I hope somebody else has some good advice or words of encouragement on this topic, because I need to hear it. Believe it or not, your troubles aren't even a little bit unique. We've been struggling with this issue in Philly for seven years, and most weeks we're lucky to get enough players for games one night a week (three of our regulars are in a band together, they're going on tour and we probably won't play for three weeks). I thought it was just us, but the more people I talk to, the more it seems the themes are universal. We've built a small fleet of loaner polo bikes, everybody brings spare mallets, but no dice. Turnout doesn't necessarily equal participation, and on nights when sixty people show up, it feels like its still the same nine or ten dudes playing. It sounds like every city gets a little honeymoon at first, when the novelty draws a crowd, but soon it seems like an struggle to keep people interested. The real issue that seems to be the dealbreaker for us is intimidation: Once you've been playing long enough to get good, it's impossible to convince new people that they can have fun doing what you're doing. When everybody is a rookie, and the games just look like goofy, awkward drunken fun, most people will give it a try - when you've got six people who are playing hard, fast polo and pushing each other's abilities, not many people are willing to brave that kind of shark tank. Just slowing the games down doesn't seem to be enough, and now, the only way you're going to get any new blood is if you can attract enough of a crowd to routinely pull six players for an "all-rookie" game. It's an uphill battle. Good to hear there's polo in AK, don't give up.
Advice for new polo groups
We started some regular hardcourt polo up here in Alaska late this winter - had decent turnout in subzero weather, a bunch of folks who were super stoked for some summer fun, and all looked good for a new bunch of players up north.
I started teaching mallet building classes, provided materials for folks who needed it, worked with the bike co-op to start building up some bikes, and generally tried to get ready to rock the summer. Joshlikeslife and I were pushing hard, had Humpday Hardcourt regularly, a bunch of weekend pickup games, occasional field polo, and generally succeeded in getting people excited for the game. We uncovered some great courts (hockey and tennis courts with fences and boards, highly visible parking garages at street level, open lots, etc). We had some big nights with lots of people playing some pretty good polo. Now things are falling flat.
Unless I drag everyone out to polo, provide mallets, give them a ball, bring beer, and generally try to force people to play, we aren't getting good turnout. Bike culture in AK is obviously going to have some differences when compared to more temperate climates, but perhaps you have some pointers for keeping polo from falling to the wayside. A few thoughts and questions:
- Should we be playing less often to prevent burnout with a small player base (don't ask me how you get burned out playing polo)?
- Did you combine polo with other bike events (alley cats, critical mass, parades, etc) to try to build awareness ... and was that very effective (I tend to get "but I don't want to break my bike" comments when those folks are invited)?
- Tricks for bridging various bike groups to get more people involved? We have the professional bike-commuter types, rowdy bike kids from college (though we lose a bunch each summer due to them going back home), hardcore downhill riders, fair-weather weekend riders, and then the motley lineup at the co-op. I need to make polo appeal to more than the kids and co-op members.
- Any pointers? I want us to thrive, but am a little worried that I am going to get burned out trying to make people have (this kind of) fun on their bicycles up here.
here too. summer time is hurting especially with us losing lights at our downtown court polo has been a night spot here mostly and the beach is to far away and full of hockey dudes to much on the weekends. we also sorta lost our downtown courts back to the tennis people tonight but have a space to try to turn into our new courts with talking with the city!
One of the best perks as far as Alaskan summers go would have to be the endless days ... no darkness for months, so we can play pickup games without any sort of artificial lighting into the wee hours of the morning. We have recently lost our tennis courts, too, but have gained some awesome boarded-in hockey rinks.
yeah, here in boston we had that honeymoon. 50 people showing up every sunday ... of course looking back most of those people were just sitting around waxing fixie.
then players got good and the game turned really aggressive and violent. some people stopped coming because they were getting hurt or were intimidated. a few moved away. once some of us built polo specific bikes, that turned others away because we were running circles around them.
we also had a big split when there was a big argument about having all girl games or some shit and that led to a group of people leaving to play on another court..
now we have a group of maybe 6-8 diehards and about 5-6 others who show up once in a while. Ideally 5-10 more good players would be coming out regularly.
and we were even thinner for a while there. only three or four regulars..
