Body to Body: What is a clean Body to body play, how to ref it?

Submitted by uolmo .Clement. on August 20, 2010 - 6:11pm

Rules

All is in the title.
During the WHBPC every player and ref can notice some huge gaps in county-city-region polo cultures about what is allowed during the body to body play. Some think that body to body are just incidental, and player shouldn't use any kind of push to get opponent away. Some think that body to body is like in hockey, a regulated kind of play who allow players to use body to make their way or to get out of play opponents. Some other seems t don't really know or don't care about what is permitted or not, but play mostly the body when the opponent does...

Some questions who may help this discuss:
1) What kind of body contacts are allowed during your local pick up games?
2) What kind of body contacts are allowed during your local tourneys?
3) What kind of body contacts should be allowed during international or huge tourneys?
When i say "allowed", im not talking about the written rules, but more about the internal non-written rules, the mood of playing. And how you are playing them?

4) Is this body checks a part of this game? Is that a skills to use them? Can this game be cool without this kind of play?

August 20, 2010 - 7:59pm

Doug D

this is a contact sport.

Doug D
Brooklyn, New York
hardcourtbikepolo+gmail+com
hardcourtbikepolo.com

August 20, 2010 - 10:16pm

stevenso

Tulsa

I've started a new club in my city mainly over this issue. I just don't feel safe on the court with some of the players and I don't think most new players feel safe either. It could be part of the reason why our club has been more or less the same 8 dudes for two years. The first rule in the new club is NO CONTACT. There are some other changes as well and the goal is to be more inline with tournament-style play. My hope is that this breeds a safe but competitive atmosphere and we can actually get some more players interested.

August 20, 2010 - 11:49pm

Drew CoMO

St. Louis Bike Polo

Non-contact polo sounds outstandingly dull. I mean, there's a line between being playing out-for-blood aggro meathead polo and a having a little bit of roughhousing - and I'm sorry to see the folks in your club have crossed that.
But turning your back to the aggressive nature of the game is wholly useless. People get rather worked up chasing a ball around and want to get to it before others, so of course life and limb are risked by knocking others around. Welcome to sports. It happens.
Fragmenting your club into a sugar-coated version of the game might get people involved, but it will also get them bored really quickly.

August 21, 2010 - 1:40am

Zachary-Blmgtn

Bloomington Bike Polo

Drew CoMO wrote:

People get rather worked up chasing a ball around and want to get to it before others, so of course life and limb are risked by knocking others around. Welcome to sports. It happens.
Fragmenting your club into a sugar-coated version of the game might get people involved, but it will also get them bored really quickly.

In my town we differentiate between pickup ("non-contact") and competitive/slayer ("contact"). We might not know exactly where the line is, but we're trying to differentiate... some people aren't- that's the difference.

August 21, 2010 - 1:56am

stevenso

Tulsa

Drew CoMO wrote:

and I'm sorry to see the folks in your club have crossed that.

Who hasn't? The point is that I don't want to play like that. Aggressive play crosses the line. Regularly it becomes more then play and I'm just not into it anymore. Incidental contact is what it is and we'll play with other clubs and they can play however they play. Other clubs enjoy clean physical play without slamming into you, crashing people out, or hacking mallets to the point of breaking gear. If you're going to stop someone get in front of them and use control and skill not pushing and crashing. Drew you are currently in the majority so there are plenty of clubs that play rough, power to you guys. More tournaments are going to start calling penalties on aggressive play because it's unsafe and getting rid of the dangerous dirty bs will allow truly talented players to pull off even more amazing shots and stops. To the people who's game it is to crash other people out, doesn't that get old? I thought NA's 30 second penalty was was a mark of maturity for the sport and a real sign that rough hood like play isn't the direction we're going.

August 20, 2010 - 11:19pm

pete

Portland Bike Polo

Arm up only for defending checks, shoulder for the actual checking. And no blindsiding/hits in the back.

Pro-friendly bike polo!

August 21, 2010 - 12:35am

jason f-off

Seattle

perfect...this should literally be in the eventual complete contact rules.

what about leaning? wangin'? extending mallet arm in front of an opponent clothesline style to maintain possession/screen the ball or to stop breakaways?

August 21, 2010 - 4:06am

uolmo .Clement.

I think that a player can have his mallet arm in front of another only if he play the ball and if he don't press on the oponent with this arm.
That's pretty easy to put evertime the mallet arm in front of people to block them. Ref need to be pretty clear about that, contact are shoulders only, and forarms but without excessive push...

Im absoluetly not against body to body play but it make this game more difficult to ref, and more dangerous.
For me, check people should be pretty ruled, every check need to be absolutely clean. It's too easy to put a player out of play by using body, had a good ref and a good set of rules is essential.

WHBPC 2010 ruleset talk about making "check" after the contact shoulder-shoulder.

""7.1 – body-to-body – this includes shoulder-to-shoulder contact and the use of forearms.
Shoulders checks are permitted if the pressing is done after the contact. It should be a push by the shoulder, not a hit.""

That's here to prevent big hit. But it didn't work well, for most of refs i saw, a check was clean if he was done shoulder-shoulder, nothing more. Is a rule like 7.1 enforceable? Don't we need a better definition of what kind of contacts are permitted?

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August 21, 2010 - 8:28am

pete

Portland Bike Polo

Leaning with your arm up I don't think is okay, unless you're trying to prevent a slow fall onto someone. Chicken winging is not defending against a check and it's messing with your steering arm, don't like it. I think reaching across someone is only okay if you have a play on the ball because otherwise, you're essentially just holding them. Again, arm up/out only for defending checks (or playing the ball, obviously).

I think that's as fair and enforceable as these rules are going to get.

Pro-friendly bike polo!

August 21, 2010 - 3:34pm

#10

polojoel

I believe we need to start thinking about this in terms of who initiates the contact, and whether the person receiving it can safely respond. Someone taking a shot deserves more clearance than a player moving around in position. So, checking someone when they are winding up would be a foul. The defender has to get in front of the ball or back off. No hitting people from behind.

Someone taking a shot simply can not hold their bike against a crash and effectively swing on the shot. It's just a foul to hit someone from their off side or from behind because they beat you to get off a shot.

Another example: an offender drives towards the goal and makes shoulder contact with defenders. Defenders are trying to make a wall and do not have to simply give way to an offender with the ball. This can be aggressive play but not a foul.