Swinging on a Single-Speed: Beijing's Bike Polo Team Offers a New Way to Cycle

Beijing Olympian is an ongoing column in which we explore the newest, the funnest, and the downright whackiest in Beijing’s fitness scene.

On the bank of the Wenyu River that divides Shunyi from the center of the city, Beijing's fu'erdai mount horses with mallets in hand to partake in the ancient Persian game of polo in front of fieldside billboards advertising luxury cars and Swiss watches. Twenty-three kilometers southwest of this grassy field, a group of working young people gather twice a week on the hard asphalt at the West Gate of Workers' Stadium to play a much more accessible version of the sport: bike polo.

In fact, bicycle polo is so accessible that I tested it out riding nothing more than a Mobike. That is not to say that the game is commonly played on shared bicycles: most of the other players had their own single speed bike, some which were modified for single-handed double braking to accommodate the fact that players must hold a mallet in the other hand.

The basic idea of bike polo should be familiar to most: chasing of a ball up and down a court between two goals. Unlike in traditional polo, however, the chasing is done on bicycles and the ball is hit with mallets. In addition to having to ride around one-handed, players are not allowed to touch their feet to the ground during play. Violation of this rule means that the player is “out” until they touch the middle of the courtside wall. However, players are allowed, as player Amerigo puts it, to prop themselves up with the mallet “like an old man.”

It is the only sport that I’ve come across where the players enjoy drinking beer not just after a game, but also before, and during. This may come as a surprise considering the amount of balance involved, but it certainly fits in well with what might be described as it's general Portlandian chill vibe. Despite that, don’t be fooled: The players may act casual, yet they are serious about improving their game.

Laying stake in Beijing

Like many of the other players, Amerigo has a passion for bicycles in general. If there is a community of bikers in Beijing, be it long-distance or track cycling, it's a safe bet that he is involved. Recreational cycling with friends has allowed Beijing cyclists to see beyond the city as they ride all night into the suburbs and villages, but bike polo has enabled some team members to embark on a more global adventure. Two years ago, the players represented Beijing in Japan as they competed against teams throughout Asia. 

Even though it has spread well in other parts of Asia, on the whole China hasn’t yet caught the fever of bike polo, despite the fact that each game starts with a shout of "Marco!" and "Polo!" in reference to first European explorer to write extensively about China and its capital. The sport is so foreign here, in fact, that the mallets have to be imported because they aren’t even available on Taobao. “I think we can proudly lay stake to being the first bike polo team Beijing,” says Amerigo.

“The addiction of bike polo”

Amerigo introduces me to the basics of the sport as he tinkers with his bike using an Allen wrench. “People feel the addiction of bike polo,” he tells me. “Even people who aren’t very good at first end up feeling it pretty fast. It’s actually kind of comical.” Almost every other person on the team tells me something to that effect, that new players tend to catch on exceedingly quickly. That might have something to do with the incredible amount of encouragement they give to each other throughout their games, especially to new players. 

As accessible as it is, the players emphasize that it's a sport that still takes practice to master. "It’s a lot of skill, actually," says Yangyang, who began playing with the team just a couple years after the Natooke bike shop founded the team in 2010. "There’s a lot of core strength involved, and you have to learn balance and master braking,” she adds. Braking may sound simple enough, but many players find it difficult at first to avoid falling over forward when squeezing the front-wheel brake (although luckily this wasn’t a problem on my heavy Mobike).

Of course, all things come with practice. Mischa, a now fairly skilled player, says, “I was pretty bad for about two years, but got a lot better in the past year. With practice, you get used to keeping your focus on the ball, and you stop thinking about the bike. When you’re focused on controlling the bike, you’re not focused on the ball.”

The shrinking court

Though it does the job, the parking lot on the West Gate of Workers' Stadium does not make for the ideal bike polo court. One would think that after nearly ten years, the team would have found a better space, and for a brief moment, they did. At one point, a Tsinghua student was able to give them access to space on the university’s campus that was somewhat more befitting. Unfortunately, students don’t stay students forever, and the space was lost with his graduation.

"We literally looked at satellite images to try and find a better spot," a player named Sam tells me. "Sometimes we would find one that looked promising and ride all the way out there only to find out it wasn’t what it looked like."

Yangyang recalls that the Workers' Stadium used to be much larger until the basketball courts went up beside it, severely restricting the amount of play space available. Even during my first bike polo match, there was already talk about the future of the court, because metal scaffolding had been put up around it, presumably in preparation for China’s 70th-anniversary celebrations this October.

When I went back for a second week, all of the basketball equipment had been taken down, which would have made for a nice large space to play if it weren’t for the fact the lights didn’t come on except in one tiny corner of the parking lot. The general consensus, though, is that this is a temporary hiccup, and after the celebrations, Beijing bike polo shall return to its former glory.

If you play a sport that deviates from the norm, contact us at joeyknotts@truerun.com.

Meet the Natooke Bike Polo Team and many other Beijing sports teams at Friday's
annual Paddy's Sports Team Sign-Up Night.

More stories by this author here.
Email: joeyknotts@truerun.com
WeChat: jknotts

Images: 刘恩佑, courtesy of Natooke Bike Polo Team, lapsunlee.com