Targeted Advertising

Aaaaahahahahaha, check out the ad banner I saw on 321 Polo today:



So, yes, you like polo, you like ponies, right? Lolz.

D'awwwww

From Chris Hill's player profile over on Tallahassee Bicycle Polo Society:

"What is your best polo memory?
The finals of the South in Yo’ Mouth tournament in Memphis against Pelon, Andrew, and Diago. We (Ginyu) came up from the losers bracket and took them to the final-finals. The most nerve racking and exhilarating game of my polo career so far."

Glowing with pride right now! Can't wait until South in Yo Mouth II...even if it is probably like nine months away, lolz.

Pet Peeve

I was finally perusing the (pretty great) photos over at bikepolo.pics and came across one that reminded me of one of my least favorite moves right now that hovers somewhere in the gray zone - in practice, if not the rules. Observe, the arm-check:


Photo ©Greg Van Barben, yanked from the above website.

Check out Mr. Stripes, shoulder-checking Señor Blackshirt. Ok, contact in general, whatever. Slam into my body, my shoulder, my mallet arm, my leg, what-the-ever. But stay the hell away from my steering arm, ESPECIALLY from the elbow down. This picture isn't really the best (aka worst) example of this, because it doesn't look like there's a whole lot of power here. But if you go full tilt into my steering arm, the outcomes just aren't much fun. Granted, I will try to hold course or possibly roll off to the opposite side, but IF I should buckle (and I don't exactly have mighty oaks for arms, fellas), your hit will cause me to turn my wheel INTO your bike, which ends up horribly for both of us.

So if we're just ambling along, no HUGE deal. I'm a little perturbed, maybe I dab, maybe you do too, but life and limb are more or less whole. But those hits, especially the hard ones, don't seem to happen too much at anything less than mach seven breakaways where the other player is desperate to stop a goal. This exact thing happened to me at the last big tournament I played in. Hard-fought game, probably the hardest one we played that tournament, against the eventual number one team. We were down, but definitely not getting destroyed. So I finally get a breakway and off course, intensity high, I'm putting my testes into it. Balls out. And yeah, I get checked from my left side on my steering arm and crash hard. Needless to say, no goal. And the other guy was more or less fine, so yeah, as far as he's concerned, great tactic, right?

Now, in all fairness, I'm sure the guy wasn't trying to crash me specifically, just push my off to the side or put me off enough not to score. But it still sucks, and seeing that photo made me remember it, so yeah, rant! Here's some blurry pictures of the play:


The hit...


...and the fall. Both images by Jeff Wagner.

I never did post a report from South in Your Mouth (our first tournament and the one that the pics are from) and yeah, it's been months now, but maybe I'll do that soon, ha.

NAH Season Structure Proposal Quickish Thoughts

The NAH has announced a proposal for the 2013 season over on their site, and it basically breaks down to this:

• Regional tournaments are closed to out of region teams - two thirds majority rule still in effect.
• You can only play in one regional tournament.
• Regional tournaments must be held mid-April to mid-June, NAs August/September, Worlds Sept/Oct.
• Slots for NAs are to be weighted based on regional strength/performance in previous NAs.

All in all, a bit of a mixed bag for Memphis and the Southeast in general. Closing the tournaments to out-of-region teams ensures that the tournaments are truly regional championships, yes, but for Memphis, whose regional tournament has traditionally been one of the furthest to get to (12-16ish hours), it kind of takes away the option to play in a closer tournament. Yes, we could go to say, South Central instead of Southeast, but we'd have to find in-region teammates to do so, not to mention forfeit the chance to play in our own region.

Personally, I liked 2012's system, even if it was a bit more complicated. Give in-region players the chance to sign up first (a really nice, long chance) and possibly fill up the tournament before allowing other teams. Of course, this ends up having out-of-regioners qualify more than once, but you could just say that only in-regioners could qualify instead of closing the tournaments.

Still, think it's probably the RIGHT move, even if I don't like it as much. I really liked playing in South Central and Eastsides and just don't want to give it up. I know I can just travel to non-NAH tournaments in other regions, I just have way more of an incentive to do so when it's a qualifying tournament since vacation days are pretty precious, not to mention the expense of traveling in general.

On the other hand, the weighted slots is undeniably bad for the Southeast, even if it's good for North American polo in general. No matter how you slice it, we're at a bit of a disadvantage. Those regions rich with slots to start with have a greater chance of getting more/keeping the ones they have. Yes, I will admit the Southeast is not the strongest region out there, but it's a long climb to acquire any more spots. Last year, the Southeast only sent four players to the NA's. And it's not like we couldn't have had more - we could have fielded the allotted eight, but the will just wasn't there. Since I didn't have a chance to go myself, I can only speculate, but I suppose the SE qualifiers either didn't have the means to get there or simply thought they'd be beaten too badly and thus it wasn't worth it. Even if they were right, though, we didn't even give ourselves the chance to get beaten - perhaps more teams would have gone if they'd have known that future spots in the NA's were on the line.

