What do you get when you put cycling and soccer together? Apparently in Europe, they’ve already figured it out and it’s called Cycle-Ball. So, what is it?
Cycle-Ball also known as “radball” is an obscure sport primarily played in Europe and Japan, where two teams play football (Soccer) on fixed gear bicycles with a few differences. The game is typically played by two people on each team, but there are games with 5 people called “5 riders cycle-ball” and with 6 people called “Field Cycle-Ball”.
It may not seem like a real sport, but Cycle-Ball is gaining popularity around the world they even have a Cycle-Ball World Cup held by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).
Whether you’re a football player with a biking hobby or a cyclist that wants to spice up your cycling game, Cycle-Ball has got your back!
How to Play
Overall, cycle-ball is a fast sport consisting of two – 7 minutes rounds. It’s played on a court that 14 meters by 11 meters (approx. 46ft by 36ft).
The goal is a square net that is 2 meters tall by 2 meters wide and 60-80cm deep (6.5ft x 6.5ft x 2.6ft).
The game is played with a textured ball filled with horsehair, (yeah, you didn’t misread, horsehair!) weighing in about on average, 550 grams or 1.2lbs.
The ball is 18 cm (approx. 7 inches) in diameter and is usually white with red stripes wrapping.
The game starts with a coin toss to see which team will get the ball first. Once that’s determined, the ball is placed the center of the field and the clock is set for 7 minutes for the 1st half of the game.
Whichever team start the first half of the game, the 2nd half of the game will start with the other team as the offensive team.
Before the whistle is blown to signal the start, the offensive team will strategize their first move while the other team take a defensive position on their half of the court.
The offense team can either use the front or the rear wheel to start the game, in most cases at least one player will stand guard if front of the goal.
The ball can only be passed and scored with the wheel of the bike or their heads.
The player’s feet are not allowed to touch the floor, if they do they’ll need to ride back behind their goal and return back to the court.
Using hands are not allowed unless the player is in the 2 meter half circle in front of their goals.
Aside from that using any other body parts to intentionally move the ball or score with it is prohibited and would likely result in a foul.
If the ball bounce off of another player’s body or bicycle as a result of a bad pass or a missed shot at the goal, the ball becomes a neutral ball.
Generally, the commissaires will whistle to signal a momentary pause to retrieve the ball and reposition it on the center point of the field before resuming the game.
The team with the most points after the 2nd half of the game becomes the winning team.
Fouls & Penalties
Typically fouls are pointed out as a result of clashing bicycles on the court.
A foul from one team will result in a free kick for the other team. In anticipation for the kick the goal keeper would usually grab ahold of the net and position him or herself to try to block up much of the net as possible.
The goal keeper is allowed to use his or her hands to block the ball, since they’re within the 2 meters half circle.
A free kick will count for only 1 point.
If a player is deemed to have used excessive force on another player such as ramming, shoving, grabbing, or shouts loudly, they will be penalized.
If the penalties continues, the player/team will be suspended or expelled from the match or competition.
To learn more about all the specific components and rules of cycle ball you can check out UCI’s Cycling Regulations Guide.
Cycle Ball
2 Riders’ Cycle Ball
2 Rider’s Cycle Ball is the most common way to play cycle ball and it’s currently the only way to play that’s recognized by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).
2 Riders’ Cycle Ball is played with the rules mentioned above.
Typically, the game is played with one player filling the role as the goal keeper and the other, the outfield player.
However, the goal keeper would not stand guard in front of the goal all of the time as the outfield player would need assistant maneuvering the ball around the defensive team and need assist in scoring.
5 Riders’ Cycle Ball
The 5 Riders’ Cycle Ball is played with the same rules as 2 Riders’ Cycle Ball, except you each team have two substitute members that they can swap in and out in the game.
The game is still played with two outfield players and one designated goal keeper on each team. Additionally, this would likely be played on a basketball court typically around 28 meters by 15 meters not including runoffs and sidelines.