I don't have much advice but here are two things i've learned.
- friendships count. most people come out as much to hang out and drink beers as they do to play. if folks are taking polo too seriously and don't get along off the court they will eventually stop having fun and stop coming. we have a pretty solid (if small) crew now mainly because a few of us were friends before polo.
- have a consistent scheduled game. I'm always amazed how much the turnout will die if we take even a week off. and nothing turns people off like showing up for the first time after reading about the game on the internet and there not being anyone at the court.
yup. that's all i got. good luck!
after writing this^ pathetic shit, we had one of the biggest turn outs in months last night. a bunch of the noobs who have been coming randomly for the past few months all showed up, and most had built up actual polo bikes.
and most are actually getting good already. so awesome. BOSTON BIKE POLO FOR LIFE!!
When I first started playing, there was a dedicated beginner's day and that really helped me. Tori provided mallets and bikes, which really was essential. I wasn't ready to play on my road bike or build up a new bike for polo at that point. A few of the more veteran players came and helped out mainly by passing, which really helped things along - nothing like being part of a scoring play to make you addicted.
I graduated to the big leagues, but kept on going to newbie's night to be a passer (an underrated position in my opinion). Tori eventually passed her fleet to someone else and they formed a league that plays at the university - much more friendly and supposedly alcohol free.
I think that it is important to remember how hard polo was when you first started and put yourself in your target's shoes. It can be very intimidating to get out on the court and figure out how to play with someone who has the skills. Have practice be mainly about skills - how to be a tripod, dribbling, passing and only scrimmage at the end. If people are more confident, they will be less shy about playing.
Something I am doing here in Korea, since I don't have any mallets, is just going around and talking up polo. Find where the bike crews hang out and go on some rides. Take polo to them. This would tie in well if you are not focused on playing games, but on just the basic skills.
Always play up the cornerstones of a team sport: competition, teamwork, skill and fun. On second thought, not everyone likes the competition, so just focus on the fun teamwork.
Sasha
I think you should try to get a couple teams together and get to a tournament... that will really get people hooked. Get down to East Van, Seattle, or Portland (aka Cas-gay-dia) and play a tournament. They have a tournament almost every weekend over there. (plus they're really good at polo and great people) My first tourney was so much fun, everyone there is into bike polo as much as you! It's non-stop playing polo, talking about bike polo, tips about bikes and parts and mallet building methods, and of course my fav: shit talking.... Once you got some guys hooked on tournaments, they're gonna want to get better... and there's your "die hards" that tiadactyl was referring. Once you have a die hard core of players (enough for a weekly game) new people will show up and toco their wheel in the first game and never return, others will drift in and out, but slowly others will get hooked too and your polo scene grows.
-hero squad * milwaukee, wi-
Believe it or not, I've never toco'd a wheel playing this game
3...2...1...GO!
Mallets Of Gayhem
Little Richmond Bike Polo
One of the problems that we have is how expensive it is to get stateside. Alaska is way the hell up here, so we have either a lengthy drive or a spendy flight, especially as ticket prices get jacked up during tourist season. We might be getting a crew together for a Seattle tournament, but haven't gotten the firm commitments needed to plan a carpool. I have been working with a few folks to try to figure out how to get people stoked again ... no brilliant ideas on our end yet, but we still haven't given up hope.
If you drive to a tournament in Seattle you can stop in Vancouver on the way, play some pick up here with your closest neighbors (withstanding Golden BC). You could also play in our tournament at the end of September and make a trip to Seattle to play pick up.