All that said, I get it. This system definitely allows the NA's to fill with the most talented teams possible, it just doesn't do much for the Southeast. I see it kind of the same way I see Swiss Rounds. Yes, it accurately separates the top of the field from everyone else, it just does so by throwing the less experienced players under the bus. It's what we have right now, and it'll work, and it makes sense. Some day I dream of city league games leading to state, region, etc, or even some kind of point based system. Just kind of a bummer that my official polo "season" is pretty much limited to as little as four games.

Like a Brickhouse

Andrea has a great little Memphis rant over on her blog. Pretty much the same conclusions I've come to about Memphis - you have to really want it here. Gotta be Gritty, beyatch.

I've followed Andrea's blog off and on for a while simply because she's a badass from Memphis. Any day I manage to beat one of her times on Strava is a good (and rare) day. Of course, I've never really MET her per se, but we know a decent number of the same people (another Memphis thing) and she comes into Whole Foods a bit - always on the verge of saying whatup and stuff but yeah, trying to avoid the creeper vibe in that situation is hard.

Aaaaanyways, she'll probably see this post now if she follows her trackbacks. (I mean, she might not, I sure don't. But then I don't really have any anyways, soooo....)

Not Your Average Polo Article

Another piggybacked post! Check out this bike polo article on sports-hub The Classical, by Adam Doster. One of the better polo primers to grace the internet or print so far. Memphis' club just had an article written about it, and while I'm glad for any kind of exposure that could bring new players or just plain attention to the club, it lightly skims the scene whereas Doster's article really takes a chunk out of the entire sport.

Basically, it's just a really legit article that treats the subject semi-seriously, instead of the lighter side of the news, a la Twiggy the Water-Skiing Squirrel.

Bikesploitation II

Ha, so this happened like a billion years ago now, but I just now saw this video linked on facebook.



A little tiny bit of Memphis Polo footage, one at :14 and another at :53. Plus, just lots of familiar faces. If I can be allowed to flatter myself, I really like the little clip of me taking the ball around and smoothly passing, instead of just spazzing around. Also, love the soundtrack. Booyeah.

Cranksgiving!

Told ya the alleycats were popping up all over. I'm excited! I haven't done a recap of it yet, but yeah, I did pretty well in the Spookycat, so I can't help but be amped about another one! It's crazy how many races have popped up in 2012. To my knowledge, there weren't any alleycats at all in 2011, and so far this year there's been Cort's mixed-terrain, Charles' puking blood, Rem's spookycat, and now Cranksgiving! And also the ghost of maybe one during the Christmas season? (Actually, someone just suggested there be one near Christmas because they'd be in town around then, but I don't think anyone has stepped up and said they'd wanna organize it.)

The ten mile route has been posted already, but yeah, I'll be gunning for that 30 miler. Word is it'll be hitting Harbortown and Shelby Farms, but I can't for the life of me remember where I heard, so ha, that could be wrong. Still haven't quite decided on the fixed gear or the road bike. Both are pretty janky right now and probably won't be changing any time soon. The fixed gear is definitely more fun, definitely for anything up to 20 miles. Thirty might be pushing it.

Aaaanyways, stoked!

Drag Race 2k12

Yo, Vinny Diesel. You think you know about drag racing? YOU KNOW SQUAT.


REAL drag racing. Photo by Victor Amandor.

So, mucho thanks to Melinda and Jimmy for getting together the first of hopefully many Drag Races. Lots and lots of fun. Pretty good crowd, different kind of scene than I usually see - maybe kinda art schooly/LBGT-ish than bike-ish. It's always fun when you see people riding bikes and you're like, hey...I don't know you!


Jimmy an' Melinda, organizers supreme. Photo shamefully cropped and stolen from Clint Kobeska. Of course, the odds that he'll see this are miniscule, right? I mean, we don't live in a microcosmic city where everyone ends up knowing everyone within a specific niche...say, bike-riders. But I digress...

When I first heard about this, Cort had suggested sprints instead of an alleycat and I was a little apprehensive, but it was actually pretty fun. Of course, I only got to do three actual races, but there were plenty of for-fun races too.


