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As part of the year plan mandated here in Manchester, we're making progress with our stated intention of delivering some form of bike polo educational package to local schools (in return for access to NS standard tournament facilities). I have a meeting with council officials at Sportcity next Friday to take it further.
What particularly excites me is marrying the design and technology aspect ie. the in classroom element (think: bike and mallet design and making/gearing/safety) to the sport side (health/inclusion/tactical etc) - I think it is a compelling educational and social welfare package that shouldn't cost the earth, that can make use of a range of staff and of course the existing school facilities.
The fact that kids know about something before teachers is also a plus in my book! ;-)
Going forward and to avoid replication, it would be awesome if we collectively could develop the definitive bike polo educational resource pack with curriculum links, materials list etc. maybe along with video, with appropriately qualified educational people and ourselves. From this collateral, delegates from each regional polo scene could be an ambassador/facilitator to take the activity plan to their local authorities to deliver, along with the open ended integration into the developed polo scenes. Jono/Josh - perhaps this is something an appropriate sponsor might be interested in funding the development of, as opposed to directly funding adult tournaments?
Colin - I know you're up in Manchester for a spell this month, can we get some time off court to make some progress on this?
Yep, I'm all over this!
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I've been teaching some bike polo in birmingham schools. We've just got some 'sportivate' funding to deliver some more. Hit me up if you want any advice for funding application.
If we all got together we may be able to change Sports Englands approach to polo. My local objective is getting pupils form different schools playing with each other.
My national objective is a custom court. I spoke to Big Lottery, Awards for All programme and they prob wouldn't fund it. Sports England is the best bet i think.
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What is Sports England's approach to polo and is it on the record?
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No, Sports England would require hardcourt bike polo to be a "sport", unless you're after a nice grassy pitch to play on? I've tried the grass polo angle in the past, it's a non-starter unless you can find a significant grass polo body to partner with (it seems to be less popular than back along to be honest).
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And what is BC's take on bike polo currently? Is there not an in through the SKY door with the new funding round/long term contract just announced?
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It's not about sourcing funding, it's about whether bike polo is a sport. We're currently years off being considered one really (unless the number of participants in the UK increases dramatically ), bike polo in schools is a huge leap forwards though. We should probably keep BC more up-to-date with bike polo news each year... I think James is approaching BC at the moment.
It's very possible that bike polo could still be a flash in the pan thing, linked to cycle culture and boozey trips abroad to meet like-minded individuals.
British Cycling get to decide if bike polo is a sport (or not). The only way of adding pressure would be to campaign, or get some influential people to champion bike polo (a bit like we did with Sarah Burrows at the Mayor's Office, etc).
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Accepting that bike polo doesn't have a substantial/comparable track record to date, maybe there is scope for promoting it (to BC) along the lines of an olympic demonstration sport - as in, it may well go further/we're acknowledging the seeds of activity/we will accept its core values at this point...
Thus at least giving us a leg up re. other networks/sponsorships etc.
Are there examples of more recent cycling-related activities that are on the cusp of 'sport' status?
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The International Olympic Committee decided in 1989 to eliminate demonstration sports from Olympics Games after 1992. An exception was made in 2008, when the Beijing Organizing Committee received permission to organize a wushu tournament. It's very hard to be part of the Olympics in any what so ever to be honest. The best shot for bike polo exposure/promotion currently would likely be some sort of community/cultural angle.
I'm not sure about other cycle-related sports, someone should probably look into it.
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Sorry - I didn't mean it to read for polo to be an olympic demo, more an fresh idea for BC to consider it in a 'demonstration' or early stage form ie. shows promise/yet to be proven through volume.
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Missed this thread, but back tracking a bit, yes our schools project is going well.
The key point is that the funding and purpose is coming from a cycle training and safety angle, rather than a sporting angle.
Although the result is the same in terms of kids playing bike polo, the objective from the councils perspective is more about getting them on bikes and learning to ride confidently and safely.
As has been mentioned, we're still a long way of being a 'proper' sport and being acknowledged by BC/sport-england/whatever, but the off shoot from these kind of projects is that bike polo is starting to be acknowledged in the minds of higher authority's, hopefully more as being a significant sport with proper credentials, which will help us get funding/facilities in the (distant) future.My opinion is that if the sport wants to be taken seriously, we cannot jump in at the deep end and expect to be noticed. We need to try hard at the grass roots level to promote the sport, community projects etc are just a beginning, build up our numbers and hopefully gain recognition from the wider cycle sport community as being respectable.
ps sorry for the waffle
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Thx for that - yes, wholeheartedly agree that the bedrock to future sporting recognition is by demonstrably successful grass roots outreach projects that can be templated across regions.
Good tip about accenting rider confidence and safety - will add that to my pitch. Have you looked at the educational/in-class value at all?
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Do you have any cycle trainers/instructors who play polo up there? I try to teach from a perspective of both as like Josh says the funding comes from that angle. Sustrans and Streetgames both approached me to teach outside of school hours (after school clubs and weekend youth clubs) but through cycle training I have managed to implement some elements into classes too, PE, Art, History, etc. Our biggest interest actually comes from special schools where sports therapy and activities encouraging body/eye co-ordination are funded really well. The trouble is finding people who are CRB'ed or willing to be CRB'ed to teach...
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What a team of dreamboats!
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^^ I've known that for weeks, didn't know it was a secret. Dammit I could have had some gossip thunder!
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What's going on in the Poloverse
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The major drawback of that approach would be sourcing volunteers as far as I can tell? Josh is essentially empowering existing cycle proficiency/youth training staff instead (I believe). Their enthusiasm for the project likely comes from their own potential future gains if bike polo continues to grow as a sport?
But yeah, have a chat to him: josh [at] lhbpa (d0t) org and see what the crack is... bike polo in schools will mean awesome facilities (and "sport" status for bike polo) in the future.