SCBPC, De(com)pressed

Hooooo boy. Well, I've had a few days to recover from a pretty grueling weekend up in Little Rock and, except for a lingering cold, I think I'm doing a little bit better. I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty disappointed with my performance. It was kinda funny, I went in hoping to make top eight, with just a very very small corner of my head wanting to win the whole thing. Then, I just wanted to finish middle of the pack. Then, just to qualify; then, just to make it to day two and finally, just to leave.


(Ignore my smile, I assure you I'm crying on the inside.)

It's not that the tournament wasn't well put together, it was just the combination of quite a few things that left me reeling by the end of the weekend. I'm not gonna go play-by-play and make excuses or anything, because the majority of people there were genuinely better than us. However, I DO think we were dealt some bad luck and had to play some teams that we had no chance against. Furthermore, it was pretty disheartening to see the two teams we DID beat, end up with a better ranking than us.

Even with not making the cut for day two, I don't think I would have taken it so bitterly if the weather hadn't been TERRIBLE. I mean, while you were playing, it was fine (aside from an extremely slippery surface), but I realized something that perhaps I should have known going in: Tournaments are a lotta waiting around and just a little bit of actually playing polo. I was literally shaking from a combination of the cold, wet, and nerves. Yes, I am bitching a bit about something I shoulda just sucked up, but screw it, the fact is, I felt MISERABLE.

But all that's behind me now. For a sec, I was thinking about pulling out of the South East Championship, but after a few days of kvetching and moaning, that old polo fervor returned, and I'm rarin' again. However, I did learn a few things.

First off, I HAVE to get an easier ratio. 33x19 is not cutting it, which amazes me. Or rather, it doesn't cut it on a larger court, which is, I think, the next thing that needs to change.

We're used to playing on a relatively small court with pretty short walls. Acceleration (or rather lack there-of), while still important, won't lose the game for you - but it seemed like most of the people we played were perfectly at home on a larger court. You may ask, what's the difference? It's all about space to maneuver. On our court, we get so packed in there, it's more like a chess game, with one move made at a time. Plus, with the permanent, non-moving, tall side-boards, you don't have to worry quite as much about hitting the side. On our court, that stops the game altogether because the court is constantly falling apart. In Little Rock, it was constant movement because there was plenty of room to get around someone, if you knew how.

Know-how, of course, is another weakness. It's not that I don't think I'm competent, especially on defense, but I'm not as fluid. I need to be able to maintain a pretty high speed and still have control. I also need to work on controlling the side opposite my mallet. You HAVE to be able to pick up those balls on your weak side, there's just no two ways about it.

Lastly, and most importantly perhaps, is scoring. I didn't score a single goal in Little Rock. I think picking up my speed will help this to an extent, but beyond that, I just need to shoot harder, faster, more frequently, and from varied angles. It's just as easy to recover a blocked/missed shot on offense as it is on defense, if not EASIER. After all, you have some idea where it's going. As long as you have someone back, it behooves you to shoot - once you get fast & hard enough, being goalie is almost reduced to luck. I literally couldn't see some of the shots people took in LR because they were moving so fast.

These are the things that I feel are the absolute minimum to be competitive at the next tournament I enter. So to that end, I REEEEEALLY wanna find a new spot for polo. So far, I feel like the only viable option is Glenview Park - it's just a matter of whether or not the city feels like helping us out with some lights. More to come, for now, it's time to fix a spoke and play more polo...

Lancaster City Bike Polo

Just stumbled upon this blog from the league of bike polo blogs section. Usually, I don't really follow the polo blogs of specific cities, especially if they're not very close to Memphis, but this one has some pretty nice articles that apply to anyone in the polo-verse. Check it out: Lancaster City Bike Polo

The Commish needs ya.

x-posted to the memphis polo site.

Why Play Bike Polo?

I have a confession: I am a polo junkie. Ever since I started playing, I was struck with how addicting the game was. I was so hooked, when games stopped materializing behind the peddler, I started trying to get together my own games. More and more, I began to look forward to that one Sunday a week, sometimes waiting in vacant parking lots for hours before I could muster up enough people to play. Even now, when I get to play twice a week for three-plus hours straight, I still haven't gotten tired of it. If anything, I feel more obsessed. Thus, the question becomes, why? Why am I still so obsessed after roughly two years? What is it about polo that keeps me coming back? In short, why play polo?

I've been asked this question before by a couple of reporters, but without thinking about it, I could only say that I'm a bit of a bike freak, and it's not far off. I think the reason I started playing polo in the first place has as much to do with a love of bicycles in general as anything else. There are quite a few other factors, but I don't think I would have even found bicycle polo without wanting to be a part of cycling as a whole. So to say that polo players are all, in general, a bunch of bike freaks is pretty accurate, but I don't think it fully explains why I've stuck with it.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is the sheer novelty of the sport. It's new and different, and thus draws attention. I imagine the situation is pretty much the same at the outset of any sport, especially one that requires such a large accoutrement. Seeing people riding around with wheel covers, batting around a street hockey ball with very home-made looking mallets is bound to inspire a few gawkers.

In fact, this assortment of equipment is one more reason polo becomes so hard-wired into our systems. First, the home-made-ness of pretty much all polo-specific equipment lends itself to the whole DIY ethos. Because you've made your own equipment, you become more attached to it. It's hard not to be proud of a well-designed, sturdy mallet or a customized wheel cover. This also becomes a method for expressing one's individuality. First, your specific equipment can be a statement of who you are within polo, while the equipment in general comes to help define you in the everyday context. People see you with this crazy assortment of Little Rascals style items, and it becomes a part of your identity, to them if not to yourself. There are so few people that play polo right now that they can't help but think if you as the bike-polo-guy.

