Hardcourt Bike Polo is a variation of traditional Bicycle Polo in which teams of players ride bicycles and use mallets to strike a small ball into a goal.
Typically, two teams of three players play in an enclosed rectangular area (ex. parking lot, tennis courts, or roller hockey rink). Cones, and increasingly, small goals are placed at each long end of the rectangle and serve as goalposts/goals. At the beginning of the game, the ball is placed in the middle of the court the players wait behind their own goals. Following a countdown, both teams charg
e the ball in what is termed the "joust". A player may hit the ball in two ways: a "shot" or a "shuffle". A shot is made with either end of the mallet head whereas a shuffle is made with the side. In order to score a goal, a player must hit the ball into the opposing team's goal with a shot; if the player uses a shuffle, the goal does not count and play continues. Following a goal, the scoring team returns to their own half of the court. After the scoring team returns to their half, the scored-on team may cross the half line and resume play. The game continues until a team reaches either a limit of five goals or a predetermined length of time. A player who "dabs", (touches a horizontal surface with their foot), must undertake some form of remedial penalty before making contact with the ball again. This usually involves "tapping out" (riding to a designated point on the court and touching it with the mallet). It is also common to have to say "foot down" or "dab" to let other players know you are out of play. You should avoid affecting play of the game at all cost after a foot down occurs. The amount of contact in a particular game may vary but is generally restricted to "mallet to mallet", "body to body". As a decentralized and organically growing game, the rules and styles of Hardcourt Bike Polo may vary substantially from city to city. Since 2009, various governing bodies have been created within the polo community for the purposes of advancing the sport and creating rule sets. North American Hardcourt (NAHBP) and European Hardcourt (EHBP) are the prime organizations, but there are others such as the Australasian Hardcourt (AHBP) and South American Hardcourt (SAHBP) organizations coming up as Bike polo spreads to other continents and countries all over the world
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