Author: John Hayes

NAHBPC Format

Posted on by John Hayes
© Kev Walsh 2012, leagueofbikepolo.com

The format for the NAHBPC 2015 is going to change slightly from the past few years.

The main thinking behind this is to condense the amount of time anyone needs to be playing, meaning shorter periods of time between games, and being able to relax for 2/3 of the day. This will also make it easier to find refs and other volunteers, as only 1/3 of players will be playing at any time.

Day 1 (Friday 18th September)

54* teams, divided into 3 groups of 18

  • Group A, 5 rounds,  9am-1pm
  • Group B, 5 rounds, 1pm-5pm
  • Group C, 5 rounds, 5pm-9pm

The top 6 of each group will qualify for the top 18 group on day 2, the rest will go to the bottom 36.

*while we could divide 48 into 3 groups of 16, it makes scheduling easier, if there are an even number of games per court, so 9 games in a round is better than 8. It only adds 15 extra games over the whole day, and it also means that we can qualify 6 extra teams from the wildcard.

Day 2 (Saturday 19th September)

The top 18 teams will go into the morning group, the remaining 36 will be split into two evenly seeded groups of 18.

  • Top 18, 4 rounds, 9am-12pm
  • Bottom 36, Group A, 5 rounds, 12pm-4pm
  • Bottom 36, Group B, 5 rounds, 4pm-8pm

The top 18, and the best 7 of each Bottom 36 group, will play on Sunday.

Day 3 (Sunday 20th September)

32 team double elimination.

NAH Club Bench Championship 2015

Posted on by John Hayes
© Liam Gilson 2014, www.liamgilson.com

The NAH Club Bench Championship 2015 will be taking place in Guadalajara, Mexico, over three days, Friday Nov 20th – Sunday Nov 22nd.

Teams will be either club or region based.

A maximum of 12 teams will play in one of two round robin groups, playing 5 games over Friday afternoon, and Saturday. On Sunday, the top 8 teams will playoff to be the Champions.

The following teams have qualified:

  • Champions – Portland
  • Hosts – Guadalajara
  • Cascadia – ???
  • Great Lakes – Winner of Great Lakes Regional Bench (Minneapolis)
  • Eastside – Winner of ESBI (NYC)
  • Heartland – ???
  • South Central – ???
  • Northside – Northside Representative Team
  • Southeast – Southeast Representative Team
  • South West – ???
  • Great Plains – ???
  • Mexico – ???

In the event a region cannot, or chooses not to send a team, regions will get a second team in, going down the order above (based on finishing position in the 2014 NAH Bench, and 2014 NAHBPC finishing position, for the 3 regions that did not send a team). This process will continue to 3rd teams, 4th teams, etc, if required. The regions who already have 2 teams (Cascadia and the host region), will be skipped in the first round of re-allocations.

Podium: https://www.podiumbikepolo.com/nahcbc2015

Registration will open in late September. The cost per team will be $200.

League of Bike Polo: https://leagueofbikepolo.com/nah-club-bench-championship.

Posted in NAH

NAHBPC and Wildcard Registration

Posted on by John Hayes

NAHBPC Registration

NAHBPC registration is now open. Fees are $40 per player. The fees may be charged any time after the team registers.

Register here: https://podiumbikepolo.com/register/nahbpc2015

Only teams which consist of 2/3 players from teams on this list may register. This list will be updated, if teams do not claim their spot.

