Toccer..A Real Life Dynasty

[Young Drachma]

Ok..so here's the update.

The CEO of a indoor soccer chain with a bunch of facilities throughout the South and West, has said that we can bring the tour de toccer to their facilities. We'll have to pay for the time, of course. But it's a huge boost for us, as we can get to a ton of cities we wouldn't have been able to before.

So, I'm rushing to get this planned now.

I think we're heading to the "mecca" of Toccer next week in Connecticut to do a week of clinics and matches.

Things are materializing

[Young Drachma]

Here's a new video of the sport

Video

We're unveiling something this fall to the college market, as a way to get the sport played on a larger scale and I'm working that now.

[Young Drachma]

I got a call from CSTV two days ago. I'm heading back to Connecticut to film a pilot of the sport. The idea would be that we'd film one of our fall college tournaments in November for broadcast later via tape delay.

Exciting, no?

The players at our meeting two weeks ago, approved the name change from Toccer to Tennis Polo.

The site transition is occuring now.

http://www.tennispolo.com

http://www.toccer.com

Both have new stuff.

Exciting times.

[Young Drachma]

A new video

[Young Drachma]

Few things are wackier than playing a sport, that you know well and then having something happen that's never happened before. Then you scramble and the braintrust looks at each other like "what?"

This happened today during a match of tennis polo/toccer. We had a player make a move that just didn't think made a whole lot of sense, but there was no rule against it. Since we're rewriting the rules to go with the tennis polo change, it's fine that it happened now.

But it's an interesting development that must be even harder and weirder when people get used to a particular game over the years and then have to deal with changes - like Hockey - for example.

It does prove though, that any sport can truly change over time.

[Young Drachma]

Some MPEG movies
#1

#2

[Tekneek]

Hmmm. This is very interesting. Keep the updates coming.

[Young Drachma]

The most interesting development of the past few weeks at camp, was figuring out that we actually needed to go back to the drawing board and come up with far more detailed rules.

Like any sport, the rules start off basic - basketball only had 9 or so rules when it first started - and then become more complex as people play the game more and more. And sure enough, that's where we are now.

So, we're doing a full scale overhaul of the rules.

As for the name change, the official name is Tennis Polo, but the sport is still referred to and will be, as toccer. We just thought that made more sense, the more we talked to our players after the vote to change the name was approved.

This year, we'll be doing some college touring to spread the sport even more. More on that when I have more info, as well as other stuff related to the development of the game. But a year later and we're still going strong. It was this time last year that I actually brought the sport to the public after doing it at camp.

So..it's a milestone of sorts.

[Young Drachma]

My batteries died in my camera, so I decided to get into the action. I don't remember who took these.


Going after the ball with one of my players tailing me.



But I won the battle and sent the ball away to someone elsewhere on the field.

[Young Drachma]

We're taking a serious look at Gaelic goalposts for outdoor toccer, as well as changing the field dimensions more like Field Hockey, because it works better for our purposes.

[Young Drachma]

Oh, that's just for the carrying case or whatever. Apparently, the whole thing folds into a little thing that you can put it into the backseat of a car or whatever.

Basically, I'm trying to devise modifications that include the following:



We talked a lot about adopting the arc that field hockey has and getting rid of the rectangle (like soccer) that we originally had in the sport.



Here is a video of the irish sport called hurling.

http://www.jbwan.com/roblog/mf2004/m...inal-large.mov

It's the only sport in the world that has any resemblance to toccer whatsoever. Of course, they don't use racquets either and their ball is as hard as a baseball.

You get one point for scoring above the bar and 3 points for scoring inside the goal. The goals are similar to the ones I want us to use, because they're the right size and I think it'd be an interesting enhancement to the sport - specifically toccer. Of course, hurling is more physical and a helmet and shin guards are recommended, but not required. I like that part, too.

I don't know that we'd change the scoring system dramatically yet, the real advantage to the new goals long-term, is that we can use field goals on football fields to introduce people to the sport, because we all know there are always a few fans at football games..but that soccer games might not have people or be willing to let us infiltrate their fields for exhibitions.

Football stadiums sit empty on most college campuses after the season is over, so they're a good place to use, they're long enough and though they're not technically wide enough..we can work that one out.

