My very first weekly tip was an article about a simple exercise of 1-2-3 to tune up your swing. Quick review:

1.  is proper preparation with your shoulders
2. is rotating your hips and shoulders through your swing while brushing the playing surface with the head of your mallet, low in your leg.
3. is finishing with your mallet head in the direction you want your shot to go

In polo and tennis, you need to be able to angle your shots from any position to any position if you are a top ranked player, whereas in golf, you are normally allowed to re-position your feet in the direction you would like to have the ball go. If we allow our mallet head to always close immediately after we make contact with the ball on the forehanders, the ball will pull left on our off-side and pull right on our nearside. Same result with the backhanders. That is because we are actually allowing the mallet head to turn counter clockwise on the offside fore and clockwise on our nearside-fore as the ball leaves the mallet. There are some who say that this natural hand rotation is a good thing. My position is that if you do this too early, while your mallet and ball are still in contact with each other, the direction of the ball will be determined by the rotation of your hand. I have had a good deal of success in my own accuracy, as well as helping many others by keeping the focus on the mallet head being properly positioned at the finish of the swing.

I now offer you steps #4 & #5.

#4. Keep your head down and make certain your eyes follow the cane

As in tennis and golf, we need to keep our head, and therefore our shoulders down as we finish our swing. Your eyes must follow the cane/shaft through the swing. The majority of players in polo finish their swings with their head and eyes up above their follow-through and high in the saddle. Interestingly enough, the majority of players are also handicapped at 2 and lower. For years, I had very good backhanders and average forehanders on a professional level. I had pretty good accuracy with my forehanders but lacked the distance. So my #3 was ok, but #4 was weak.

The reason. On my backhanders, my eyes followed the cane. I dropped my shoulders forward as I turned them through my shot, and my head was below the cane on my follow-through. Not so on my forehanders. It was not until very late in my career that a friend noticed I was not doing so on my forehanders. When I placed my focus on dropping my head more and following the cane, bingo. The loft and distance were now in place. A very famous gentleman by the name of Daniel Gonzalez (former 10 goaler and father of Mariano Gonzalez) had helped me one season in Santa Barbara with my knock-ins. I was able to get a long ball on the knock-n after his guidance, but still struggled at speed. Why? At speed I reverted back to what felt right to me, my well-established old habits. So 4, just as in golf, is huge…no wait a minute…HUGE !!

#5. Now, here comes the dangerous part…

To get good snap through the ball, we need to do two things. One, we rotate our shoulders and hip through the ball. Two, and here’s the dangerous part, we have to speed up our swing a tad by putting some pressure on the grip with our hand as we swing towards the ball. This will speed up the swing just a tad so that the mallet will snap through the ball just ahead of our arm and shoulders. This snap is why we like mallets to have a little whip down low in the cane. This snap will accelerate the head and give more power and lift in your shots.

So why is everyone telling me I swing too hard or fast? Because most of us do. We swing hard with our arm, way too hard, and have very little body rotation, which along with the horse is the real source of the power. So even the mere mention of #5, to speed up your swing is very dangerous to share. There is the great possibility that your swing may revert right back to what you were doing wrong in the first place. If speeding up your swing causes you to come up with your head and shoulders, then you are not yet ready for #5. #5 is only for those who are now disciplined with steps 1-2-3-and 4. If 5 causes 3 & 4 to disappear, then forget 5 for now. 3 & 4 are way more important.

It would be of great help to have your swings on video. Just have someone video your swings during stick and ball and in a game. (often our stick and ball swing and our game swing are two different swings. Why? Two words: speed and speed. Well, sometimes there is that nervous thing…so maybe three words. We need to start earlier than we think we need to start at speed…..but that is another article (but start earlier at speed…sounds pretty darn simple doesn’t it…faster…earlier).

Off-side forehand follow through.

Off-side back follow through

Nearside back follow through

Nearside forehand follow through.

As you review your swings, are all the steps in place 1-2-3-4-5?

