Pick-up Game: Mallet Handeling

Clubs Bike Polo Vienna
#1

hoiii,

I came up with the idea of a certain game to improve our mallet handling.

I see our club improving alot, but it also comes with the downside of it, beeing a bit ruff on mallet handling, during pick ups.
Means we slash alot to get in controll of the ball from another person.

There is only so much we can improve with solo polo, with everyone having different lifestyles and time on our hands.

So why not improve while playing pick-ups :)

The game could look like this:
They player with the ball control, cannot taken away the ball. The person can be blocked with the bike, but not taken away the ball with a mallet.
The ball can only be picked up while passing or loosing control. To keep the game more focused on controlling the ball, shots on the goal should be only allowed on a closed distance (maybe a bit bigger than the crease) to the goal.
If the goalie takes control of the ball after an attempt for a goal, the goalie can safley take the ball out of the crease, without any blockage.

I donˋt know yet how to implement a rule for a good passing game. So far, it looks like if you have better control of the ball you can go solo, what I wouldnˋt be entirely my idea of having a nice pick-up game.
Stefan suggested to play a pass if you go over the middle line. We could try that out.

Let me know what you think about it, and pls feel free to add ideas and critique my suggestion :)

I would like to try it out and see if it helps us improve <3

bussis
jovi

5 Likes
#2

Lets give it a test run on the court :sunglasses:

#3

for passing if you are less than 6 yoo can put someone in the middle and its the chaser and the rest try to pass the ball to each other the longest time , when the chaser intercept de ball they switch role.

for better passing in regular pick up:

just stop focusing at looking for a pass that get you close to the net , instead find the space opposite to where the defense is facing in priority, until that space is also close enough to shoot ( can be far from the goals and still be a good angle to shoot tho)

3 Likes
#4

Cool. I like your idea of implementing different rules to learn to play a better game.

For the non solo rule: I played some games 2 on 2 where you could only score single touch goals. You receive a pass, shoot directly, it’s a goal; you receive a pass, tap even once and then shoot, no goal. This would eliminate your problem of people going all solo, but don’t know how it feels with six players or if it changes the game too much.

Another option would be to say a team needs to play 1/2/whatever passes after they gain possession before they can score. Might be hard to keep track.

1 Like
#5

Not my obversation to be honest but on the other hand I am not playing too much.
I think your proposal will be difficult to enforce during game as it changes the dynamic quite a lot.

Another option would be to say a team needs to play 1/2/whatever passes after they gain possession before they can score. Might be hard to keep track.

We did this in the past a few times and it was always a lot of fun and challenging.
It helps helps a lot with teamplay (communication, positioning) and being proactive rather than reactive in your actions.
I wouldn´t enforce a strict “max x touches allowed” but encourage 1/2/3/x touches depending on how challenging you want to make it for yourselves.
New players would be exempt from it.

1 Like
#6

It’s common exercise in basketball training: limiting number of bounces you can make (usually it is limited to 0, to be honest) to practice positioning, passing, court vision and decision making. Moving to bike polo: If one will limit ball with head contacts/touches to let’s say “something around 3” then probably it would be a great exercise to improve all of the above plus the ball reception. Good idea!

If you want to improve ball handling I think that the best idea is to do 1v1 with goalie :) It’s harder on pickups but if there are 6 players then you can make two threes that exchange on the goal. Nothing better to practice ball control if you know that you have to keep it, you need to find a way to go through a defender and you constantly feel the pressure :) It’s also great defending skill :)

1 Like