Polo, Polo

Riders score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a long-handled mallet. The traditional sport of polo is played at speed on a large grass field up to 300 yards in length, and each polo team consists of four riders and their mounts.

Other variants include camel polo, elephant polo, bike polo and Segway polo. These sports are considered as separate sports because of the differences in the composition of teams, equipment, rules, game facilities etc.

Polo was at first a training game for cavalry units, usually the king's guard or other elite troops. To the warlike tribesmen, who played it with as many as 100 to a side, it was a miniature battle.

Ferdowsi also tells of Emperor Shapur II of the Sassanid dynasty of the 4th century who learned to play polo when he was only seven years old. Naqsh-i Jahan Square in Isfahan is in fact a polo field which was built by king Abbas I in 17th century.

Sports and Games of the 18th and 19th Centuries by Robert Crego. page 25. Published 2003. Greenwood Press. Sports & Recreation. 296 pagesISBN 0313316104 Chinese courtiers on horseback playing a game of polo, AD 706. The modern game of polo, though formalized and popularized by the British, is derived from Manipur (now a state in India) who played the game known as 'Sagol Kangjei','Kanjai-bazee', or 'Pulu' . It was the anglicised form of the latter, referring to the wooden ball which was used, that was adopted by the sport in its slow spread to the west. The first polo club was established in the town of Silchar in Assam, India, in 1834.

Local rituals such as those connected to the Marjing, the Winged-Pony God of Polo and the creation-ritual episodes of the Lai Haraoba festival enacting the life of his son, Khori-Phaba, the polo-playing god of sports. These may indicate an origin prior to the historical records of Manipur, which go back to the 1st Century A.D.

Weekly games called Hapta Kangjei (Weekly Polo) were also played in a polo ground outside the current Palace.

Military officers imported the game to Britain in the 1860s. The establishment of polo clubs throughout England and western Europe followed after the formal codification of rules.

The game was slow and methodical, with little passing between players and few set plays that required specific movements by participants without the ball. Neither players nor horses were trained to play a fast, nonstop game. This form of polo lacked the aggressive methods and equestrian skills to play. From the 1800s to the 1910s, a host of teams representing Indian principalities dominated the international polo scene.

The history of this pologround is contained in the royal chronicle "Cheitharol Kumbaba" starting from AD 33. Lieutenant Sherer, the father of modern polo visited the state and played on this polo ground in the 1850s. Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India visited the state in 1901 and measured the pologround as 225 yards long and 110 yards wide. The oldest royal polo square is the 16th century Gilget Polo Field, Pakistan, while the highest polo ground in the world, Shandur, located in district Chitral, Pakistan at 4307 meters (14,000 ft).A traditional polo tournament between the teams of Chitral and Gilgit takes place every year of July.Maj Cobb from British Raj was a polo fan and he used to come to Shandur for playing polo on the invitation of Mehtar Chitral in moon light.The oldest polo club in the world still in existence is the Calcutta Polo Club (1862).

The size of arena fields in the United States, where arena polo was first played, is often more variable where indoor armories and riding academies are still occasionally used.

Arena polo requires teams of three riders, and goals are scored by passing the ball into a 10-foot-wide by 12-foot-high goal recessed into the end walls.

Arena polo uses a small leather ball between 12.5 and 15 inches in circumference and looks like a miniature soccer ball.

The festival also includes Folk music ,dancing and a camping village is set up. http://www.tourismsouthasia.com/Pakistan/mountain_valleys/shandoor_polo_chitral.asp Gilgit, Chitral and Skardu have always played the game of polo closest to its original form. In the past, local Rajas, Mirs and Mehtars were the patrons of the game. At times, more than 50% of the annual budget of their principalities would be spent on supporting the game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXm-PdF24Uo&feature=related A polo game has periods of play, known as chukkas (also chukkers ).

They range from 14.2 to 16 hands high at the withers (one hand equals four inches or 10.16cm), and weigh between 900-1100 lbs. The polo pony is selected carefully for quick bursts of speed, stamina, agility and maneuverability.

The group of ponies for a given player is commonly referred to as a " string of polo ponies", with a minimum of 2 or 3 ponies in Low Goal matches (with ponies being rested for at least a chukker before reuse), 4 or more ponies for Medium Goal matches (at least one per chukker), many more for the highest levels of competition.

The indoor polo ball is leather-covered and inflated and is about 4 inches (11.4 cm) in diameter. The outdoor ball is about 3 inches (8.3 cm) in diameter and weighs about four ounces (113.4 g). The polo mallet has a rubber-wrapped grip and a webbed thong, called thumb sling, for wrapping around the hand. The shaft is made of manau-cane (not bamboo because it is hollowed)with a hardwood head from tipa wood approximately 9 inches in length. The mallet head weighs from 160 grams to 240 grams, depending on player preference and the type of wood used, and the shaft can vary in weight and flexibility depending on the players preference. The weight of the mallet head (also called "cigar") is of important consideration for the more seasoned players. Female players almost always use lighter mallets and cigars than male players. For some polo players, the length of the polo mallet depends on the size of the horse: the taller the horse, the longer the mallet.

Play is continuous and is only stopped for penalties, broken tack (equipment) or injury to horse or player. The object is to score goals by hitting the ball between the goal posts (which is usually a door with motion sensors). Balls cannot go out of bounds unless the arena played in doesn't have nets or anything to stop the ball going over the 4.5' wall. If the ball goes over it is considered a dead ball and is then bowled in. The arena is smaller than the field that polo is played on outside. Because of the small size of the arena, indoor polo play is slower than outdoor.

In Argentina, polo players are known as " polistas ." In the world of polo, Argentina's Heguy family, Pieres family, or Castagnola family, are to polo what the Barrymore family is to acting or the Khan family to squash.

Many polo athletes genuinely desire to broaden public participation in the sport, both as an end in itself and to increase the standard of play. The popularity of polo has grown steadily since the 1980s, and its future appears to have been greatly strengthened by its return as a varsity sport at universities across the world.

Brazil won three of the last 4 and came second once.Arena (or indoor) polo is an affordable option for many who wish to play the sport, and the rules are similar. The sport is played in a 300 feet by 150 feet enclosed arena, much like those used for other equestrian sports; the minimum size is 150 feet by 75 feet. There are many arena clubs in the United States, and most major polo clubs, including the Santa Barbara Polo & Raquet Club, have active arena programs. The major differences between the outdoor and indoor games are: speed (outdoor being faster), physicality/roughness (indoor/arena is more physical), ball size (indoor is larger), goal size (because the arena is smaller the goal is smaller), and some penalties. In the United States and Canada, collegiate polo is arena polo; in the UK, collegiate polo is both.

Indonesia, a country without royal ruling, has a polo club (Nusantara Polo Club). A South East Asian Polo Federation was formed with initial meeting in March 2008 that involves Royal Malaysian Polo Association, Thailand Polo Association, Indonesian Polo Association, Singapore Polo Association, Royal Brunai Polo Association and The Philippines Polo Association.

Such polo variants are mostly played for recreational or touristic purposes; they include canoe polo, cycle polo, camel polo, elephant polo, golfcart polo, Segway polo, BMX polo, yak polo and water polo.

Source: Wikipedia > Polo