Bike Polo Rules: Mallet Penalties

📘 This guide covers Section 9 of the North American Hardcourt Bike Polo (NAH) Ruleset, the standard used at tournaments across North America.

Your mallet is for the ball. Section 9 covers what happens when it goes after something else: other players’ mallets, bodies, bikes, or heads. It also covers what to do when you drop or break your mallet.

These fouls use the penalty levels from Section 6. Section 7 covers mallet interference (tying up a mallet when the player doesn’t have the ball). This section covers the more specific mallet fouls.

🔪 Slashing

Slashing is swinging at an opponent’s mallet shaft or body, up, down, or sideways, in a way the Ref decides could cause damage or injury.

Going for the ball and clipping a mallet along the way isn’t the same thing. Slashing is about an excessive swing.

⬆️ High Sticking

You’re responsible for your mallet at all times. High sticking covers three situations:

1. Hitting someone’s head or neck

Any mallet contact with an opponent’s head or neck is high sticking.

One exception applies: a normal shooting wind-up or follow-through that goes above the nearest opponent’s shoulders, as long as it’s controlled. The Ref can still call it if the swing is unsafe, for example:

• A wind-up that rotates the mallet all the way from above your head to the ground

• A scoop pass raised above the nearest opponent’s handlebars

• A backhand shot or pass whose follow-through goes above the nearest opponent’s handlebars

2. Swinging at a ball in the air

You can’t swing your mallet or a hand at an airborne ball above your shoulders or the nearest opponent’s shoulders.

If no one is within about 10 feet, you can:

• Hold your mallet up, without swinging, and knock the ball straight down

• Use your hand, with your mallet pointed straight down, to knock the ball down.

3. Mallets up high

You can’t hit or block an opponent’s mallet above either player’s handlebars.

If you hit another player’s body while high sticking, it’s a Minor or Major.

🛞 Jamming

Jamming is putting your mallet under an opponent’s front or rear wheel and making them dab.

It’s not a penalty if a player who isn’t playing the ball rides into an opponent’s mallet that’s planted on the ground or couldn’t be moved out of the way. The rider caused that contact, not the player holding the mallet.

🪝 Hooking

Hooking is using your mallet to hook or hold an opponent’s mallet, bike, or body, whether you start the contact or keep it going.

If an opponent moves their mallet into yours and gets themselves hooked, that’s not a penalty on you.

🎯 Throwing

Throwing your mallet is a penalty.

Throwing it to stop a goal: if a player throws their mallet in front of their own net to block a shot, the shooting team gets the goal.

🙌 Dropping or Breaking Your Mallet

• One mallet at a time. You can only have one mallet on the court.

• If you drop it, you can pick it up or keep playing without it. You can’t grab a backup until the dropped mallet is off the court.

• If it breaks, take it off the court right away. Don’t drop the broken one and grab a new one.

• Two mallets on the court at once is a Mallet Dropping penalty.

• A dropped mallet that causes a dab or affects play can also be called a penalty, at the Ref’s discretion.

Moving someone else’s dropped mallet: defenders can move a dropped mallet if it’s in the way of defending their goal. Moving an opponent’s mallet to make it harder for them to get back is Unsporting Conduct (see Section 7).

Quick Reference

Names of penalties and what they look like:

• Slashing - Swinging at an opponent’s shaft or body in a way that could hurt someone

• High Sticking - Mallet to the head or neck, swinging at high balls, or mallet contact above the handlebars

• Jamming - Putting your mallet under an opponent’s wheel and making them dab

• Hooking - Hooking or holding an opponent’s mallet, bike, or body

• Throwing - Throwing your mallet; thrown to block a shot means an awarded goal

• Mallet Dropping - Two mallets on court, or a dropped mallet that affects play

Bringing It Back to Pickup

There’s no Ref at pickup, so the safety side of this section is up to all of us. Keep swings under control, keep your mallet below shoulder height around other players, and let a high ball drop instead of swinging at it. New players drop mallets all the time, and that’s fine. Just pick yours up, or ride without it, before grabbing a spare.

📚 Read the Full Section

This post is based on the NAH Ruleset (2022 edition). The full rulebook is here:
👉 https://www.nahardcourt.com/rules/

Check for updates before you ref or organize a game.

Next up: Section 10, covering bodily contact penalties.