[Young Drachma]

This is updated based on some of our changes that were made after we played this summer

THE BASICS OF TENNIS POLO

1. The Field: A rectangular shaped field measuring 100 yards long and 60 yards wide, with a 15 yard semi-circle measured out from each goalpost. The goalposts in tennis polo is 10 ft. wide and 6 foot tall. There are uprights that rise 8 ft. above the goal and span the width of the goal.

2. Initiate Play: Play begins a coin flip (or the home team) opting to receive or "touch off" to the opposing team. The touchoff mirrors the kickoff in (American) football. The goalkeeper hits the ball to the opposing team from inside the possession area. Play begins when an opposing player makes contact with the ball or the ball hits the ground in bounds.

3. Scoring: After a goal is scored, the non-scoring team receives the ball at the midline (midfield) and initiates the restart of play. Teams score goals by hitting the ball with their racquet or kicking it into the goal for five points. Teams score overs by hitting the goal between the goalposts for 2 points. Scores made behind midfield are worth an additional point.

4. Movement of the Ball: The ball may be advanced in any direction by completing a pass to a teammate. Players may not run with the ball. Players advance the ball by dribbling it on their racquet. Carrying it in their hands (or sitting it stationary on their racquet) is not allowed. If a ball on the ground is considered "dead," a player may pass the ball by picking it up with their hands (the only way a player may use their hands) and either hitting it to another player or throwing it in five seconds.

5. Change of possession: Possession changes upon an infraction or when the ball goes out of bounds. The clock does not stop during changes of possession.

6. Substitutions: There are unlimited substitutions, players can be substituted at any time in the game.

7. Limited contact: Contact by players only occurs on loose balls. The racquet should never make contact with another player - intentional or otherwise. Players generally afford the opponent "leeway" which consists of a racquet length and two steps when hitting or defending. The rule of thumb is "guard the ball, not the person."

[Young Drachma]

New Video

The best one we've put together to date.

[Young Drachma]

[Young Drachma]

Another video

[Barkeep49]

The videos were nice to see.

[Young Drachma]

I'm actually going to put together a college event in early October. Basically, I'm just going to recruit players to come out and take part in it, I mean...I just need footage of adult players in the sport.

I'm not exactly sure the best way to go about it, save for asking people I know and all that, but...I've got a few ideas. We shall see.

[Young Drachma]

We're doing our first practice next Wednesday here in Wyoming. I have no idea how it will go, if there will be any interest at all or whatever.

But we shall see how it all unfolds, I guess.

[Young Drachma]

Anyone have any ideas, like clever stuff that I could use for a flyer? I mean, I've made a few of my own already. But I wanted to tap other folks ideas.

They can be funny or otherwise witty, that's cool.

[Young Drachma]

It's grainy, but...oh well. It's just a compliation of all of last year's footage.

[Young Drachma]

The people who run this international fitness festival who are based in Italy, have invited us to bring the sport on the road this summer (and into next fall) at three of their festivals in Florence, Italy, Cannes, France and Miami Florida.

We'll have to see, because it's a bit surprising (and sudden) but...it seems as if it's an opportunity not to pass up. Especially for a sport that's new and trying to gain a foothold.

So...more on that and the whole process of finding sponsors. A lot of other developments have happened lately on my companies, so I'm going to do my best to attempt to integrate them as best we can.

But we'll see.

[Young Drachma]

One of the most bizarre parts of doing all this, has largely been figuring out rules.

That might seem weird, but...for a fledging sport, you're always leery to alter the rules too much because if there isn't a whole lot of standarization, people tend to forget how to play.

We've been pretty liberal about that, though, because we feel like the cream will rise and so will the best rules. It's been that way so far. It wasn't until I came out west with the sport that the game really got a lot of the character it lacked when we first started.

But now we're at a new crossroads. The real issue is some people aren't interested in changing the fields too much or doing significant changes because they say that it'll isolate the game.

Many in my camp have argued that doesn't matter, the game needs to evolve and grow or else...it won't be any different than anything else out there. And it already is, but we want to it maintain that flavour.

So...