1. Preparation
2. Rotation of your body through the swing and down low enough in your leg to be under the ball.
3. Follow-through and finish with whichever stroke you are executing
4. Head and eyes following cane
5. Speed up mallet head a tad as you begin swing

I put 5 last as 1-4 need to be in place first.
I wish you greater distance, loft, and accuracy, with far less effort. Happy Polo !!

La Dolfina played brilliantly throughout. Juan Marin Nero had an excellent game as did David Stirling. I’d be surprised if Stirling remains at 9 goals for much longer.

http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player?id=319776

Maragata polo has been kind enough to record and share these helmet cam videos from some of their practices.

I really enjoy these helmet cam practices. Watching these, it’s very easy to feel yourself slip into “game mode.” I’ll start off watching them very dispassionately: “Nice backhand there,” “Where’s he going with that?” etc. But very quickly I’ll find myself much more absorbed, totally within the game. “Look for the hook” becomes, more simply, “hook hook hook!”

I find it impossible to watch these without getting an adrenaline rush. I think it also motivates me to analyze my own play in a way that’s difficult to do otherwise. Even though I haven’t been on the polo field all winter, after watching one of these, I’ll find myself thinking of the ways I would have reacted (or perhaps more accurately, thinking of the ways that I hope I would have reacted!) when I find myself in similar situations.

If, like me, your winter has been long and has suffered from a dearth of polo — enjoy these videos. They’ll get you excited for the summer season! And if you like these, check out the “Practicing with Ellerstina” videos as well!

This video, edited by the Hurlingham Polo Association, illustrates common polo fouls encountered while turning the ball, blocking, and at the throw-in. The video illustrates not only the actual fouls (taken from tournament footage) but also provides examples of how the same maneuvers can be accomplished, or when they can be accomplished, without fouling.

All-in-all a very useful clip. It’s one thing to read descriptions of fouls, or to see diagrams in a book, but seeing both good and bad examples taken from actual game footage is extremely helpful to me at least. Enjoy!

This one aspect of the game seems to come up as the common denominator in most of the accidents involving serious injury.

I realize that there is an acceptable level of risk to be associated with anything that provides the motion thrills similar to polo. However, when you step on a roller-coaster, you are pretty well assured that you will remain on the tracks throughout the ride and no one is going to ride up alongside of you and purposely try to toss you off your cart. I believe that we can make some important adjustments that will significantly reduce the incidence of serious injury, without lessening the caliber of play. In fact, I think the results of these changes will promote the characteristics of the game that are far more representative of true skill on the part of the players. It is the lesser skilled players that are always assigned the task of eliminating a higher rated mallet from the opposition.

If you read the rule that deals with the ride-off, you will already see that the USPA has put a lot of thought behind the correct procedure for riding-off. And there is quite a list of factors that the umpires are supposed to be considering, including size of the mounts, awareness, and fatigue of the horse.

I encourage you to consider these suggestions:

I feel we need to re-address the rule associated with riding-off another player and put in even stronger language. I suggest an International campaign to address this very serious problem of misjudgment of the factors involved in riding another player off. It is to the safety of our membership that we might consider replacing some of the ooos and ahhhsss on the sidelines with more whistles on the field of play.

The seven thoughts to ride by, while riding-off.

1. First you must come parallel to another player prior to the ride-off or any contact !
2. You must adjust your speed to the player you attend to make contact with.
3. Then the angle is determined by the speed. If you are at a full run, very little angle is necessary. If you are at slower speeds, a greater angle is acceptable.
4. You can not be any more than six inches in front or behind the opponents’ leg when you actually make contact.
5. Once you make contact, you must continue to match the speed of the opponents’ horse.
6. If you choose to disengage from the opponent, you should move away laterally, and then continue forward. Or if you are losing the ride-off, pull away laterally from the other mount as they accelerate.
7. Any bump that even causes a horse to lose their balance, even for a single stride should be strictly penalized. If a bad bump is not penalized, what would stop a player from possibly putting on even a little more angle on the next attempt?