EVBP
I will swing it by Josh and Brian to see if they would be down - we have been talking about making it a multi-week / possible month of bike life. The fact that he is from Portland and I went to school in Seattle make it so we could live cheaply once there ... a month of rides, pick-up games, and beer would be great. We need to get planning this crap, and soon!
wow that sucks!
here in London we have the opposite problem. Too many players, and it keeps on growing. We even have different games on the same night in separate parts of town. On an average 3 hours session on a weeknight, you'll be lucky to get more than 3-4 games now.
A few things that got us a lot of players:
- A local internet forum with a lot of activity (in our case a fixed gear forum)
- A very central court, next to "hipster central", with a lot of passer-bys every sunday (Brick Lane, where we started. Now we are playing at less visible courts though)
- A lot of press in national TV, newspapers, magazines etc...
good luck
Yorgo
LONDON: http://bricklanebikepolo.wordpress.com/
PARIS: http://panambikepolo.blogspot.com/
"On an average 3 hours session on a weeknight, you'll be lucky to get more than 3-4 games now."
I might rather have fewer people but get to play in every game all afternoon... haha.
Yeah, we fly under the radar here in the local bike community, which itself flies under the radar of most Bostonians.
I'm sure if we made even a modest effort we could get more people's attention.
I couldn't resist commenting on this one.
I've been living this situation here off and on for like 9 frickin years. Hooked on grass polo in Calgary 1998, moved to a small town on Vabcouver island in 2000(12,000 people, 60% retired) actually had grass polo weekly games going for about 3 years or so with 7 or 8 people showing up regularly. I used to make mallets and bring them to share, a few people made their own. I also used to call everyone every week to remind them polo was on. Then people's lives started changing, moved away, divorced, kids etc and then there was one. After that I just decided to go trail riding polo nights instead.
Then I found a hardcourt polo tournament in Victoria in 2007, which had just recently started playing, on the interweb. I went knowing absolutely no one there and played on a mixed cities team in a friendlies type tournament. I had a freakin blast playing harccourt for the first time. Having played grass polo before I figured this would be a piece of cake - wrong! I've been riding clipless pedals for 20 years and decided to switch to platforms because it was recommended - big mistake I high sided about 20 times and brutally wounded my knees. Also I had the hardest time hitting that fast rolling ball with the business end of the mallet, having been used to shuffling playing grass polo. After playing in the DFL game I watched the final game with the remaining players and that's when I really felt the polo love.
I've been hooked ever since. But unfortunately I have been unable to resurect bike polo in Parksville. I made the intial calls to all my old contacts, the bike stores etc. No luck. I couldn't and still can't figure out why people don't want to play this freakin awesome game, especially if you claim to be a cyclist of any sort.
So now I go down to the court a couple time a week to practise usually by myself. I send out a casual email invite to about 15 people and have only ever had a few at most show up at one time. I try ot play in a open location so that if anyone comes by to ask I can hand them a bike polo information contact card, in case they want to play. It does kind of suck but I make up for it by trying to travle to where people are playing. Victoria is a 2 hour drive, East Van is a 3.5 hour journey by car/ferry/bus/bike. It's abit of work but I consider myself a bike polo junkie, I just can't get enough and I'll do what I have to to get it. Plus the crew in East Van make me feel real welcome - thx.
Being the only one in town playing polo hasn't stopped me from attending tournaments. Playing with new people is one of the things I really like about this polo community. Everyone I've met to date is super cool and friendly, which makes the game more than just a game. You learn something new from everyone you play with, so pay attention.
Sorry for ramble but that's my story on trying to get bike polo started in my little corner of the world.
I look forward to playing polo with all you polistas at a tournament one day.
peace and love from the left coast.
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fred, are you coming to portland? we've got room in the car, and i'll set you up on a team. leaving thursday night.
Piet, I would love to come down to Portland with the crew but...I haven't got my passport renewed yet, my wife works on Sundays and I have two small boys so I've had to carefully schedule my tournaments this year with my wifes schedule.