Now that we're looking to go on the road, it puts us in overdrive mode in terms of really figuring out what changes we're making -- and it's positive there will be some -- and then implement them in time to get people on the field playing the game and stuff so we can prepare.

It'll be an interesting time, to say the least.

[sachmo71]

Can you make the video bigger so's I can watch it?

[Young Drachma]

Yes, I'm still at this. It's obviously not the #1 priority with a real job and a relatively thriving side gig working itself out over time, but..it's still really important to me and I want to get it out there in en masse.

The hardest part, in the past 14 months or so, has really been a consideration of rules. Finding people to play isn't even that hard. It's a matter of nailing down rules we can work with. But I think about two years ago, we got really concerned with the marketability of it, when there was a very very modest buzz about it and I panicked, thinking that the game as it was wouldn't have mass appeal for one reason or another.

The more the game has been played, the more we've refined and tweaked it and yet, it's still some things to work out. The goal before this summer is out, is to get more defined rules on the books, to work out some kinks that I've been trying to figure out for a while and then to decide, whether to put together a formal, formal rulebook or just a "quick start" guide for people who want to freelance.

Or perhaps to just produce both.

I think the thing is, if the game is too rigid, folks won't bother to try. That's also if it's too complicated. But the game has rules and they've generally made sense and it's never been so complicated that we could get started playing after just a few minutes (or perhaps, a few in-game tips as we're moving along...)

The name thing has stayed the same. It's officially tennis polo. That's worked great for us as we've talked to 'professional' folks (TV, etc.) because it just sounds easier and gives them a relatively immediate idea of what you're using (a few ask about horses, of course..), but among players, it's still toccer and I think always will be.

I'll post my progress as it comes along.

[Young Drachma]

The last time I was involved in an exhibition of the sport was last November. It was pretty informal, but it was a good time.

[Young Drachma]

When we played the above time, the rules were adapted to be more like hurling..it allowed for carrying the ball with the hands, with the original toccer rules NEVER allowed, though it was modified so a person could carry the entire field or anything. But it was intended to speed the game up some.

The idea for this sport was never to have the game so slow that people were say, jogging down the field or taking seconds off. It's full-throttle from start to finish, for the most part. You obviously have time to setup plays and the such, but..everything from subs to otherwise was intended on purpose to be free-flowing and relatively fast moving.

[Poli]

Wow. Can't believe I missed this before. I have a lot of excellent reading to catch up on.

[Poli]

Who the heck would give this a 1 star rating?

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by ardent enthusiast

Wow. Can't believe I missed this before. I have a lot of excellent reading to catch up on.

I appreciate that, AE.

[Young Drachma]

I've already fixed the goal size. It was originally the same size as a team handball goal. But they are 1) expensive and 2) hard to get a hold of. Instead, I've made it 8 feet tall, like a soccer goal and 12 feet wide or half the width of a soccer goal. That means when people play, they can just create width lines to decide where the goal box starts and ends. It'll create some judgment problems, because if you're not video taping goals, then you'd have to evaluate whether it breaks the plane of the 8 x 12 box, but...I'm okay with that until we can get our own goals.

[Young Drachma]

After a few years of rankling with it, I've finally stopped trying to turn toccer into football and I got rid of the Viperball posts in this thread to clutter it up less.

In any case, I'm bumping this thread because (as if I wasn't doing enough...) I started coaching JV tennis at a prep school where I live in my afternoons after work and I got the bright idea after one of our road matches that we ought to play toccer. I only have 9 guys, so that really wasn't going to be enough, so I asked the coach of our Varsity 2 squad (yes, we have two varsity teams...) if they would want to play too and she said they'd be down to play with us one day.

So we've got four practice days coming up this week, so I'm thinking it'll be one of the days this week, because that way if they like it we can play again the following week.

This is the same demographic that essentially invented the sport, so I'm not super concerned that they won't like it. I told my kids yesterday and they surprisingly excited ("that actually sounds kind of cool.") about it, so we'll see what happens, but there will be pictures and video of course, once we do it.

[Young Drachma]

Here's some video.

This is from yesterday.



I have pictures I'll post later, but I spent more time on video since I never get enough of that.

This is from 2006.