Rising Moon

“Hell hath no fury like a women scorned.”

This oft-quoted piece of wisdom, usually reserved for romantic narratives, has a whole different meaning in the world or professional foosball. Discouraged at first by her male competitors, Ellen Moon, 26, has made an impressive showing in her first year on pro tour, taking first in amateur doubles at the Dallas World Championships and North Carolina Cup. “I just kept on winning, so I kept going,” she says in bewilderment.

The Queens native got hooked on the sport when she attended Baruch College and started hanging out in one of the school's game rooms. There, she was drawn to the energetic clatter emanating from the foosball table. “These guys were always on the table and they would never let me play because I was a girl,” she recalls. “girls tend to not do well in foosbal...or sports for that matter.” Moon steered clear for a year until she bit the bullet and decided to take her hits in the ring until she got good enough to, as she puts it, “whoop everyone's ass.” Eventually, one of her defeated opponents took her play at Fat Cats Billiards.

Slight of frame yet highly energetic, Moon still blends seamlessly into her forest of male competitors, trading jibes, shoving and laughing. She isn't above the occasional bout of profanity either. What Moon's competition thought was her disadvantage turned out to be her primary motivation, that and her preference for death metal as warm-up music. “I do find it challenging,” she says of her position in a male-dominated sport. “but find it motivational as well and I think that's actually what keeps me going.” Her friend Victor Lam describes her success as a combination of “accuracy, technique, speed and discipline.” Without this last quality, Moon moon would not have the focus to progress her skill while maintaining a professional life. “I still have to train,” she says. “But I have a job now and can't come play for hours any more.”

Along with her timetable, foosball has wormed its way into Moon's professional life as well. At the executive search firm where she works, her co-workers are well aware of her athletic alter ego. Recently her CEO advised her to put in on her resume and began mentioning her accomplishments to her clients.

In the long term, Moon wants to become one of the top female players in America, “at least.” The scoreboards show that she's well on her way to doing it. Though she's only currently ranked as 75^th by the Valley International Football Association (VIFA), most of the of those ranked above her are older and have been playing much longer. Moon has played only one year on the professional circuit so far.

Yet even with a bright future in bar sports ahead of her, a life on the road hustling foosball tournaments isn't in the cards. “I've managed to break even,” she says. “which is more than most players can say in their lifetime. I'm definitely an office girl and I still want to be a professional person.”

Ride for victory!

I may be wrong but I'm guessing that most of you reading this don't have $30,000 to spare. I'm also guessing that if for some reason you do, you're not going to spend it on a horse. Lastly I'm guessing that if you did spend it on a horse, you don't plan on using it to ride around like a Renaissance knight and whack a ball with a mallet.

Polo, in case you haven't caught on, is player-for-player, the most expensive major sport in the world and long regarded as the sole provenance of the wealthy. Logically, it should die out as the global economy withers. Yet there have long been men who infiltrated the sport and revived it among the common people, albeit in a slightly different format. Subtract the horse from the equation and suddenly polo looks a lot more feasible.

Bicycle polo, which was invented in Ireland and flourished in the U.K. until the middle of the century, has experienced a resurgence in the last decade with regular international tournaments and weekly meetings in both Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The game is essentially the same as polo, two teams ride around and try to score goals on each using the ball and mallet, only the horse is swapped out for specially fitted bicycles and instead of grass they play on any hard urban surface available. Parking lots, hockey rinks; anything will do. Teams of three players ride graceful loops around each other before clashing, mallets swinging wildly, in pursuit of the ball.

New players are encouraged, but the welcome includes a long list of disqualifying conditions. If you're afraid of intense physical contact, severe injury, speed or general embarrassment, then you are advised to stay at home. Otherwise, participation in everyday matches is free. Heck, you don't even need to show up with a team as they are created at random to put newbies at ease. There's also a pledge on the site for NYC Bike Polo, which organizes the matches, that promises the more experienced players won't knock you down until you've played at least a few matches.

Admittedly, bicycle polo is quite a step up from the high-octane but largely immobile action of foosball, but those looking for a little more danger in their lives would do well to check this one out.