Simply stated, I am suggesting reducing the angle at top speeds to just a few degrees.

I would encourage more responsibility on the rider in front to take care of the rider behind if you disengage or pull away.

In teaching and coaching polo most of us have stressed the importance of taking the man defensively, perhaps more so then any other single aspect of the game.

There is one factor that is far more important than taking a man, and that is a player’s safety. So I offer “Field Awareness” as the primary focus, as our daily mantra. Another common coached tidbit of misinformation is “turn away from your back-shots”. I would suggest looking first before we turn in any direction is a far healthier and more productive option. Sometimes it is a better play to continue in the same direction after a back-hander, or possibly even turning over the line….if no one is coming from behind. Once we focus on any single aspect of the game, we lose focus of the field, of our Field Awareness. Losing focus of the field has and will continue to cause serious accidents. Some of the worst wrecks have been between teammates going to the same play!! Their focus was the ball as opposed to the field.

Badly timed bumps (horses legs getting tangled) and bumps with too much angle have been responsible for a number of serious injuries and one death that I am personally aware of.

Field Awareness is no different from Driving Defensively. The good drivers are aware of all of the traffic around them and ahead of them. They stay alert to unexpected and sometimes even illegal moves of the other cars around them. They drive, leaving themselves an “out” if there were another collision close to their own proximity. We are taught to drive with “Field Awareness”. Anytime we place full focus on cell phones, pda’s, i-pods, friends, or kids in the back-seat, we lose our field awareness on the freeway. Some states have outlawed the use of hand held phones altogether. When you are on the polo field, and your entire focus is on riding off a player, you might as well be on your cell phone looking up a name in your contact file. I am calling for a higher level of field awareness in each moment of every chukker. I believe that every player can benefit from this information, even if there are no rule adjustments to address the problem. If you ride with this information, you might possibly lose a play here and there, but you may just save a life, perhaps your own. Here’s wishing you many decades of the greatest game on this planet !!

Circling is also a great way to calm a nervous horse. You let them trot or canter in a circle. They will begin to settle as they realize they are not really going anywhere, but there are at least able to move. If you are heading across an open field….it is a whole different story, as the horse sees the option of taking off. Rarely, a horse will break into runaway mode. This is not normally applicable to a school horse, but under the right conditions, any horse is capable. Especially when a horse or group of horses come flying by you. Why? They are herd bound. They…by their very nature….run with the pack. So it is not so much that they are willfully disobeying you, if they tend to run with others, it is they are obeying what is built into them instinctively. Their prehistoric mode is what has helped them to survive until this modern day. That mode is “fright and flight”. They are not fighters unless cornered. They run from their perception of danger.

I’m not so sure why their fear of danger for some horses may be something as terrifying as a monarch butterfly launching off a leaf on a nearby bush, but maybe to them, that may be a possible signal of more to follow. You know…like birds flushing out of the trees right before the lion attacks. Of course…I don’t think these horses have seen any lions in these parts…ever….but they say….. old habits die hard.

Another potential problem is heading back to the barn. Always a sound idea to go back at a controlled pace. If you are a weak rider and they are strong willed (and possibly really hungry) you may not want to gallop towards the barns…they may plot a new flight plan without any consideration to the passenger….you.

In any event, horses are very perceptive and some of them are very skittish and nervous. Those kind of horses are not considered good trail riding kind of horses. Good trail horses are those who are pretty indifferent to what dangerous creatures may be lurking on the other side of those fences and hedgerows. The kind of horse that makes you want to start whistling zippety do dah….you know….like in splash mountain at Disneyland…but without the 60 foot drop. One of the reasons that some places are not crazy about loose dogs out on the trails is when fido starts to dart in and out of the bushes. Those horses that are a tad skiddish with a monarch butterfly could have major heart failure with fido. We had a guy once who always took his trusted fido. One day, fido jumped out in front of his horse and he fell off and broke his arm. I know there is a lesson in there somewhere.

