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A team is made up of four players.
The four players on each team are assigned positions, designated by numbers from 1 to 4 and worn
on the team jerseys.
- Number 1 is the forward, an offensive player, concentrating on opportunities for scoring.
- Number 4 is the back, a defensive player, primarily responsible for defending the team's
goal and fast breaks.
- Usually, the most experienced and highest rated players are at positions 2 and 3.
- Number 3 is the field captain, often the most experienced, the pivotal player, and
coordinates the offensive, and passing the ball up field to teammates as they press toward
the enemy goal, assists the scorers and aids in defense.
- Number 2 moves the play on both offense and defense at all times.
Anticipating where the play will be next, hearing the ball, riding to position: polo has no set plays.
On defense, each player is also assigned a man to cover. Number 1 usually covers opposing number
4 and number 2 covers opposing number 3.
HITTING THE BALL
A polo mallet is made of a bamboo shaft with a hardwood head. It is used to hit a plastic polo
ball about 3 to 3 ½ inches in diameter weighing 3 ½ to 4 ½ ounces. The word "polo" is derived from
the Tibetan word "pulu" for ball.
Players hit the ball with a polo mallet using one of four basic shots. The four basic shots are
named for the side of the pony from which shots are made. The "near-side" is on the left side of
the mount. The "off-side" is on the right side of the mount.
- forehand - to hit the ball forward or laterally to a teammate
- backhand - changing the flow of play by sending the ball in the opposite direction
- neckshot - hitting the ball under the horse's neck
- tailshot - hitting the ball behind and under the horse's rump
POLO PONIES
Players must change mounts after each chukker due to the extreme demands placed on the pony.
Therefore, a team usually has a minimum of 24 horses available during the match. It is not
uncommon that 90% or more of the horses played are mares.
A pony goal occurs when a polo pony, usually by kicking the ball, causes the ball to go through
the goal posts. This is natural for equine athletes who love the game as much as their riders.
This type of gal counts and is a real crowd pleaser.
CHUKKERS
A polo match lasts about one and one-half hours and is divided into periods called chukkers.
- There are six chukkers in a polo match.
- Each chukker is seven minutes long.
- Breaks between chukkers are three minutes long, with a five minute halftime.
The ball is rolled in by an official to start the polo match or resume play after a time
out. Each team lines up in numerical order, directly behind the other. The opposing team
lines up the same way. The umpire rolls the ball between the two teams, and play begins.
The game clock is stopped:
- in case of a foul,
- fallen pony or rider,
- pony or player injured,
- broken tack,
- loss of helmet,
- or if the ball rolls out of bounds.
A player may leave the field to change ponies without a time out being called if the pony
is not playing well but isn't visibly injured.
A lost or broken mallet does not stop play, and the player may leave the field for a
replacement before returning to play, or simply reverse the mallet and strike the ball
with the handle.
HANDICAPS
Polo players are ranked yearly by their peers and the USPA on a scale of - 2 to 10 goals.
Team play is handicapped on the basis of ability.
All players, male and female, are rated under the same handicap system.
- About two-thirds of the rated players carry a rating of 2 goals or less.
- Only a few players ever advance beyond 3 goals.
- A rating of 5 goals and above usually indicates a professional player.
A team's handicap is the total of its players' handicap ratings. The handicaps of each
player on a team are added together resulting in a handicap rating for a team.
The lower rated team is then awarded the difference in goals from the higher rated team on
the scoreboard prior to the start of the match.
- For example, a 6 goal team playing a 7 goal team would start out with one goal on
the scoreboard.
There are many ways to build a team that meets the tournament's goal limit. Quite often a
strong team will want a ringer, a new or under rated player, to balance the team's higher
ranked players.
UMPIRES
Two mounted umpires do most of the officiating, with a referee (or third man) at midfield
having the final say in any dispute between the umpires. With such a large field and the speed
of a polo match, the referee is usually busy.
PENALTIES
Penalties are awarded as free hits. The more severe, the shorter the distance to the goal mouth.
Penalty shots are given from any position the umpires choose from the goal line to midfield,
with or without a defender allowed in the goal, depending on the severity of the foul.
After each goal, the teams change direction.
For complete details please refer to the penalty rules.
RULES
This brief overview of the rules of polo is for the spectator only. Most of the rules of polo
are for the safety of the players and their ponies. If you want to play, learn them thoroughly.
For complete detail please refer to the USPA Outdoor Rules.
- Although there are many rules to the game of polo, the primary concept is safety, for
the player and his mount.
The basic concept is the line of the ball, a right-of-way established by the path of the traveling ball.
When a player has the line of the ball on his right, he has the right-of-way. This can only be
taken away by moving the player off the line of the ball by making shoulder-to-shoulder contact.
A player can
- hook an opponent's mallet,
- push him off the line,
- bump him with his horse
- or steal the ball from him.
The umpires' primary concerns are right of way and the line of the ball.
- The line of the ball is an imaginary line that is formed each time the ball is struck.
- This line traces the ball's path and extends past the ball along that trajectory.
The player who last struck the ball is considered to have right of way, and not other player may
cross the line of the ball in front of that player, or push that player off the line. Riding
alongside to block or hook is allowed, as long as the player with right of way is not impeded.
Bumping or riding off is allowed as long as the angle of attack is less than 45 degrees, and any
contact must be made between the pony's hip and shoulder.
A player may hook or block another player's mallet with his mallet, but no deliberate contact between
players is allowed. A player may not purposely touch another player, his tack or pony with his mallet.
The mallet may only be held in the right hand. Left handed players are often thought to hit with less
accuracy, but guide their ponies better than their right handed peers.
Ponies play for a maximum of two chukkers per match.
HISTORY
The exact origin of polo, the world's oldest team sport, is unknown.
Polo was probably first played by nomadic warriors over two thousand years ago. Used for
training cavalry, the game was played from Constantinople to Japan in the Middle Ages.
Tamerlane's polo grounds can still be seen in Samarkand. British tea planters in India first
saw the game in the early 1800's.
However, it is not until the 1850's that the British cavalry drew up the first rules and by the
1870's, the game was well established in England.
James Gordon Bennett, a noted American publisher, brought polo to New York in 1876. Within ten
years, there were major clubs all over the east including Long Island.
Over the next 50years, polo achieved tremendous popularity in the United States. By the 1930's,
polo was an Olympic sport and crowds in excess of 30,000 regularly attended international
matches at the Meadow Brook Polo Club on Long Island.
In the 1950's, intercollegiate polo was played by only four teams. Today, it includes more
than 25 colleges and universities.
Player membership in the United States Polo Association has more than tripled with over 250 active clubs.
AUDIENCE
Polo is played in more than 60 countries and enjoyed by more than 50 million people each year.
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