The goal will still remain the same size, but the extra space from using a basketball court allows for more players on the field and reduce the chance for collisions.
6 Riders’ Cycle Ball (Field Cycle Ball)
6 Riders’ Cycle Ball also known as Field Cycle Ball, this way of playing requires the most amount of players and the most amount of space.
While it is possible for this to be played indoors it’s more frequently played outdoors due to the need for a larger open space.
6 Riders’ Cycle Ball still abides by the same rules as 2 Riders’ Cycle Ball, but in Field Cycle Ball, the match uses the same amount of space as half a football field, 90 meters by 50 meters.
Each team will have 6 players, meaning in any given match, there will be 12 players total on the field.
Not always, but in typical fashion, each team will reserve one player as the designated goal keeper and the remaining 5 players would play outfield.
History of Cycle Ball
Cycle Ball, despite of its popularity in Europe and Japan actually created by a Swiss-American named of Nicholas Edward Kaufmann in 1893.
That’s a sport over 125 years old, even though it was created by an American, the sport never quite gained popularity in America as it did in Europe and Japan.
Side note, Cycle Ball was so popular at the time that, UK company, Liebig’s Extract of Meat Company included it as one of the daily depiction of German life.
Championships & Clubs
The first cycle ball world championships was back in 1929. Even though cycle ball matches and championships continued throughout the next century, the oldest on file record of the cycle ball championships held by the UCI is in 2010.
There’s been a cycle-ball championship every year since then and would likely end up becoming an Olympic sport in the future as its popularity continue to spread around the world.
Currently, cycle ball championships don’t have any prize money involved nor do most player if any at all make any money from this sport.
Germany currently have the largest and the best cycle ball athletes in the world with over 10,000 licensed professionals.
Special Custom Bikes
One of the things that makes Cycle Ball unique aside from the ball stuffed with horsehair is the fact that cycle ball have unique bicycles specifically made for this game.
The bicycle has a fixed gear, really it means it doesn’t have gears, it’s a 1:1 ratio conversion. With one complete crank of the gear, the bike must move at least 2 meters, but below 3.2 meters.
Both the front wheel and the back wheel have to be the identical size, it needs to stay within the limits of 20 inches to 26 inches.
The bicycle also doesn’t have any brakes, so when a player travels fast across a court the only way to stop is to either make a sharp turn or to oscillate the wheel left and right to create as much friction with the ground for braking.
To give the player the optimal motion of freedom, the seat is position way back, towards the back of the rear wheel and as flushed to the main frame as possible.
The handle bars on a cycle ball bike is also different from other bike handles as they are raised almost vertical up and bend forward at a 30-45 degree angle about two-thirds of the way up the handle.
Aside from the bicycle looking a lot different than a traditional bike, the bike also weighs much heavier than a standard bike, its additional weight gives the bike stability.
You can expect the bike to weigh somewhere around 13 kg or just slightly under, because the weight limit of the bicycle is 13 kg or 28.6 lbs. More weight gives it more stability, but it also makes the player use more energy to execute their moves.
For a typical cycle ball bicycle, you can expect to pay around 2000 Euros or $2435 USD.
Training & Practice Exercises
Like all sports, good equipment and gears will not substitute muscle memory, hand-eye coordination, and raw power and techniques.
Below is a list of some of the tricks to start learning if you want to get into cycle ball.
Staying Balanced on the Bicycle
Maintaining balance on the bicycle is crucial to efficiently play cycle ball, but it’s harder to maintain balance when you are barely in motion at times.
Here’s a video offered by Global Cycling Network on tips to improve your balance on a bike. You can fast forward the video to 2:17 where it explains how to stay balance while riding slowly, which is the most frequent situation you’ll be in when playing cycle ball.
Once you’ve learned how to balance on two wheels, move on to the next lesson: Balancing on One-Wheel Only.
Balancing on One-Wheel Only (Wheelie)
Doing a wheelie is generally not a hard move to pull off with adequate practice. You lean forward and use the torque of the pedal to lift up the front of the bike.
