I've spent a lot of time editing an interview I did
with Chris McKenzie down in Plettenberg bay.
Now, if you haven't listened to that interview,
you might not know who Chris is.
So, just briefly to tell you about him.
He's seven goals.
He's been involved with the Merlos brothers from Argentina for many
years. Most of those brothers are 10 goals.
He's played with them in all kinds of different competition.
From 22 goal,
down in England.
He travels the world playing as a professional and as a
very sought after professional.
But while I was editing this interview that I did with
him, they are some just amazing nuggets of information that you
have to get hold of.
So, what I wanted to do was just to extract just
a few of those absolute gems,
just to pick your kind of fancy there and make sure
that you actually get hold of the full interview,
because it is just the most amazing advice that you can
get. And I really want you to pay attention to it
because it'll make a real difference to your polo.
So, enjoy these few snippets,
but do get hold of the main interview and make sure
you watch it again and again,
because as you watch it more and more will come out
of it.
Do you want to take the ball in front of you?
Like any ball sport,
you want to take the ball in front of you.
You know,
you see,
I don't think there's any sport where you try and play
the ball behind you.
And particularly when you're tapping,
you want to keep the ball in front of you for
a few reasons.
First of all,
so you can have another swipe at the ball of you
miss it.
But mainly,
because if you get forward and you get low to the
ball, you can see the height of the ball.
The minute its underneath you,
you can't see what height the ball is.
You know,
your eyes can't tell if the ball is that far off
the ground,
that far off the ground,
or it's sitting on the ground.
Whereas when it's in front of you,
you can see the height of the ball and you can
play the ball.
Also, you probably avoiding the front legs of you having to
go left and having to go right.
I mean,
if you're tapping the ball here,
you literally,
you can go straight or right.
You've got no left movement,
you know,
which is probably one of the more difficult things,
but it limits you a fair bit.
So, you want to get down low,
a lot of weight in the legs and nice and firm.
Often beginners,
they get down to the ball,
they tap the ball,
and it's a thing that I used to do so clearly,
you have to re-balance,
you sit up again and you get back down to the
ball. You re-balance,
and you get back down to the ball,
and it creates a lot of movement,
and you end up missing the ball.
You need to get from in your saddle,
slightly out of your saddle.
So, the horse's movement,
isn't putting you up and down and moving you around and
you need to yeah.
Get damn strong on your legs,
so that you can stay down at the ball and you
can just watch the ball and not worry about what's happening
with the horse.
And then you can really see and follow the ball all
the way.
What I'm seeing so much,
though, when you're doing that,
is your lower leg from the knee is really almost back
and with the weight on the inside of your feet,
so that you riding very strongly in this part of your
body. And I see so many of these of the beginners,
and people that ride poorly,
and dribble poorly with that leg,
from the knee,
going straight down where the girth is instead of behind the
girth, back,
where it sets you up in front.
Is that a fair comment?
Okay. So,
when we talk about those legs,
sort of on the inside,
weight on the inside and,
pushing backwards.
Weight in the feet.
I just show you a little bit of an example of
what normally people do.
Normally people sit it as if they're sitting on a couch,
which is fine,
as long as it's relaxed,
but the minute you want to start working on your finer
skills, you've got to get your sort of foundation right.
And you've got to be balanced and strong on the horse.
And that comes from this riding position.
Instead of being on your butt,
as you can see,
you take a,
you know,
just to sort of a way to check yourself as if
you take a line from your hip,
to your shoulder,
to where your ankle is,
you see how it is slightly in front of where that
line of where my hip and shoulder is.
Then, you know,
the weight is on your arse.
Your legs are taking no weight and it's all on your
butt. That's fine for walking around,
sitting around,
having a jolly all the time.
But the minute you want sort of sharpen up and get
your body position right,
to carry the ball,
you have to bring your feet back.
You have to get off your butt.
You see how I wrote my ankle back in line with
my shoulder and my hip.
Now, the weight is in my feet,
and I take the weight and I push onto the inside
of my foot and give it an,
almost an outwards backwards kick.
And that lets me get out of my saddle and get
balanced. Nice and forward,
and be able to stay down,
and play the ball,
and get low,
and get back,
hit neck shots and things.
The slightly more complicated stuff.
The minute you are here,
you're doing everything broken,
everything's off balanced,
and you have to tap and you have to re-balance and
tap and re-balance.
The minute you bring your feet underneath you,
and behind you,
and kick into the inside of those feet,
you can stay down at the ball as long as you
want. You keep putting pressure on the outside,
in the sort of in my left leg and keep the
weight on the inside of those feet.
And you can play the ball wherever you want and stay
low with the ball,
as opposed to having your feet forward,
having to play,
and come back up,
play and come back,
and see I'm broken.
