MotoBall: Why Don’t We Have This Sport In the States?

Even extreme sports nuts may not have heard of this one. Although the origins of motoball are a bit murky, one thing is certain; it may just be the craziest sport you ever saw. Supposedly originating in France in the 1920s or 30s, motoball rose to some notoriety in Russia during the late 80s, no surprise considering it’s a country where favored sports include hockey and bear-fighting (I’ve got one weirder… – how about the obscure Finnish sport of wife-carrying?) Motoball is now played in several European countries, as well, including Germany, France, and the Netherlands. It is an interesting oddity in the arena of extreme sports, as it boasts a mixture of soccer and polo and it is all carried out, you guessed it, on motorcycles. Dangerous? Definitely. Death-defying? Undoubtedly. And yet, it is an utterly awesome sport.

Here’s how it works. Two teams of four players (plus one goalie, sadly relegated to the ranks of the un-motorized) mount up their motorcycles and face off in a large (generally open) arena and attempt to ‘push’ a 16-inch ball into the goal at the other end. This involves some amount of skill in terms of balance and coordination if you don’t want to end up eating dirt (or ice – leave it to Russia to make this crazy sport even more astounding). The ball is handled with the feet, as in kicked around the ring, and bikes are not allowed within 5.5 meters of the goal. There are four periods lasting twenty minutes each (with 10-minute breaks in between), with the possibility of two 10-minute overtime periods (separated by a 5-minute break) for a tie-breaker. Other than that, it’s pretty much just soccer on motorbikes. I know it sounds like a gimmick, but let me tell you what’s really great about this game.

For one thing, there’s the noise. The bikes used in game-play can vary, but they tend to be dirt bikes (lower weight, better traction and handling) of various sizes. This lends itself to an absolute smorgasbord of sound once the players get moving, and the audience revs up right along with their engines (although organized European leagues do require silencers to keep the noise level under 100dB…). Also, there are serious accidents. You might see a hockey player take a puck to the face or watch a quarterback fall under half a ton of offensive linemen, but imagine those sports with the addition of motorcycles and you begin to imagine the scope of utter mayhem that can occur. Now, I like a good spectacle as much as the next person, but I’m glad to note that any team found to have caused a long delay in the form of an accident will be forced to reimburse the expenses of the match. That’s enough to make most teams avoid possibly-fatal cheap shots. Aside from that, it’s just a tire-spinning, dirt-flying, skidding, sliding, kicking good time.

And why, I ask, has this extreme sport stayed overseas? It seems like the perfect mix of athletics and machinery, right up America’s alley, but for some reason, no one here ever heard of it! If I could, I’d blame the Cold War, but I think the fault lies more in the marketing. For one thing, it’s touted as a soccer spin-off, so already you’ve lost interest. Beyond that, there’s no push to organize a U.S. League. Too bad, really. If anyone had the impetus to coordinate this sport stateside, it would probably sell like hotcakes (just look at the success of motocross).

Guest Post by Sarah Davis of www.discountvouchers.org where you can find Apple discount codes