Delaware Bike Polo Hardcourt bike polo in Delaware

Rules

Spirt of the rules for pickup games in Delaware:

Play others as hard as they play you. There is a difference between playing hard and playing mean.  We want people of all skill levels to learn, have fun and come back for another game.

Courtesy/Sportsmanship. If you wreck someone with a sketchy or questionable play, why not tap-out with them or at least wait and make sure they’re ok?  If the other team has a mechanical issue it’s courteous that a member of your team steps out of play until the issue is resolved.  The most important thing to remember is that polo is a game.  It’s ok to play hard and take it seriously but at the end of a match you want to be able to shake hands and say “good game” to the opposing side.  Trash-talking is fine as long as all parties involved are having a good time (see above re: fun).

Like contact is allowed. (within reason, as described below)
Bike-on-bike contact:
-T-boning or purposefully crashing into people at high speeds is frowned upon.  No one wants to stop playing because of broken equipment or broken bodies.
Body-on-body contact:
-No pushing/grabbing with hands, punching or kicking.  A general way to think about this is that you can push with your arms or legs, as long as they remain on the handlebars or pedals.  Using this tactic to intentionally crash someone at high speed is what we call a "dick-move".
Mallet-on-mallet contact:
-Baseball or giant swings at other players mallets are frowned upon.  We want to keep equipment working as long as possible and an errant or wind-up mallet check may damage bikes, break mallets and could  cause serious injury to another player.

It is considered poor sportsmanship to make aggressive contact with a player who is not near the ball or receiving a pass.  Example: A little love-tap of the mallet (hay buddy!) or light body contact is ok. Checking the mallet out of that players hand or crashing them into the wall is not ok.  Someone who is playing goalie and posting on a mallet is fair game for mallet checks (don't break their mallet plz).

Footdown rule. A player that lets his/her foot touch the ground during play must return to either sideline at half-court and tap their mallet on the fence to reenter play.  They must not interfere with game while doing this.  It is courteous to say “foot down” out loud so that everyone (especially your teammates) can hear you.  Other players may call it if you fail to do so.

Shots on goal/Scoring. In order to score, the offensive player must hit the ball across the goal line using the narrow end of the mallet – this is called a “shot” or “hit” – hitting the ball across the goal line with the wide end of the mallet is called a “shuffle” and will not count as a goal.  When playing on courts with a net/goal cage a shuffled shot becomes possession of the defending team.  The offense must clear the area to allow the defense to retrieve the shuffled shot from the goal before resuming play.  When cones are used as goals, play continues as normal.
-Goal shots can bank off any object except human.
-When your team scores a goal, you wait back in your end for the other team (player or ball, whichever comes first) to cross half-court before engaging in play again.

Ball-jointing/ball-dragging. Dragging the ball with an open end of the mallet is allowed but it must be passed to a teammate or touched by a defender before it can be shot.  If a dragged ball enters the goal it is considered a shuffle.

Games.
-3 vs 3.
-Players randomly divided at the beginning of each game.
-Ball starts in the middle, players start behind their own goal. Someone says 3-2-1-polo to begin the game.
-Games played to 5 points or timed (15 minutes) if there are many players.

Official NAH Rules (for tournaments in the NAH Tour and World Hardcourt Championship)