Some people are drawn into the sport BECAUSE of this. This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a mainstream sport (…yet). While it might be easier to get games together and have a nice place to play if it were, some people like it because it exists well off of most people's radar. Polo becomes one more way to express how you're different than most people. I know I bemoan how few people bike in Memphis, but I can't help but like being thought of as a little crazy. In a (very small) way, polo is almost a revolutionary act. I don't pretend that playing bike polo will save the world, but it's probably doing more for the world as a whole than, say, NASCAR. If nothing else, polo can be a kind of symbol. People have, in effect, stormed the Bastille and taken "The Sport of Kings", be-horsed it, and returned it to the masses. Hell, the bicycle itself is such a revolutionary icon, it'd be hard for polo NOT to be seen that way, if you think about it.

That's not to say that you can't enjoy bicycle polo without being a crusty, punky, train-hopping anarchist. In general, polo is just FUN. In that aspect, it's not that different from any sport. You have a ball; you have a team; you have a goal. Get the ball in the goal. It's simple! As such, it shares a lot of positive aspects with other sports. It's great exercise, it makes you competitive, it's a great outlet for letting out some testosterone without going postal, it helps with hand-eye coordination, teaches teamwork etc etc etc. But if this is all you're looking for, you can pretty much play any sport. And I, for one, was definitely not showing up two times a week for football or basketball or even soccer, which I used to be pretty enthusiastic about when I was a kid. Sure, there are some mechanical aspects to polo that few other sports share: it's more about balance, coordination and control than strength or even speed. But I personally don't think these differences are what make me crazy for it. It HAS to be the intangibles.

Finally, there's one more thing about polo that I can't say for almost anything else. I'm getting in pretty close to the ground floor. It's pretty exhilarating to be part of something new, something pretty big. While I think I could be content just to be part of a movement, because the sport is still so new, I have the opportunity to compete with some of the best in the world. While some have been playing for a few years more than me, I'm not so far behind that catching up is impossible. Of course, I may get back from the regional tournament in Little Rock and have to change my assessment, but right now it really feels like anything is possible.

All in all, I think I'm into polo because every aspect of the sport is pretty much exactly tailored to me. It just ties together a bunch of the things I love: bikes, crafting stuff, revolution and fun. Its just, right place, right time. And judging from the growth I'm seeing, I have to assume it's the same across the country.

Polo: It's the new zeitgeist.

A coupla tips:

Tip the First:

When playing polo, thou shalt lower thine seat. Ye shall be a better goalie, verily.

Tip the Second:

Thou shalt not look at the comments section of the Commercial Appeal, excepting those tymes when thou wanteth to bloweth a blood vessel.

PS - Vote yes on the (entirely unscientific and meaningless) poll.

Fixcraft

About a week ago I decided I wanted some dedicated polo gloves. I'd been using some downhill gloves that Kermit had given me, but the palm had finally started to wear through. Not to say that they weren't good gloves, just a bit thrashed at this point. So I started looking around, seeing what was out there, and came across some street hocky gloves at fixcraft, and I thought hell, long as I'm paying for shipping I'll get a new pole, too. Nothing wrong with my eighth inch one, but it's always been a bit heavier than others I've used - plus, having a nice back-up (as opposed to the golf-clubbers I have now) is probably a good idea for the inevitable shattering of my current mallet. I was also thinking about trying out Milwaukee Bicycle Company's pole, but seeing as how I know someone who already loves their fixcraft pole, and the fact that it's just a hair lighter per inch, AND that the gloves were a tad cheaper, I decided to wait until next time to try out MKE's offering.

So, today my shaft and gloves came in, and I hit the jaaaackpoooooot. Observe:



Fixcraft really hooked it up! Lotsa sweet stickers, some spoke cards, sweet junk food pins (nachos, chips, pizza, burger!) AND a T-shirt! Made me feel all gooey inside! You can really tell that they're in it just for the love of polo. Can't wait to get out there and try it all out.

Polo Takes Over

If it seems like I haven't had much to say recently, I can only blame polo.

Andy, Anthony and myself got into the South Central Bike Polo Championship. All of the out-of-region spots filled up literally in under a minute. I'm really excited we got in, especially since our in-region tournament is like 600 miles away. The MIDWEST tournament is closer than that!

My confidence level varies. I really would like to finish top 12 (down from top 8) and feel relatively confident we can do it, but if I think about it or read the league of bike polo forums too much, I get a little shakier. Thus, all I wanna do is practice practice practice, but get thwarted by work and weather.

Our only experience with polo people outside Memphis has been pretty limited up to now. There's been Stefan from Denmark, the Little Rock folks and recently some people came through from Missouri. While we did really well in LR in a Bench Minor, it was kinda biased in my opinion. All the Memphis peeps were pretty into polo - had to be, to travel. Whereas LR was pretty much anyone that felt like coming out that day. Stefan was unquestionably good. Accurate shots, aggressive play. I wouldn't say he outclassed us, but he definitely pushed us. And Missouri, while perhaps not as good as us overall, had their strengths - definitely the best goalie I've played against. I feel pretty good about my skill level, but just can't get comfortable because I really have no idea what we're up against.

In short, my polo 'tude has changed. When I first started playing in Memphis, I was mostly just interested in making it happen. Now that the scene has solidified a little bit (though I'm still ALWAYS tryin' to get new people) and the polo-verse looms ahead, I kinda wanna do well. I mean, I always wanted to win, but that was second to playing in general. Now that I'm going to a tournament, it's like I've consciously decided to aim for something else. I won't be devastated if we don't do well, but I do feel like we have something to prove. It's a bit crazy how something I do for fun has turned into something I kinda stress about.