SEQ 4/4

  • Arnold NYC, Christopher, Bob TLH
  • Nico PIT, Shelley NYC, Daniel CHO
  • Matt LNS, Alias DC, Matt ATX
  • James ARB, Bruce GR, Ben RDU
  • Graham MEM, Michael ATL, David FTM
  • Joel AVL, Daniel CHS, Mike WPB

HLQ 4/4

  • Charlie STL, Chris Lex,Chris MKE
  • David, Peter, Travis CBUS
  • Chris CHI, Chris CIN, Adam ARB
  • Diego HOU, Adam MEM, Graham MEM

GLQ 4/4

  • Adam, Steve, Ngaihon TO
  • Nic COMO, Chris Lex, Charlie STL
  • David, Peter, Kaleb CBUS
  • Rob, Chris, Megan CHI
  • Ryan, Charlie, Brian CHI
  • Ramon, Sam MPLS, Adam ARB

SCQ 2/3

  • Greg ATX, Diego, David HOU
  • Miguel, Robert, Andrew ATX
  • Andy, Graham, Landon MEM

ESQ 3/4

  • Nate NY, Zach NY, Chris Lex
  • Nick BOS, NICK PHL, Zac NYC
  • Rob PHL, Adam ARB, Jonathan CHI
  • Nico PGH, Shelley NYC, Daniel CHO

SWQ 5/5

  • Andrew, Forrest, Eric SF
  • Jody, Chris SF, Sam OAK
  • Donnie, Olsen, Chris LA
  • Jimmie, Gabe, Dave SLC
  • Bobby LA, Matt FAT, Josh SDG

CSQ 8/11

  • Nick, Julian, Dustin SEA
  • Kouyo, Sterling, Stiven SEA
  • Henry VAN, Emmet SEA, Moritz FRA
  • Aryln, Pete, Eric PDX
  • Max, Scooter, Elijah SEA
  • Aaron, Fletcher, Drew PDX
  • Jake, JT, Sean SEA
  • Vince, Jordan, Alex PDX
  • Gregory VIC, Tippi, Jackie VAN
  • Joe, Julien SEA Oleha VAN
  • Shannon, Andrew, Mark VAN
  • Mick, Dana, John PDX
  • Emily, Eryn, Ben VAN

NSQ 2/3

  • Adam, Jim ARB, Ngaihon TO
  • Luke, Dom, Robbie, OTT
  • Addison BOS, Allan OTT, Oskar TO
  • Nate NYC, Chris LEX, Birdie MAD
  • Zach NYC, Alexis OTT, Emily TO
  • Shane, Eric, Glen TO
  • Patti, John, Nick TO
  • Kirsten, Eryn, Justin TO
  • Franck, Olivier, Jesse MTL

MXQ 1/3

  • Bruce MPLS, Raul, Ignacio GDL
  • Daniel, Memo, Enrique, DF
  • Pablo, Omar, Israel GDL

2 spots declined

GPQ 2/3

  • Will, Daren, Duane SKN
  • Dave, JB, Zach WPG
  • Gregory, Joshua, Andrea SKN

1 spot declined

Regional Wildcard Spots 4/4

All teams who earned regional wildcard spots have been promoted, to fill spots declined by other regions. They are:

  • SEQ: Bobby FTM, JJ JAX, Tomohiko TPA
  • GLQ: Tiffany, Ben LEX, Sean DC
  • HLQ: Stuart AVL, Katy GNV, Chad RDU
  • SWQ: Matthias, Nicholas, Peter SF

The rest had either already moved up into a main event spot, or had declined their spot.

Remaining spots for wildcard

9

Registered

Any invalid registrations will be removed and will not be charged. Even if that team later qualifies, they will need to register again.

NAHBPC Wildcard Registration

NAHBPC Wildcard registration will open on Monday Jul 6th at 10pm ET, 7pm PT

Fees are $10 per player.

Register here: https://www.podiumbikepolo.com/register/nahbpc2015wildcard.

2015 Qualifier Information

Posted on by John Hayes

Watch this space for all Qualifier information, including location, dates, registration info, etc. This page will be updated as details are released.