If your horse were to take off unexpectedly and you are not able to stop them, circling is a great way of gaining leverage and therefore re-establishing control by turning them into smaller and smaller circles until they stop. If you happen to be on one of those rare runaways, you want to separate into two hands and begin to pull the horse’s head into one direction. In my forty years, I have had only one horse that kept running straight with its head pulled all the way to the right. If that happens….do what I did….pray……..except Im not sure oh sh_t is amongst the verses of scripture….but it was going across the ticker tape of my mind on that day.

I wish you safe passage through the forests of dangerous butterflies !!!!!

Everyone falls eventually — as polo players know all too well! After Prince Harry’s much publicized, if minor, fall this past Sunday in the Hamptons I thought I would take the opportunity to point out Tom Goodspeed’s excellent article on knowing when and how to make an “emergency dismount” from a moving horse as safely as possible.

I thought that Prince Harry managed the fall quite well! He picked his spot, cleared his stirrups, dismounted to the side of the horse, and rolled when he landed. And most importantly, he was able to walk away when all was said and done.

I hope the rest of the team enjoyed the beer!

Ok, what could one possibly talk about? Undefended. Just take the shot. Hit it through, score and throw-in. Miss, knock-in. Short, knock-in from that spot. Defense, none, nada. As I type, there is discussion to again allow a defense to the open goal outdoor. For those of you new to the game, they use to allow defenders to jump over the back line and race across the front of the goal just as the shot was taken. The ongoing debate about bringing it back is all about safety. No defense, no chance of anyone getting hurt. The other side of the debate is that the whole game is a chance of getting hit, so why is it all of a sudden an issue on penalties?

Well, while the polo world continues the debate, this article will go with the present ruling, no defense.

Tip #1: Defense

If you are defending, stand both behind the end line and well wide of the goal posts. You are not allowed to stand between the goal posts, and why would you? Do you like being drilled by a hard plastic ball being fired at you? And if your answer is yes to the previous question, at least think of the horse. I always turned my horse away from the shot being attempted, to protect the horse’s head from the attempted shot. There is absolutely no reason to be anywhere near the goal posts. So stay behind the line and well to the side in case someone hits a hard shot wide of goal. If you do not stay behind the goal line and at least 30 yards from where they set the ball, you will wind up giving the hitting team another shot if they miss. So if they award a spot hit from 2 yards out, you are suppose to be 28 yards behind the back line.

Sometimes a team or team member that has committed the foul will canter back to the throw-in with the feeling that the penalty is a given. In my years, I have seen some shots missed from inches, not yards, inches away from goal. I certainly cant remember doing so myself, and if I did, I would have surely blocked that experience from memory, (please, no write ins). So if the goal is important to the outcome of the game, stay behind the goal line, you just never know.

Tip #2: Offense

The open goal allows us to focus on hitting straight. We are not forced to hit hard due to someone rushing out, trying to defend. So don’t hurry yourself. You are only allowed one approach, so start back a ways so you can get a good line to the ball. Some canter, some walk. Do whatever you are most comfortable with. Some horses will not steady at the walk, some won’t steady at the canter. You should take a full, steady swing with your focus on following through straight. Too many players shorten their swing and wind up getting tight, which usually winds up in a missed opportunity. Don’t swing hard, just swing through the ball and keep your focus on your mallet head facing the goal as you finish your swing. As you only get one pass outdoors, sometimes your horse may take a funny step just about when you are ready to hit. Try to maintain calm and adjust your swing to make the best of what you are left with. You should practice taking shots on the wrong lead, at a trot, and at various angles, so that at least you are familiar with hitting under various conditions. It would be wonderful to always get that great approach, but not very realistic. It’s not always all about a great shot, sometimes it is just the shot that works. You get a goal if the ball rolls through or if it sails through, so with no defense, straight is our focus. Happy Polo !!

So even though you are moving forward, you are adjusting the horse laterally at the same time. So why do you need to know anything about leg yielding when all you want to know is how to go fast, turn, and stop?

