Classic Sports With a Twist

Classic Sport: Polo

Fresh Take: Stand-Up Paddleboard Polo

Rules of Engagement

Overview: Players on stand-up paddleboards are divided into two teams of three; each team tries to score goals by scooping, passing, and tossing a ball with their paddles. There are 10-minute halves, separated by a five-minute halftime.

1. The ball may be played with the paddle only — no hands, feet, or heads can advance the ball.

2. Players can handle the ball only while standing up — no passing or shooting while kneeling or sitting on the board, or while standing or swimming in the water.

3. All six players must be in constant movement — no tending goal.

4. Intentional contact with another player or board is prohibited.

5. If the game is tied, there is a five-minute overtime; if the score is still tied, each player gets one shot at the goal from “midfield”; the team with the most goals wins. Still tied? A sudden-death shoot-out determines the winner.

Gear for Game Day

• 6 SUP polo boards
• 6 SUP polo paddles
• 1 SUP polo ball
• 1 “field,” in a pool, lake, or other body of water, 20 m by 25 m, including 2 goals

Find Your Game: Starboard Paddleboards

Classic Sport: Golf

Fresh Take: Disc Golf

Photography by Associated Press/Ralph Barrera

Rules of Engagement

Overview: Players toss flying discs toward basket targets, which are strategically arranged on a course with natural obstacles. The player with the fewest total throws at the end of the round is the winner.

1. Each hole starts with a “tee-off” followed by subsequent throws until each player’s disc lands in the basket.

2. Players keep track of where their discs fall (the “lie”) with smaller marker discs. These then guide proper foot placement for the next throw.

3. Disc stuck in a tree or a bush? The marker disc is placed beneath the tree, and the player may be penalized.

4. Disc lost? Play from where the disc last crossed inbounds and take a one-throw penalty.

5. Once the disc is resting in the basket or its chains, that player has completed the hole.

Gear for Game Day

• Discs (like golf clubs, available for long drives, short putts, and midrange tosses)
• Water bottle
• Towel
• Comfortable clothes
• A disc golf course with basket targets

Find Your Game: Professional Disc Golf Association

Classic Sport: Tennis

Fresh Take: Pickleball

Rules of Engagement

Overview: Players (typically in teams of two, as doubles, although singles play, too) engage in a match similar to tennis, serving, receiving, and rallying for points.

1. A coin toss determines who serves first. Serves must be underhand, starting from the right-hand court.

2. If a point is scored, the server switches sides and then starts the next serve from the left-hand court, as in tennis.

3. Points are scored only by the serving team; when the first server loses the serve, the partner continues serving until his or her team commits a fault (such as hitting the ball into the net) and loses the serve to the opposing team.

4. Unlike tennis, the area closest to the net is off-limits for volleying; this area is called “the kitchen.”

5. Games are typically played to 11 points; you must win by two points.

Gear for Game Day

• Pickleball paddle (smaller than a tennis racquet but larger than a Ping Pong paddle)
• Pickleball — similar to a Wiffle ball; it travels at one-third the speed of a tennis ball
• Comfortable clothing
• A pickleball court, 20 by 44 feet, typically laid out on a tennis court; pickleball courts are the same size as doubles badminton courts.

Find Your Game: USA Pickleball Association

A version of this article first appeared in the June 2016 issue of Experience Life magazine.