On my last post I talked about Segway polo, which is one of the many polo variations that have been invented since the sport was made famous. In this post, I will talk about another interesting polo variation I found: Bicycle polo.
Bicycle Polo is a kind of polo that is played with bikes instead of horses, obviously. This was made because most people weren’t able to maintain a horse; that is because they require a lot of care and time to be healthy, and even more to be trained to play polo. Richard J. Mecredy invented this game in 1891. The first "Bikepolo" (that is the name the sport is usually given) match was played in Ireland in the year 1891, but people really didn’t pay attention to it until a decade later. It wasn’t until 1908 when the sport was made famous worldwide because it was shown as an exhibition game on the London Olympic Games. Since then, the sport was made popular in England, France, Canada, and specially the United States and India. The first international championship took place in 1996, in the United States. Most bikepolo fans say that the best country in the world when it comes to bikepolo is India.
The rules of bikepolo are basically the same as normal polo. However, evidently the outfit changes, because the riders no longer wear boots (which would be very uncomfortable) and instead they wear sneakers. Also, they use a different helmet, which is actually a regular biking helmet.
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Alejandra Treviño A01280206 Group: 301
Bibliography: Wikipedia. "Cycle Polo." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 15 Sept. 2011.
Ale!
ResponderEliminarWell, like every week you mansion something interesting about the polo, congrats!
I think that “bikepolo” is more difficult than normal polo because imagine you have to pedal and hit the ball, I think that is difficult to do both things at the same time. But well is healthier you do more exercise, and it can be played by all king type class, and that is good!
thank you to post, and see you next week!
Carolina Perez
Are you serious? BIKEpolo?! Really, what people do so that they don't go through the trouble of caring for a horse. I mean, I don't think that's something wrong, but just that they are losing the "tradition" or "original" game of polo. First with the segways and then with bikes, it's something interesting but shocking in a way because, in my case, when I think in playing polo, I think of horses, helmets, and cute matching outfits! And in some way it looks more difficult, because it may be more likely that when you lean to hit the ball, you'll take the bike with you.
ResponderEliminarBut whatever, there'll always be new things, new games, and the bikepolo was also in London Olympic Games'! The sad thing is that even if it was international famous at the 90's, I didn't knew about it until I read it in your blog. But back to bikepolo, I also agree with Carolina, this type of polo is really healthy. In the other ones you mentioned on your last posts, either the horse or the segway was the one doing most of the job, in that cases the rider will only manage the horse or segway and move the helmet. But with this type of polo it shouldn’t be that easy, since you’ll have to think on biking and hitting the ball all at once, and doing it right.
But well, as always, your posts surprise me every week with something I didn’t heard about before. Thank you for this week’s information! I’ll share it with my friends. I’ll see what you’ll post next week, bye!
Stephany Gómez