Being able to adjust a horse a few inches or a few feet from one side to the other is what allows the better riders to adjust to a bouncing outdoor ball, to win more ride-offs, and to get their horse closer to the boards in the arena than you seem to be able to do. Not to mention getting a better balanced frame on your horse while moving around the field.

Frame is referencing your horse’s positioning. Are they aligned straight down through their neck and back as they should be when moving straight, or is their some arc or curviture to that same neck and back line as it would be if you were bending to the right or to the left while you circle for example.

It gets a little more complicated when the curve of that frame is actually bent in an arc to seemingly be going to the right, but in fact you are asking for the horse to move their body to the left. Hmmmmm?? What is this guy talking about and why is this taking up the space of a decent tip on polo ?? Ok, fair question, but stay with me, it is a very good tip.

If you pull your right rein just a tad or shorten them when holding all your reins in one hand, but you apply strong right leg pressure at the same time, your horse should move or yield to your leg and actually move to the left as you are moving forward. This is exactly what you can use to aid in your ride-offs, moving off the ball a tad, or getting closer to the wall. With the opposite cues, the horse would move to the right as they move forward.

A good drill to teach your horse to respond better to your leg, is the turn on the forehand. You stand alongside the arena wall or out in the open will work. You try to keep your horse’s front legs relatively still, as you ask for your horse to turn their haunches around in a circle by squeezing or kicking with your appropriate lower leg. So if you want their haunches or rear quarters to turn to the left, you use your right leg. You must be patient and carefully hold and release with your hands, while you ask with your leg. You want the front legs to stay in a fairly small circle, while the hindquarters move around. This is the opposite of the rollback. A rollback is when the horse pivots on their hindquarters and turns into a new direction. A turn on the forehand is used for training purposes at a standstill. To teach your horse to yield or move away from your leg pressure.

If you are having a lot of trouble, you can assist your horse by turning a little with your hands, but keep using a lot of leg. Eventually, they should just move off your leg without asking them to turn with your hand. But BE PATIENT !!

So as you are hitting the ball and your horse drifts either a little too far away or too close, guess what will allow you to make that adjustment, if you and your horse have been working on leg yielding or lateral movement.

You are trying to win that ride-off. What do you think is more effective? Using your hands only and steering towards your opponent, or using your hands and outside leg together to get your horse’s body into that ride-off.
When you and your horses are communicating well through the combination of your hands and legs, you are able to get to many more plays, more effectively.

You are turning to the right and your horse is leaning too much into the turn and too close to the ball. You steady with your reins and squeeze with your right leg and the horse adjusts their frame more around your leg and off the ball a tad. That allows a safer more balanced turn and a better opportunity to make a play on the ball.

I will admit, we have entered the world of brussel sprouts and tedious detail when we go deeper into equitation like this, but it is what separates those that move around the field as part of their horse to those who ride around simply on top of their horse.

And there is nothing wrong with riding on top of a horse, you are not alone, or rather, they are not alone. However, you must also accept the fact that simply riding on top of one’s horse increases your odds of winding up underneath your horse more often. There are other factors at work, such as gravity, but that is another subject that you can find additional info on if you just do a google search-type in Sir Isaac Newton.
Happy Polo !!

Polo also resumes play with a throw-in after every out of bounds and some whistles where no foul is the determination. Some infractions of procedure also are resolved with a throw-in, so it is rather obvious that throw-ins are a key factor in the play of the game. At the very least, it is a necessary evil.

1) The first piece of advice is to get to your position in the throw-in quickly. This may sound simple, but it is amazing how many times players are slow getting back to the throw-in. Save the victory celebrations for after the game, get back to the throw-in following goals. When balls go out of bounds, get to that area quickly so that you are ready. Instead of big long arcs back to the throw-in, plot a more direct course from where you are to your position in the throw-in. I know, it sounds pretty darn obvious, but…….direct line, less strides, less time, less wear and tear. One good example where less is more.

2) Get to your man in the throw-in. You may be forced to your nearside, but putting your opponent in your pocket and having a free side to stroke the ball is more effective than getting hooked. There are some cases where the abilities of the two opponents are not evenly matched, so at times, if you truly do have the quicker mallet and horse, you may choose to try to beat your opponent to the ball.

