Tourney: WHBPC 2011: Seattle 08-11.09.2011

Why not look to discourage the play that leads to space protection in the first place?

Because space protection is a fundamental aspect of bike polo (otherwise our bikes would get tangled up in each other all the time), as the speed of the game/players increases, this space protection becomes checking (and so on), I've no problem with that... it's a safe way to "meet" players at speed within our contact sport.

I'd argue space protection is fundamental and can be done completely safely, I'm just sick of seeing hands on backs and forced dabs from shoves. Shoves have nothing to do with space protection, but it's difficult to word something succinct to easily draw a line between the two - mainly because of the height difference between players.

The only time I have a problem with anything like this is when a player pushes the bar arm especially at speed.

You'd be happy if I rode up to you and shoved you off your bike? Surely not?