IPMBA's Annual Police on Bikes Conference features an excellent mix of on-bike and classroom sessions presented by experts from around the country. On-bike sessions include basic, intermediate and advanced bicycle handling skills, firearms skills, bike patrol tactics, and officer survival. Classroom sessions include community policing, safety and liability, health & fitness, and bicycle maintenance. The Conference also features the nation's largest bicycle patrol-related product exhibition.

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Bicycle Polo

By Officer Barry Bazan,
Pima Community College Police

Bicycle polo is very similar to pony polo without the horse and a few rule changes. Each player must respect the other's "right of way." This means that to engage the ball one must have positioned his or her bicycle parallel to the sidelines for at least three bike lengths. This maintains a high level of safety for the players and keeps the game moving at a brisk pace. If a rider foot dabs they must exit the field first before engaging the ball.

Each chukkar begins with a "joust" where one member of each team sprints from his goal to the ball placed in the center of the field.

I began playing this game with a few friends from a bicycle shop in Tucson. A group of us would get together and play at the city parks or schools. The USBPA official field size is 100 x 60 yards but any grass area any will suffice. Each game consists of four chukkars with a ten-minute halftime break. Recommended team size is four.

Last year I managed to borrow a set of mallets from a friend who suggested that I try this game at one of my next "Police Cyclist" classes. On day three of the class I broke out the mallets and a wiffle ball and told the class that we were going to play bike polo and discussed some of the rules (which at the time were few) because we didn't even know their were formal associations for bicycle polo.

I heard one disgruntled voice in the back say, "BIKE POLO" (in a reluctant tone) "Do we have to play?" At this point I threw the ball onto the playing field, handed him a mallet and said, "O.K., go and hit that ball 20 feet!" Eager to save face in front of the other students, he then promptly mounted his bicycle with mallet in hand and the look of raw unbridled determination. He approached with great vigor, wound up his mallet and swung with such an incredible amount of force that he lost control of the bike and endoed in a most awkward manner.

The proverbial "OOOOHHHH" echoed from the group and the game was on. As I said before we didn't play by many rules so crashes were plentiful. The most common crash was the endo over the handlebars because we were locking up the front brake with our weight forward in an attempt to strike at the ball. After each crash, we assessed damage, laughed heartedly if we weren't already, and continued. After 20 minutes of trial and error we finally scored a goal. After an hour and a half we called, "next goal wins," and ended the game following that goal.

The game was incredibly popular with the students and also a phenomenal aerobic workout. Like tag, basketball, and frisbee which we have tried in the past, polo challenged even the most advanced riders. More importantly, it made them work together while the whole time honing their braking, shifting, and balancing skills on the bike. United States Bicycle Polo Association's Director of Operations John Kennedy of Sacramento, California indicated that one rides about 10 to 15 miles during one bicycle polo match, which comforted us later as we recalled how tired we were.

Recently, our training division just purchased a bicycle polo starter kit from the USBPA for our department and community college sports and fitness division. We plan on continuing to use bike polo as an integral part of our "Police Cyclist" courses and in developing a local bicycle polo league for our community as well.

If you would like to find out more about this sport please feel free to contact me or visit the USBPS website at www.bikepolo.com. The Director of Operations, John Kennedy, will be more than happy to assist you in setting up your own league or just getting you started. Who knows maybe one day we will have national championship matches at the annual IPMBA Conferences or even police bike polo leagues!