I am going to Calgary and coming the East Van though! Still looking for team mates for both - not too worried though because I know there will be others in the same boat and I'm kind of looking forward to a palying with someone I haven't played with or even met yet.
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i need a team for eastvan crown....
let's drink and talk in Calgary. Ask the grass court guys about me for a personal reference.
What I lack in hardcourt skills I make up with enthusiasm. I'm not that bad I just haven't been getting a ton of playing time in. Ask me again after seeing me play at the Ramsey bowl.
peace
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Damn Fred. Your post gave me goosebumps. You epitomise "Pololove" and we, in turn, love you for it. I'm always stoked when you make it out to East Van. I hope to be able to come up to Parksville for polo next next weekend. Is that still happening? So far I think me and Jim expressed interest. I'll see who else wants to come. Can I still get a ride from Nanaimo?
You are POLO Fred!!!
TOP CENTER 4-EVA
Martin,
I just got confirmation on the lacrosse court Monday and will be sending out another invite shortly to confirm. the only thing is I kind of goofed on the welcoming the BC Bike Race into town - they arrive the next day - DOHHH!
Shouldn't stop us from playing polo though.
And yes I'm still good for three players and bikes from the Nanaimo ferry terminal.
looking forward to hosting you guys and showing you the potential this little town has.
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all of this is good advice defiantly go to a tournament it changes everything, secondly put one of those courts on lock down play there every say thursday and sunday at the same time every week. people get curious enough to watch eventualy they will play. one of our locals hung out with us and took photos for say maybe 3 0r 4 months before even picking up a mallet and now hes hooked same spot same time and rookie games are a must
www.mkebikepolo.com
1. Rookie games.
2. Give enthusiastic new people responsibilities that get them more involved.
3. Get people to a tourney. Changes everything.
chicagobikepolo.com
4. Pass the ball to rookies, and adjust your game when you're defending against one.
this is a huge point.
i started playing last year with the calgary hardcourt guys and i have to say that the good players (thx justin/kent/dylan) were really accomadating. they would let me (the rookie) carry/pass the ball lots even though they could have taken it from me at any time.
i guess all i am saying is that making sure the new players have a good experience is very important. rookie games are a good idea if you have enough rookies. if you dont have enough new players for a stand alone rookie game, tone down the intensity of the games and let the new players handle/shoot the ball lots.
who cares who wins when you are playing pickup games. what is more important is making sure the rookies have enough fun to come back.
find other social things to do with the polo crew, work up a little group cohesion. our club organizes a monthly party ride, which also helps attract new people.
Columbia, MO
Start early enough that you can all go out for a taco or a beer after the games.
For the first time in a year, St Louis had new interest in polo. One of our core group handed out flyers at a big bike ride, and someone on a bike forum in the city asked if there was polo here. Our blog was linked to.
This resulted in 5 fresh faces coming to polo on Sunday. We loaned 'em out bikes and equipment, we played a couple of easy games with them, we had a couple "rookie games" where the lone vet didn't come past half court, we encouraged and heckled from the sidelines. We learned their names.
We'll see what happens this weekend.
Chicago Bike Polo 2003-2008
St Louis Bike Polo 2008-fun
Make extra mallets and give them to new people that come back a few times. Offer to sell/give a ball to a new player so they can eff around by themselves.
Have a mallet and wheel cover building night. This worked really well for us a while back.
If you live in MN, IA, MO, WI, IL, MI, IN, KY, and OH why not join the Midwest Club page?
its too bad to hear that after a good turnout early on people have fallen by the way side, but there are always those who flit in and out of polo land...
i don't have any advice, but i wish you luck. what i've witnessed in the couple-few years i've known about polo is there are the super dedicated, the semi dedicated and the fair weather fans. the people have to want it, and if you gathering up all the stuff and having all that gusto isn't doing it for them then i doubt they are going to get all uber excited on their own.
you can always move to cascadia...