📘 This guide covers Section 8 of the North American Hardcourt Bike Polo (NAH) Ruleset, the standard used at tournaments across North America.
Bike Polo Rules: Bike Handling Penalties
Everyone dabs. It's part of the game, and on its own it isn't a penalty. Section 8 covers what counts as a dab, what you must do after one, and how bikes can be used to foul: knocking people over, swinging a wheel into them, and other bike-on-bike contact.
🦶 What Counts as a Dab
You've dabbed when your body touches anything other than your own equipment or the vertical face of the boards. That includes:
Putting a foot (or any other body part) on the ground
Touching the goal
Touching a horizontal surface such as the top of the boards
Two exceptions:
Leaning on the boards is fine. Their vertical face is the one thing besides your own gear you can touch.
A quick hand down is fine if it's to block the ball or pick up your dropped mallet. Using your hand to keep your balance counts as a dab.
A dab by itself isn't a foul and doesn't count toward penalty escalation.
↩️ The Tap-In
After you dab, ride to half court and tap your mallet on the boards on either side. That's the tap-in, and until you've done it, you're out of play.
While you're dabbed:
You can't affect the play. Don't block opponents with your bike, body, or mallet. You get a reasonable amount of time to get out of the way, but if you interfere and it helps your team, the Ref can call at least a Minor.
Nobody can play you, either. Contacting, screening, or using a mallet on a dabbed player is Interference.
Blocking a shot while dabbed is costly. If a dabbed player stops a shot that would have gone in, the Ref can award a penalty shot. Section 6 also lets the Ref award a goal if the ball hits a dabbed defender in front of their own goal.
Not tapping in, or not leaving the play after a dab, can also be called as Unsporting Conduct (see Section 7).
🥅 Dabbing on the Goal
Leaning on the goal, or putting any part of your body on it, counts as a dab. The Ref will call it out loud, and the Goal Judge may signal it too. You have to tap in like any other dab.
The Ref can also give a penalty for grabbing or leaning on the goal too much, or for not leaving the play right away.
If the goal judge can't fix a goal that is out of place because of court limitations, the ref may ask a player to move it. In this case, it would not be counted as a dab.
💥 Toppling
Toppling is when you cause an opponent to dab or crash during a play where you dab too, either before or after them. The Ref calls it when a player:
Jumps off their bike while dabbing to check or block an opponent
Starts a pile-up by dabbing and forcing one or more defenders to dab
Follows through on a check that makes an opponent dab, then loses balance and dabs too
🚲 Bike Contact
It's a Bike Contact penalty when you use your bike to start contact with an opponent or their equipment, by riding, speeding up, or steering into them.
Incidental contact is fine. Bikes bumping between two players going for the ball isn't a penalty, as long as it doesn't affect the play and isn't dangerous.
The ruleset names four kinds of bike contact:
T-bone: riding your wheel or pedal straight into an opponent, carrying your momentum into them.
Tail whip: skidding or swinging either wheel sideways into an opponent.
Sweeping: using a wheel to hit a stopped player's planted mallet, or a stopped opponent's body or bike.
Pedaling: when two players are stopped close together, and one uses a pedal to hit the other or their equipment.
The Ref can also call bike contact that isn't on this list if it causes a dab or keeps a player from moving freely.
Quick Reference
What Happens When…?
Dab (Foot down, touching the goal, or touching another horizontal surface) - Tap in at the half-court wall on either side of the court before you play again
Interfering with another player while dabbed - At least a Minor if it helps your team
Dabbed player blocks a shot that would have scored - Penalty shot, or possibly an awarded goal depending on location on court
Dabbing to knock someone else down - Toppling call, penalty based on current escalation phase
Using your bike to hit someone - Bike Contact Call (T-bone, tail whip, sweeping, pedaling), penalty based on current escalation phase
Bikes bumping while both players go for the ball - Incidental: no penalty
Bringing It Back to Pickup
Dabbing and tapping in work the same way at pickup as they do at tournaments. If you're new, expect to dab a lot. Everyone does. At pickup, we don't make brand-new players tap in every time, or you'd spend the whole game riding back and forth to half court. Once you start getting the hang of riding with a mallet, we'll ask you to tap in like everyone else, so the habit is there by your first tournament.
Balance drills like slow-speed riding and track stands are a good way to dab less, and a good thing to work on at Tuesday skills.
📚 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 9, covering mallet handling penalties.
