I wanted to just give you a quick preview of the
kind of help that you can get in the Academy.
Now in the Academy,
I've talked about the forehand,
the offside forehand,
and we've broken it down into five stages where we teach
you right from beginner steps,
right through to where you're hitting the ball really well,
as well as the pros and what you should be doing
to get to that point.
But the whole swing,
everything that you are going to add to it gets back
to this position and that wrist lock as you're hitting the
ball. Okay?
Because that's what imparts the energy and gets your mallet head
quick and it stops you pushing your hand and using only
your hand to make the swing.
Now I've had a video,
two videos in fact sent to me from some friends of
mine that are in the Academy and Joe is having a
problem on her nearside forehand.
Now I'm going to show you the videos,
but before I do,
let me explain what you're going to be watching because you
will have heard me always,
let me come up a little bit closer so you can
see my hand more clearly.
You will have heard me talk about the fact that your
flexor tendon is the strong tendon of your wrist,
okay? Because everything that you do that requires power or a
group uses this tendon,
and that's why it gets strong.
Now your extensor tendon and the tendons on the side of
your wrist,
the extensor tendon is just to let go - it doesn't
build up strength and the others are just for mobility.
You don't build up strength.
The only strength you have is if you drop your wrist
this way and engage this tendon.
Now you will,
if you are a part of the Academy,
guys pay attention and I hope all of you that are
on the Academy have really paid attention: number one to the
grip; secondly,
to the fact that you are engaging this tendon,
and I hope that you have gone through those stages lessons
to really get a good idea of what you're meant to
be doing.
For you guys on the polo like a pro page,
you obviously won't have seen those lessons.
So, let me just quickly go through.
If you drop your wrist this way and cock the wrist
correctly like that and not carry it in this,
you see if you carrying it straight like that,
you are using all your weak tendons to carry it.
The minute you drop your wrist - now you engage the
strong tendon of your hand,
of your wrist rather.
And the mallet now is more vertical than when you're carrying
it here.
So it feels much lighter.
And you will find that it's actually while you playing your
wrist and your arm don't get so tired trying to carry
the mallet,
falling down like this with the weak tendons of your wrist.
Now in your offside forehand that wrist cock does not change.
So at the back here,
you would be using the strong tendon of your arm to
make that mallet move.
But before I get into what she's done with the wrist,
let me first talk about a body position that she's adopted
because it's absolutely excellent.
You will see that what she has done is she's slid
her butt through so that her left butt cheek is on
top of the saddle.
Okay? And that counterbalances her top half going to the ball
so that she's still balanced here.
Now, the other real positive that that has,
is remember that the mallet will always follow where your forearm
is pointing.
So if your forearm is here,
if you sit in that forehand seat and you try and
take your arm back,
you see you can't get it back because your shoulders are
square to the direction of travel.
So now your forearm is pointing across,
okay? And the mallet then will always go out and across
your horse and you guys end up hitting these little neck
shots that are made to be straight forehands on the nearside.
And that's because of a seat,
okay, that you sitting square,
but you can't get your hand back,
your forearm is pointing to the right and that's where your
mallet goes to.
What Joe's done is she's made that shift,
which is excellent.
She's balanced.
And that allows her to get her elbow pointing at the
ball. Alright.
And her forearm parallel to the horse so now the arc
of the swing is great.
Let me just come back a little bit to where you
can see that she's made that little shift,,
which turns her hips gets her shoulders more here,
she can get an elbow to the ball.
And now that arc is perfect.
And that mallet coming through stays in the arc,
but now comes where she is running into problems and it
comes from what I've been talking about with the tendons of
the wrist.
Okay? What she's doing is as she comes back.
You will see,
she turns her wrist the wrong way.
She actually hoods her wrist like this and now she's using
all the weak tendons of her hand.
So when she comes back,
you can see that shape and the mallet head is vertical.
I mean,
sorry is parallel to the ground,
not vertical.
You can see,
as I changed my grip from my wrist from here,
there is that if I drop my wrist,
my mallet now is vertical and comes through and pronates at
the bottom.
So the hassle is that if you do this,
number one,
if you want the ball to go straight,
okay, let me come back a bit so that you can
see. If you've turned your wrist in,
when you hit the ball like this,
if you want it to go straight,
you are going to push because you cannot use your wrist.
You're pulling the mallet through you never flipping that wrist at
the bottom,
which is what gives you the power.
Now to do that,
you've got to have that wrist position that I'm talking about.
Okay? Because here I've engaged the strong tendons,
my wrist is already cocked.
That does not move.
So as I come across,
now, the mallet head vertical comes down and pronates at the
bottom of the swing.
So that through the bottom of the swing,
my mallet is quick and my hand is slow.
The other way.
I'll always be pushing it.
And if I push it this way and try and use
my wrist,
what happens is the actual mallet makes an unnatural,
shape to the head and the ball will go to the
right. So,
if you've tried to use your wrist from there,
you're going to cut the ball and you are going to
injure your wrist,
where if you cock it correctly,
you come back here.
Now that mallet coming down and you pronating your wrist correctly
at the bottom,
you will have the power through that way.
So, let's have a look at Joe and I'll show you
exactly what we're talking about here.
Enjoy, and I hope it really helps you.
Just take a look at that here with me hitting a
nearside forehand,
you will see I've already made that slight seat adjustment.
My left butt cheek is on the top of the saddle.
I've got strong legs here.
You can see my wrist is dropped.
The mallet head is vertical.
So as I make the turn,
my elbow will be able to point at the ball,
getting my shoulders parallel to the horse,
mallet coming down vertical there,
pronating at the bottom and able to go through and the
follow-through going straight instead of across and underneath the horse.
Here it is at normal speed and you will see how
easily that forehand happens because my forearm is parallel to the
horse and my wrist is set correctly.
So now let's take a look at Joe and have a
look first at her body position.
You can see her left butt cheek on top of the
saddle, her shoulders are parallel to the horse as is her
forearm. And because of that,
the swing plane is absolutely perfect,
straight down and straight through so great body position.
But now let's go back and have a look at her
wrist. There you can see that unnatural bend in instead of
dropping the wrist.
And because of that,
as she starts to swing,
look there it's accentuated even more.
So you've got a very unnatural look to that wrist,
and she will always be pushing the ball like this,
and because she's pushing it,
she makes it go straight to here.
But if you try and use your wrist,
you will see in the next clip that the ball goes
immediately to the left-hand side in a cut.
Take a look in this clip again,
you can see her changing her body position very nicely in
the back swing,
getting her shoulders and forearm parallel to the horse so that
the arc of the swing is good.
But now focus on a wrist and see what she's doing
here. And you will see as I've described at the beginning,
rolling her wrist under,
instead of dropping it.
And because of that,
she will be pulling the mallet through.
Then you can see the pool with the back of the
palm facing forwards instead of the leading edge of the palm.
And as she tries to use the wrist and pronate there,
there goes the ball off to the left-hand side in the
cut, as I said.
So, one more look at normal speed.
You can see her turn,
but watch the wrist.
It is.
And there's the cut.