At the beginning of bike, there were only 3 rules :
if you put your foot down, you’re out and have to tap out.
no shuffle goal
first team with 5 points or higher score wins after 10 minutes.
Many other rules are now in the ruleset and most of them are only logical. Montpellier organized a tournament last year I think, where they allowed shuffle goals and stuff like that. It was announced a bit late but I think it’s always a good idea to try new things. I thought about it for a while and I don’t understand why we still can’t score a goal in shuffle today. I understand why it was there at first (we needed a few rules to make the sport interesting) but now.. I really don’t get why. When I compare it to other sports, I feel that it doesn’t make sense anymore.
in tennis you can use the border of the racket
in football you just can’t use your hands and arms to score (which is the equivalent as : no body part in Bike Polo)
In hockey, you’re just not allowed to have your stick over the top bar or do a controlled action with your feet or hands to score with those but the rest is good.
And so on..
So yes, the only reason I can find is “because we always did like this” but we did like this because we had to have a rule like that one, it MADE sense. We don’t anymore. To me, a goal should be a goal with whatever part of the mallet and even the wheels. And I play since Yorgo invented the sport.
Why should we keep it like that ?
Why should we change those rules ?
You have 2 hours.
For real though, i’d like discussions on this, just to understand the why more than changing the rule.
Not the best reason to keep it but I love the little ‘tock’ sound that a shot with the short sides makes. Scoring a goal without that would feel empty like letting a rocket fly on New Year’s and not hearing it pop
If players could score using any part of the mallet head, it’d be way harder for the goalie to read what they’re about to do. Anticipating a shot would become more difficult, like when someone’s coming in fast. At least now you can kinda guess they’re gonna twist their wrist a bit before they shoot or go for a tap-in. Without the rule, it’d make reacting in time so much tougher
I understand but that’s what makes the game better. Making it harder is the best way to improve the game. A while ago we were authorized to block players who don’t carry the ball so you could see your teammate goes 1v1 with the defense goalie. When we changed that, it made it harder, yet it made the game waaay better. I’m telling this and I was in a team known to do this a lot.
When defense in polo gets better and better and games often end like 3:1 or 3:2 we could get more goals into games like this.. I feel we should try it for some tournaments and then see how it goes
But for sure less discussion and just another way to score which is nice!
Max just try it for FIRE this year (;
True that !
But I think shuffles would rather make it easier for A LOT OF players trying to score than more difficult for a few goalies.
Imo, allowing shuffles would be a step back.
How would it be a step back ? I mean, making it easier to score will just be the case for a while. As everything were at start. But after a few tournaments, I’m sure goalies techniques will improve quickly.
I feel like preventing some goals like that is not that logical. I so want to see hockey goals in Bikepolo. There are some incredible ideas we could see happening.
And most of all, let’s say we invented the game today with all the current rule but this one, there wouldn’t be any good reason to apply this I reckon. We have the chance to have many new players in Rouen and every time we explain this they’re just like : ok, but why ? And except from “that’s the rule” I don’t really know how to explain it. And I have no issue explaining the other rules. They all have good reason.
I also think a wheelie goal (when you turn your wheel hard enough to shoot the ball) should be authorized. But that’s another subject (not really but still)
As you may know, UCI is now taking the lead on Bike Polo.
We don’t really care about your small shuffle or wheelie goals issues. It looks like these topics are the swallows of Bike Polo, they come back every year, spring time.
However, we are very surprised that Montpellier Bike Polo doesn’t join Rouen Bike Polo in this effort of making Bike Polo uggly.
That said, we DO care about keeping Bike Polo clean, as all the other sports under the UCI flag. So, please, can you stop asking to “legalize it” ? We are very afraid that your message is poorly understood by the community and then, that drugs start to be used in Bike Polo. We all know that it starts with “legalize it” and then escalates quickly to “burn Babylon” and “fuck the Police” to finish.
We discussed it a lot during the tournament this weekend and it looks like many people agree.
Some new points that help the discussion:
no one can explain why this rule keeps existing. Yes we know the origin, yet it doesn’t make sense anymore.
I would write the rule as “player needs to hit the ball with mallet part or bike part to score”. Simple yet effective and doesn’t allow scoop goal or pushed shuffle without a real hit.
most of the “goal ref” are just drinking beers and talking and just watch if the goal was a shuffle or a real goal. If you get rid of this, they will have to be more focus on the game because they’re not here to validate a goal or not anymore. (By the way, we should call them CORNER REF instead of goal ref, so they understand that they have to watch this part of the court, not only the goal cage)
it offers something better for new players. They will have the thrill of scoring instead of “yeah that’s cool but that’s not a goal”.
it offers shots in crowed spaces without having to put the mallet too high
Haha I love the idea of Trojan Horsing wheel goals back into existence like this!! However I think we should keep the “elastic collision” part that is found in the current ruleset (yes, the “tock” sound). Makes it harder to ref tho
As many others have stated it’s not about the ease that you can shuffle, it’s about the culture of why it was a rule in the first place.
I think the best argument is the difficulty in seeing what kind of shot it is, but if you focus on the follow through it’s pretty obvious, it’s a shuffle because of how you shoot it more than what side of the mallet it hits.
Yes it makes it technically harder, but I think in the spirit of the game that’s a good thing, as other have mentioned the restrictions we put on the game shape it, and I think polo is more creative and skill rewarded more with it being forbidden.
I’m not one to blindly follow culture, but it being a no-no is a fun initiation into our silly game. Questioning the validity of a shot because it wasn’t intentional is such a timeless heckle. It’s bitter sweet, but the enthusiasm that rookies get when scoring there first goal, only to have it striped when the “real” rules start is a shared experience that bonds us.
In my opinion, aside from the fact that legalizing the shuffle would make reffing much easier, there’s an even more important point to consider:
Why are so many people hesitant to try bike polo in the first place? Because it’s a very challenging sport that can quickly overwhelm beginners. As far as I know, there’s no other sport where the ball and the striking surface of the mallet are nearly the same size which makes it really hard to even hit the ball — and on top of that, the mallet is held with one hand and the head is positioned far from the body. Especially when it comes to shooting goals, this setup creates a major hurdle at the beginning. Yet scoring goals is often what brings people joy and motivation — it’s what hooks them.
That’s why I believe legalizing the shuffle would significantly lower the barrier to entry and make the sport more accessible to newbies. And in my view, that’s something we urgently need. When I look at how slowly the sport is growing, and how many German clubs have disappeared in the last years due to a lack of new players, it’s clear that something has to change.
and still surfing is more popular when it literally takes months / years to catch your first wave sometimes
sometimes what people is feeling special , feeling like you can achieve something “hard”
imo the slow grow of polo isnt because of the shuffle rule , its just a very fringe sport and a lot of people are squares it looks crazy and crashy , it looks just impossible to drive a bike and control the ball at the same time ( most heard)
the shuffle is just the peak of an impossible ruleset to fully absorb in one take
like wtf is soccer ? a game for people who couldnt play rugby ? why foot only its so hard to control a pass with the chest can i use my hand ? no , but i can score with my head ? wtf thats not even safe i need a facecage.
be careful what u say about football (or soccer for a minority) - there are germans reading this and they will come after you.
but freetheshuffle of course
it looks crazy and crashy , it looks just impossible to drive a bike and control the ball at the same time ( most heard)