Linin' up, complete with pretty lady enthusiastic not-lady. Photo by Victor Amandor

I managed to win against Victor and Giles, but ultimately fell to Gill. No question about it, he was fast, and he got the jump on me every time. About halfway down the strip I could start to close the gap, but I just didn't have enough room to really have much chance, finishing a whole bike length behind him. I had the same problem with Cort in the warm-ups. Thinking I'll bring a wheel ready to flip-flop next time - maybe running 46x17 instead of 46x16 would have put me over the top, but then again, I might have maxed out too quickly anyway.


Giles, looking dainty as fuck, and myself. I was having the hardest time just letting Cort hold me up and kept struggling to trackstand against him. Also, Gill hungrily waiting his chance to eat me alive. Photo again nabbed from Clint.

I'm not sure what place that would have put me in, and looking over the brackets didn't really help me figure it out, since I don't see the race with me and Giles on it, but yeah, who cares, it was really fun. Kinda wanna do like a weekly sprint thing, or monthly or something. Or actually, more accurately, I'd want someone ELSE to set it up, like the Flat Track Attack that Cort did a few years ago but I missed out on because I didn't really know the crowd very well at that point.


Brackets, stolen from Cort's instagram.

I'll leave you with a few more photos, one of Charles being Charles and another of Jason being fabulous. You can check out Jeff's photos on my flickr, as well as the aforementioned Clint's set, and finally Victor's set as well.


Charles' legs look...weird. So did his dinner, when it came up later that night. Jeff Gardner's photo.


Don't you tell me to smile/ You stick around I'll make it worth your while/ Got numbers beyond what you can dial/ Maybe it's because I'm so versatile

Alleycat mating season

Alleycats are poppin' outta the sewers, spillin' out all over the Memphis streets! Check it, it's going down:



Like Charles', another lap-stylie. Do some laps around downtown, and hey, if you're fast, win some cash. BE THERRRRRRE. And wear a costume? Thanks to Rem for getting this together, should be fun.

How to make polo decisions

If you're ever on the fence about whether or not to do something polo-related (say, drive eight hours to another dang tournament where you'll probably place in the bottom half, at best), all you have to do is watch Mr. Do's classic video, World Class Polo. Bam, you're in.

World Class Polo from Mr.Do on Vimeo.

Go ahead, watch it one more time.

Insight Into Fixcraft

If you're into polo, you should be reading Lancaster Polo already, but just in case you AREN'T, check out their Interview with Fixcraft's Sean Ingram.

LOTS of insight into what goes on behind the scenes at Fixcraft. Don't like to piggyback posts if I can help it, but this is really a great interview. Check it.

Puking Blood Cat!

BOOM. I think that pretty much explains it, right? BE THERRRRRRRE.

Get Buck

Just bleep out every time someone says music in this and it's still super true. This is pretty much how I often feel about Memphis.

Trailer: Meanwhile in Memphis: The Sound of a Revolution from Meanwhile in Memphis on Vimeo.

How did I never notice this.

This post on brickhouseracing is so so true.

Ninety percent of the time I get yelled at while riding, it's a white person. I can only recall being yelled at by a black person...twice? The last time was like three years ago while riding down Poplar, so maybe one could say that I was asking for it? I mean, I wouldn't say that, but if you wanted to, you could.

Last time I got yelled at by a white person was...like four days ago. They were turning out of the Target/Superlow parking lot onto Southern and cut me off AND yelled at me to get out of the road. Classic!

Happy Snails

So, this has been done before, but yeah, now I did it too. Garmin from one game of polo.



If you check out the stats, you'll see that out of a 25 minute game, I was stationary for about thirteen minutes of it and rode less than a mile. LET ME OUTTA GOAL, MAYNE.

You'll also note that I rode onto the roof at one point.

Watch out for squirrels

A couple weeks ago, I went into Outdoors to get a couple tires and found a small film crew hovering around Charles. I never really did find out exactly what that was all about, UNTIL NOW...



Haha, Charles and Joel rule.

Fall Sounds

I LOVE the sound of bike tires crunching over acorns.

Silly Strava

Haha, here's Strava's attempt to map my two laps of Stanky today:



Aaaaand, for comparison, here's the actual route:



Startin' to want a Garmin or sumpin'.

Brag Rhymes Have No Lag Times

Yeah, long time no blog. Lotsa stuff goin' on. First Memphis Bike Polo Tournament (!), Midnight Classic polo in a week, still pictures from tournies I never uploaded, tryin' to average 20 miles a day for a work competition/National Bike Challenge, but for now...some braggin'.

I started using Strava (and Endomondo) a while back, and after chipping away at it for about two months, I finally got my first KOM! Boom!



Granted, I'm tied for first, and yes, it's a really short segment, but I'm pretty close on a couple others too. WRT is like my jam, now. Too bad I can't say the same about Stanky...