Cascadia

CASQ – Seattle, WA – June 20-21 – 11 teams qualify
leagueofbikepolo.com/nah-cascadia-qualifier-2015

Bench – TBC

South West

SWQ – TBC – 5 teams qualify
leagueofbikepolo.com/2015-sw-qualifier
Register – podiumbikepolo.com/register/SWQualifier2015 (opens April 10th at 0am PST)

Bench – TBC

Eastside

ESQ – Frederick, MD – June 20-21 – 4 teams qualify
leagueofbikepolo.com/nah-qualifier-esq-2015

ESBI – New York – July 25-26
leagueofbikepolo.com/esbi-2015

Great Lakes

GLQ – Grand Rapids, MI – June 13-14 – 4 teams qualify
leagueofbikepolo.com/glrq

Bench – Milwaukee, WI – August 8-9 (TBC)
leagueofbikepolo.com/great-lakes-regional-bench-glrb-2015

Heartland

HLQ – Lexington, KY – May 23-24 – 4 teams qualify
leagueofbikepolo.com/heartland-regional-qualifier
https://www.facebook.com/events/868110653236707/
Register – podiumbikepolo.com/register/hlq2015 (opens April 9th at 7pm CST)

Bench – TBC

South East

SEQ – Raleigh, NC – May 16-17 – 4 teams qualify
leagueofbikepolo.com/2015-nah-southeast-championship
facebook.com/events/1540110419569718/
Register – podiumbikepolo.com/register/seq2015

Bench – TBC

Great Plains

GPQ – Saskatoon, SK July 4-5 – 3 teams qualify

Bench – TBC

Mexico

MXQ – Guadalajara – June 27-28 – 3 teams qualify

Bench – TBC

Northside

NSQ – Kitchener-Waterloo, ON – June 27-28 – 3 teams qualify

Bench – Toronto – Date TBC

South Central

SCQ – Austin, TX – June 13-14 (TBC) – 3 teams qualify

Bench – TBC.

Playtesting proposed rule changes – Obstruction

Posted on by John Hayes

With a number of the most experienced NAH approved refs, and players from around North America attending the Great Lakes Winter Classic in Toronto this weekend, we are using it as a chance to playtest the proposed new Obstruction and Crease rules.

Thanks to Joe and Mark for their hard work in drafting this, and to the players of the PHPB for their input, and testing it. Thanks to Mr Do for the video used to make the clips.

Obstruction Rule Latest Draft

  • §8.7.1 – An obstruction penalty will be assessed when a player utilizes a ‘screen’ to actively impede the movement of an opposing player who is not in possession of the ball in a manner deemed by the referee to be prolonged or dangerous.
  • §8.7.1.1 – ‘Screening’ will be defined as blocking an opponent to gain access to the ball, blocking them from challenging the player in possession of the ball, or preventing them from free and open movement to gain a position on the court. This includes, but is not limited to, the following types of movement:
    • Significant change in direction or speed of the players bike.
    • Acceleration/deceleration of the players bike.
    • Changing directions while moving forward, or moving backwards.
    • Lifting and turning of the players front or back wheel.
    • Lateral movement by leaning or hopping.
  • §8.7.2 – If a ‘screen’ is set that is stationary or momentary and in such a way that legal bodily contact as described in §10 is possible, an obstruction penalty will not be assessed.

Examples

We’ve taken clips of games from last year to provide examples of what is legal and what isn’t. There was no such rule when these games were played, so we aren’t suggesting any of these plays were illegal at the time.

Legal


Legal – Eddy has the opportunity to screen harder but holds back. This is an example of an equally effective block without impeding movement.

 


Legal – Henri nearly screens out Daren. He occupied the space early enough to allow the T-Bone to be avoided. Daren accelerated into the screen.

 


Legal – Joey has the ball, therefore Luca had the right to stop short on him.

 


Legal – David pivot turns, plants his rear tire and inadvertently causes a screen. David was merely playing the ball without intention to screen.

Illegal


Illegal – Eddy drew the contact from Luca with the sudden change of direction.

 


Illegal – Prolonged impeding of movement by Sean

 


Illegal – Obstruction on Will but not Polo. Polo just happens to be in the way while Will put himself in the way.