I've got no string through this middle part of my body.
It's all bent.
Practicing the stick and balling is,
is super important for me.
If you stick and ball in straight lines,
you wasting,
you know,
a hundred percent of your practicing time.
You should be hitting backhands to yourself.
You should be nearside,
offside, all the shots you're bad at you should be practicing
them all day,
as opposed to sitting,
you know,
the typical thing is,
and everyone's guilty of it,
myself included,
you go around hitting nice shots and think shew,
that's a beauty.
That's another beauty,
you know,
as opposed to going and practicing what you're bad at and
getting those things right.
It's a good thing too,
it's a hard one,
because if you're stick and ball your horses like you play
them, you'll wreck your horses.
So, you got to have,
in the back of your mind,
you can't go everyday and stick and ball,
stop and go,
stop and go.
Yeah. By the end,
they're going to be buggered.
You know what I mean?
But if you got there and I think of it a
bit like maintenance,
you know,
and it's,
it's a hard thing for beginners,
but when you stick and ball them,
you've got to get them going correct,
and easy,
and soft,
and light in the mouth.
And then on the field,
they'll do that etc.
And they'll do that for 10 years as opposed to for
three and eventually get a bit jumpy,
and a bit sore,
and a bit tired,
because you keep flogging them,
or riding them badly,
or practicing the wrong things.
But yeah,
you have to practice,
and stick and ball like you're going to play.
But I think just without the,
instead of the jamming stop,
you just bring them in tidy,
get them stopping on their back legs.
And then you move off from there,
as opposed to like you would have to on the field,
you know,
and, and just get them to respond off the legs and
things. Yeah.
I think when you're sticking and balling,
obviously yourself,
you practice,
and then the horses,
you just want them nice and light on their feet,
and light in the mouth,
and never pulling you.
You want them not be nice and loose reined.
And if you can very hard to get right.
But if you can get that transition of playing them nice
and they're ready,
and fast,
and strong,
and to then stick and balling them on a loose rein,
then you know,
you're obviously doing it right.
But yeah,
it's quite a hard thing.
Especially, sort of normal,
calm horses,
your best horse,
generally, you don't have to worry about it.
You jump on them and off they go quiet and easy.
But the ones that are a little bit on the edge
and you're having to just take it,
you know,
just manage them slightly.
It's a funny thing with horses,
they're into pressure animals.
You know,
if you stand in the stable and push the horse,
generally it pushes back.
And it's the same with the mouth.
If you hold the horse,
you think,
okay, the horse is just going to end up reversing.
But what they end up doing is running stronger,
and stronger,
and stronger into the bridle.
So, you've just got to be very careful with your hands
in those first few minutes.
Work them to the sides and don't spend time holding them,
you know,
and it's quite,
well then how you stop them from running.
It's, it's a bit of a feel you get up taking,
and releasing,
taking, and releasing,
getting them to just drop the head and relax.
And then,
like you say,
once they are nice and calm,
you can do whatever you want with them.
You know,
you give them a good workout.
You drop the range for a bit in the last minute,
and you can maintain those horses quietly sort of throughout their
career, as opposed to eventually as 12 year olds,
they're taking your around the stick and ball field,
which happens to a lot of people,
and happens to good riders as well.
Some horses naturally do that,
but the better your get,
you should have less and less horses doing that.
You should be able to keep them nice.
I think for others you've got to be a bit fussy
at the beginning with the horses.
You've got to understand that at whatever level you are,
you to have the horse that suits you,
you want them nice and relaxed,
in whatever situation.
The minute they're pulling you,
you've sort of lost the battle.
You know,
you're not playing polo anymore.
You're having to just fight and you sort of loose the
fun. So,
as a beginner,
get horses that are for beginners,
nice and relaxed.
And if you leave them for a week or you don't
ride them for two,
three months,
they still going to be nice and relaxed.
There are so many people taking the ball forwards one tap.
Forwards one tap helps you nothing.
At first,
you have a chance to miss the ball.
Second, you give the guys time to get close to you.
If you've got space with,
you know,
with the new rules,
you can't turn the ball anyway.
If you don't,
if you've got no space,
you've got to hit the backhand.
If you're turning the ball it's because you've got space.
The more speed you put into it,
slightly longer taps.
And always give yourself a change of direction,
a straight tap is a useless tap.
Always change the direction of where you're going.
Very few times,
even going to goal,
do you tap the ball dead straight.
You want to give yourself direction change and move onto it.
Keep the ball ahead of you.
Nice firm taps.
This at a canter looks like a long tap,
at a gallop it's nothing.
From there it's a simple distribution,
dead easy.
You want it to get more complicated.
You're just complicating your own life.
It's a simple sport,
we make it a bit more complicated with the extra touches
of the ball.