Bike Polo Rules: Players, Courts, and Gear
📘 This guide covers Section 2 of the North American Hardcourt Bike Polo (NAH) Ruleset, the official standard used for tournaments across the continent.
Players, Courts, and Gear
Section 2 is the "what" of bike polo: who's on a team, what the court looks like, and what standards your bike, mallet, and ball need to meet. It reads like a spec sheet, and for tournaments it is one. Refs check gear before games, and anything that doesn't meet these standards has to be fixed or swapped out before you play.
Note: At pickup in Greenville, the bar is lower. If you're just starting out, you don't need a polo-specific bike or your own mallet. We have loaner gear, and plenty of regulars started on whatever bike they had. This post is useful when you're ready to build or buy your own setup, or when you're getting ready for your first tournament.
🧍♀️ PLAYERS
Team size
Traditional format (3v3): three players per team.
Squad format (5v5): five players on the court. A squad team can carry a roster of six for the tournament, but before each game it declares which five are playing. The sixth can't enter the court that game.
Note: Quad format (four players per team) has been used at NAH tournaments since this ruleset was published. Quad generally follows the squad rules unless a tournament says otherwise.
What every player needs
A helmet approved for sports use, worn the whole time you're on the court.
A jersey that matches your teammates and contrasts with the other team. Either team can ask for a jersey change, but the team that asks has to change first.
Talking to the Ref
During a game, players can only interact with the Ref or Officials to:
Signal that their team is ready to restart during a stoppage
Ask for the remaining game time, or the name and severity of a penalty, during a stoppage
Call a timeout
Respond when the Ref starts a conversation
All communication must happen in a shared language that the Ref and both captains agree on before the game. Failure to follow this can be penalized as unsportsmanlike conduct.
Captains
Each team names a Captain and tells the Ref before every game. During stoppages, the Captain can ride onto the court and talk with the Ref about substitutions, penalty disputes, equipment, or other reasonable concerns. They can't do this during play or from outside the court.
Substitutions for injury
If a player gets hurt or can't continue, the team can appeal to the tournament organizers for a substitute. Limits apply to who's eligible and when you can appeal, and squad teams must use their sixth rostered player first. The full details are in §2.1.2 of the ruleset.
🏟️ THE COURT
Size: between 120' x 60' and 155' x 80'.
Boards: solid, at least 40" high. If a tournament uses shorter boards, organizers can add rules about contact and balls going out of play.
Doors: two doors placed evenly on either side of the half-court line. Players use them to serve penalties, and squad teams use them for line changes.
Transition area: an arc marked 10 feet out from the center of each door.
Half-court line: runs across the whole court, with the center point marked for the joust. It's also marked on the boards on both sides, which is where dabbed players tap back in.
Goal lines: run the full width of the court, 10 to 15 feet from the back boards.
🥅 THE GOALS
Size: 6' wide, 3' tall, and 2.5' deep, measured on the inside.
Goals need a net and a firm top crossbar.
The front of both goalposts lines up with the front of the goal line, centered across the court.
Three lines on the court mark where the goal belongs:
The goal line between the posts. The ball has to cross it for a goal to count.
Two short lines running back from each post toward the boards, between 6 inches and 2.5 feet long. These show where the goal should sit if it gets knocked out of place.
Volunteers painting the crease and goal lines at the World Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships in Taiwan 2025.
📏 THE CREASE
The crease is the marked area in front of each goal. It's an 11-foot semicircle measured from the center of the goal, cropped at 4 feet outside each goalpost. Only one defender (the goalie) can stay in the crease, and attackers have limits on how long they can be in it. We'll cover those rules in Section 7.
Crease Diagram from NAHBP Ruleset
🚲 BIKES
Brakes: at least one hand-controlled brake.
Handlebars: plugged or capped, and no more than 13.75" from the center of the stem.
No add-ons that could block the ball, including racks, fenders, bottle cages, and saddlebags. Wheel covers that cover the spokes and disc rotor guards are allowed.
Nothing sharp or loose: exposed cogs, chainrings, and disc rotors, protruding axles, and loose screws all count as unsafe. If an unsafe part can be reliably covered and the Ref approves it, it's allowed.
🏑 MALLET
Shaft
Made of metal or carbon fiber
The grip end is plugged or sealed
The shaft doesn't poke through the bottom of the mallet head
Head
Made of plastic and securely attached
No more than 6.5" long
Outside diameter no more than 2.559", and any hole in the head no wider than 2.3"
The Ref can pull any mallet they think is dangerous, like one that splinters, cracks easily, or has sharp edges.
🔴 THE BALL
The ball is 2.64" in diameter, weighs 70 grams or less, and is hollow. It's made from a high-density material suited to the climate, which matters in a South Carolina summer.
Building Your Setup
If you're putting together your first polo bike or mallet, ask around at Gateway Park or in #general-polo-chat on Discord. Most of us have built or fixed a bike and/or mallet at some point and are happy to walk you through it, and trying a few loaners first is a good way to figure out what you like.
📚 Want to Learn More?
This post is based on the official NAH Ruleset (2022 edition). The full rulebook, including the crease diagram and substitution rules, is here:
👉 https://www.nahardcourt.com/rules/
Check for updates before you build gear for a tournament or set up a court.
Next up: Section 3, covering tournament formats and game timing.
