What is Segway Polo?

 

Segway Polo is a team sport which started to gain some measure of popularity after being played by members of the Bay Area Segway Enthusiasts Group (Bay Area SEG) in 2004. The Bay Area SEG was not the first to play polo on a Segway HT; a team sponsored by Mobile Entertainment played in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome at a Minnesota Vikings halftime show in 2003 although the Bay Area SEG members were not aware of this match at the time they first played the sport. Segway Polo was developed as it is played today by the members of the Bay Area SEG and other groups and teams that have joined subsequently.

 

The sport is quite similar to horse polo, except that instead of playing on horseback, each player rides a Segway PT on the field. The rules have been adapted from bicycle polo and horse polo.

 

Two teams of five players each hit a ball with their mallets, trying to get the ball into the other team's goal. The regulation field size is 200 feet (61 meters) by 128 feet (39 meters), and the goal is 8 feet (2.4 meters) wide by 5 feet (1.5 meters) high. A regulation match consists of four 8 minute quarters, known in polo as "chukkers." The ball can be struck with the mallet or any part of a player’s body or Segway but may only be directed using the mallet. A goal can not be scored off of any part of a player’s body or Segway unless it occurs accidentally.

 

Segway Polo is gaining popularity and and teams have been formed in the United States, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Barbados and more recently in Holland, Spain and the UK, among others. Some of these teams have been competiting with each other over the years in the WOZ Cup and other competitions which fall under the International Segway Polo Association (ISPA); the official governing body for Segway Polo.