory (almost a shove, but at least his arm was curled up)
21:51 - Shove

It was a great final (awesome angle/edit), I just wanted to highlight the shoves/fouls as they have no place in polo, it'll only get worse if using arms becomes the norm. I hope it's not just me being dramatic.

I'd have called each one of them (if seen and if no advantage) and reset the game, yes this makes for bad polo... but so does watching players push each other over in a dabbing war (extreme, but just trying to get the point across).

+1

It also riles me when they say "Canada vs. Europe". Europe is not a fucking country.

This is why I dislike 'forearms allowed'.

forearms is not a country agreed.

Ok, but say you disallow any arm/shoulder contact, how do you deal with people who are pressing into you from the side?

Not react, let them push you out of the way, and hope they get a penalty?

Shoulders are not forearms Mr. John H.

So you are saying shoulder is fine, but forearm shouldn't be?

I only ask, as (being quite tall, on a large bike) when people lean into me, their shoulder is where my arm is.

Unless it's Cam or Spoons.

The forearms thing encourages actively pushing other players. Shoulder contact is fine but shouldn't be a charge/barge. If they're smaller than you, you have a weight advantage and don't really need to shove them?

their shoulder is where my arm is.

The forearm thing is for this reason, the idea is that a straight arm (shoulder or forearm) used to protect your space (as opposed to an elbow) is ideal. This then extends to checking where both players are looking to bounce off each other/fight for space/fight for the ball.

Maybe shoulders/forearms should be the sub-text of a "straight arm" kind of ruling (or "unraised arm" or something), essentially it's about safely protecting your space and checking as opposed to extending your elbow, forearm or hand out to enable you to push/shove/chicken wing/etc someone.

The more I think about it, the "raised arm" thing doesn't work either as tall players can still push shorter players around without a raised arm.

Maybe it's about where the force comes from? So you can push/lean/check with an arm that's planted on the bars (non-mallet side) and the other side has to be a curled/tucked in arm (Rory's blind-side style above)?

Why not look to discourage the play that leads to space protection in the first place?

For example, smaller players are dangerous, ban them.

+1