3) Watch your swings-You are not allowed full swings in close quarters, but it is usually just the more reckless ones that actually get called. Faces are down looking for the ball and players are in close quarters. A full hard swing in this situation screams potential trouble. So be aware-be very aware of your face, your opponents, and all of the horses.

Generally, the number ones are supposed to try to turn down field for a pass and at the same time hold the opposing number one from getting loose to quickly. If you do get the ball, you should probably bring it to the boards or sidelines first, get your momentum going and then either release the pass or take it yourself. A quick neck shot out of the throw-in is usually a turnover to the other team.

The number four players outdoors and the number three players in the arena usually line up a little more defensively. They sit out to the side about five to twenty feet and at a slight angle to stop any fast breaks. The angle also allows them to turn back to the ball quicker if the ball goes all the way through.

If the umpire is following the book to the letter, they will not throw-in the ball unless both teams are on their proper sides. However, there can be a lot of grey matter here. Some umpires improvise a bit and will throw the ball in quickly, catching unprepared players off balance. They may wait too long and put the teams into an endless exercise of turning back around. And when you do turn back around-big tip here-keep your eyes on the umpire while you turn around. If you need to talk to your teammate while in the throw-in, talk to them with your eyes focused on the umpire.

Some umpire may be a little slack on allowing contact before the umpire bowls it in, and in those cases, you have to try to get the advantage on your opponent before they get it on you.

4) Umpire’ style. If the umpire is insisting on the lane and throwing in hard, expect more of the plays to be all the way through or out the back. If the umpire is allowing a little contact and not demanding the clearance, most of the plays will start off near the front of the throw-ins. If the throw-n is from the sidelines outdoors, you will often see players turned around facing the middle of the field so they even go with the direction of the ball on a better line to goal, whereas defensively, the better play may be back to the boards or sidelines in an effort not to give your opponents a good look at goal.

5) Strategy -You need to talk to your team to find out what your most effective strategy may be for the throw-ins for your team with consideration to who you are up against. Some teams insist their number ones to move out of the throw-ins. Some teams don’t want the number one player to do anything but hold the opposing #1, others just want you to get down field for a pass. Some teams mandate that their team members not turn back defensively if the ball bounces to your defensive side, allowing for your three to get to the ball and then they will decide whether to get a pass to the offense or go the other end to the #4.

6) A quick jump to the ball out of the throw-in can often result in a costly fouls shot. One second your opponents are 150 yards from goal and the next second, with an anxious play and the sound of a whistle, they are only 60 yards away. And they didn’t even have to hit the ball. Your enthusiasm just hit it for them, 90 yards, not a bad shot. Just the wrong direction.

The line changes quickly in the throw-in as it is deflecting off of horses and mallets. The other challenging factor is that at center field, the line may be from sideline to sideline, but we want to go end line to end line. If the opponent is near, you only have one option, and that is to follow the line of the ball. It may be a more difficult shot, but it is the only shot they have. Even if you can’t make it, at least make them hit the ball those 90 yards, don’t do it for them.

I think one of the most complicating issues of throw-ins is that you are not properly aligned with the man you are covering on the field. Outdoors you are lined up against the opposing #1, yet your proper opponent is their #4 player. This often times makes it a little confusing for amateur players. You are almost doomed from the start.

But if you think of polo in the more traditional sense of the number one and two players breaking out of the throw-in and the opposing Number three and four players jumping out to pick them up, the line up makes sense. However, there are a lot of times when there is a good deal of contact in the throw-in and no one is jumping out away from anyone and the twosomes in the throw-in wind up paired up until a time when you have the option of getting back to your opponent and your position.

I have had teams actually place our number one player against their #4 right in the throw-in. It may be a little unorthodox, but when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense to just line up against the players you are marking as opposed to the normal throw-in assembly. Remember, we once were convinced that the world was flat. In the world of polo fields, we wish it were.