Once you are able to lift the front wheel up in the air, it’s just a matter of balancing and this is usually done by shifting the weight of the body and using the brakes on the rear wheel.
YouTube Channel, Global Mountain Bike Network made a really nice video demonstrating how to do a wheelie:
The caveat to all of this is that cycle ball bikes don’t have brakes and they don’t have additional gears for better torque control, which makes doing a wheelie a lot harder.
The good thing about cycle ball is that most of the time you are going to have to do a wheelie is when you need to catch a ball or score, meaning you pretty much only have to hold the wheelie for a couple of seconds and not a continuous ride.
Balancing on One-Wheel Only (Endo)
Just like the wheelie, you need to not only know how to lift up your front wheel, but there are times that you’ll need to block a shot that you won’t be able to reach with the front wheel.
That’s where the “Endo” comes in, it’s essentially a reverse wheelie, balance on the front wheel and lift the rear wheel. Similar to the wheelie, a lot of other bikes utilizes the brakes to help execute this move, but to remind you, cycle ball bikes don’t have brakes and thus this will be challenging.
Once again, YouTube Channel, Global Mountain Bike Network did a video on this trick, even though it’s mountain bike, but the overall principle should translate over nicely.
Like the wheelie, perform the endo during a cycle ball match typically only lasts for a couple of seconds and most player would only use this move if they’re playing goal keeper.
Once you’re done learning the endo, move on to the next trick: Jumping with a Bicycle.
Jumping with a Bicycle
Even though jumping to try and catch an unreachable ball is not permitted and will be penalized, players must a least know how to hop with a bike to reach a ball that’s not at floor level.
In the cycling world, there’s a technique known as the bunny hop, which Global Cycling Network also did a lesson on. You may not have to do the bunny hop while playing cycle ball, but it does provided a good starting point for the next lesson: Flicking the Ball with the Wheel.
Flicking the Ball with the Wheel
Learning to flick the ball with the wheel of the bike is probably one of the most difficult thing to master, because it’s not a normal move in any other bike-related sport.
The unfortunate thing is that I couldn’t find a channel dedicated to teaching you all about cycle ball techniques, but Equinox Wheels have provided a beautiful video of two professional cycle ball athletes scoring some shots in B-Roll.
I hope you’re able to pick up some techniques by watching the video in terms of how to flick a ball with enough force and accuracy.
Spin and Fakie
As you progress further into the sport of cycle ball, you’ll have to learn more tricks to be at the top of your game.
Two tricks that can help save a game is knowing how to do the Spin & the Fakie:
Spin
Knowing how to spin a bike can help you change direction when you don’t have enough space to cycle your way around or if you’re trapped in a tight corner.
To learn how to do a spin, you must learn how to do the bunny hop first as it will help you translate that motion from a hop to a spin.
Spencer Foresman, a BMX athlete have created two awesome tutorials showing you how to practice and execute these tricks properly.
Fakie
A fakie is essentially back pedaling and moving in reverse with the bike. You’ll likely want to learn how to do the spin prior to learning the fakie, because most fakie starts with back pedaling and a spin to turn the bike around.
Even though all of the tricks I have mentioned above uses any bike aside from cycle ball bikes, I think it’s very important to learn the fundamentals first before you decide to invest a couple of grand into a very expensive bike and damage it in the learning process.
Is Cycle Ball for You?
Whether you are a bored cyclist that’s looking for something new and exciting to take your biking game to the next level or a football (Soccer/Fútbol) player that want to try playing football on a bike, cycle ball is for you.
Even if you not interested in either sport by itself, perhaps you just want to be that person that knows how to play an obscure sport or an professional in a fast past sport, cycle ball can check those boxes.
If you want to get into an elite and semi-expensive sport, cycle ball is up there as well.
Whatever your reasons may be for getting into cycle ball it’s best to grab a buddy to help you accelerate your training and perhaps even form a two-person team to become next cycle ball champion!