- Okay, well now you're just showing off, Nacho.
- You have to listen.
(laughing loudly)
- Woo, I couldn't even get--
- And he scores!
(air swooshing)
Today, we're learning Polo from an actual, legit,
Polo champ.
It has come to my attention that Kristin and I
know how to fake fancy things.
We're very good at pretending to be rich.
Like, we pretended to be princesses for a day.
We have tried hooped skirts.
We, you know, did 18th century hair.
- And now, we're going to try the sport of kings, Polo.
- I was thinking about golf, but golf is boring.
- [Interviewer] Polo is a sport of rich people, mostly.
- It is, 'cause you have to afford a whole-ass horse.
You can't just get three kids and stick them
in a horse costume.
- I'd be very worried for the horses and the joints.
Like how do you not hit horses with hammers?
Sounds dangerous, we're not doing any of that.
We're drinking champagne.
- I do think that we're gonna spill a lot of champagne
on ourselves.
- And riding hobby horses, and learning from
a very knowledgeable and sweet man named Nacho.
- Hello, I'm Nacho Figueras and I'm
a professional polo player.
I grew up in Argentina where Polo, it's
a bit more common than elsewhere in the world.
I started playing when I was nine years old, and
I've been playing polo ever since.
- [Interviewer] Are you excited about, like, riding
on a horse today?
- Are we riding on horses today?
- [Interviewer] Look behind you.
- Are we, oh (laughs loudly) ...
We're riding on those today?
- You know, it's been a long time since I rode
a household object and pretended it was a different thing.
- [Interviewer] (laughs) What?
- So now we have to take a piece of concrete and turn it
into a polo field.
- Because we don't have a polo field at BuzzFeed,
so I'm just gonna draw a circle on some concrete,
and hopefully Nacho's not going to be too disappointed.
Polo!
So, Kristin and I--
- We made a polo field!
- Here, this is the BuzzFeed official polo!
- With some chalk and I think some planters.
Obviously we don't have any grass here.
We do have--
- Hope.
Nacho is a Ralph Lauren model.
He is the Ralph Lauren model.
- I wish you'd told me that before I'd written "polo"
in sidewalk chalk.
- I'm not sure he's gonna be impressed with our polo field.
- Listen, I don't know if I'm impressed with our polo field.
- Let's hope that we don't disappoint Nacho, our teacher.
- I mean, I feel like there's so many ways
we could disappoint Nacho that I feel like the field
is the least of our concerns right now.
- [Both] Polo!
- We did it, we're here.
Nacho, what do you think of our polo court?
- It's incredible, the best pitch I've seen
in a very long time.
- [Both] Wow!
- You did this?
- I don't like liars, Nacho.
- It's gonna be a bit hard on the horses,
but it's gonna be good.
- Yeah.
- Well luckily we are playing the role of both the horses
and the humans.
- At least you spelled polo the right way.
- Yeah.
- So a couple of things, you have to hold the mallet
with the right hand.
- Oh, okay, well--
- This doesn't go in the hand, but it goes on your thumb,
and then you twist, and you hold it like that.
Did you figure it out?
- Yes.
- And that's just so that the mallet doesn't run
away from our hands.
- Step one.
- You hit the ball like that.
Think of it like you're sweeping the floor.
Typical strokes, this is the offside shot, where you
hit forward on the right side.
Then this is a nearside shot, which is when you're
on the horse and the ball goes to the left, jumps
to the left, you hit it on this side.
- So we do, we're here, we go there, we go
around the horsey's head, and then back.
- Don't be so stiff, be a little more, yeah.
- Oh, okay. - Yeah.
- I know nothing about polo.
I know that it is a sport that involves horses and mallets.
- Polo is played on horses, it takes hand-eye coordination
and riding skills.
You play four against four and whoever scores more goals
wins the game.
- Even when I'm thinking about polo, I'm confusing it
with quidditch.
Are there beaters?
Is there a snitch?
Maybe I'm confusing it with quidditch
because we're using these.
(toy horse neighs)
Yeah.
- How do you make sure you don't hit the horse
with the mallets?
- [Devin] That's a great question.
- So, you don't, but if you do the proper movement,
like you know.
- Like this?
- Yeah.
So in one game, each player will play six or eight horses,
sometimes even ten.
So, when you have a team of four against four,
you have four times eight, 32, times the other team,
64 horses in one game, so that's how much it takes
to have a real game.
- What about when you change it to the other side?
- Still stiff.
- I'm still stiff, goddammit, okay.
I'm working on it.
I gotta loose up.
- Yeah, loose up.
You're doing much better.
- Oh, that never happens.
- Then there's a few shots that are defense shots,
which is when you hit the ball backwards.
- So we will call those back shots.
And the nearside back shot, here, this way.
And then we have one more shot, which is called
"under the neck," which is when you want to hit the ball
on an angle, you start from here and you hit the ball
under the horse's neck.
- Oops, sorry.
- And that allows you to hit the ball with an angle.
- The horse really has--
- Ah!
You have insurance?
- Uh, no.
- The horse really has to trust you then.
- The thing about polo horses that I believe I do know,
there's a lot of time you have to spend learning
how to ride them, and a lot of time you have to spend
learning how to get them to trust you.
- Horses, you know, are, we take very good care of them.
And of course things happen, but, we put bandages on them.
Horses are the most important things that we have,
polo players have in our lives.
- Should we take a second to drink?
- Yeah.
- All right, here I go.
- Get mine going.
(liquid pouring)
- Cheers, everyone.
- Cheers. - Yay.
- This is like our water break.
It's been like an exstrenuous three minutes.
- Yeah it was really hard.
- Learning.
- Well it's harder for you than it was for me.
- Some things aren't for everyone, and this
may just be my weakness in life.
Polo!
- I mean, you might still be good at it.
We haven't actually tried to do it in motion yet.
- Okay, so we should probably stay hydrated,
and then we'll try incorporate the ball.
- Yeah, make sure you drink quite a bit, it's gonna help.
- Thanks, Nacho!
Okay, I will.
All right, here we go.
So now's the part of the lesson where Nacho's
gonna teach us how to work with the ball.
- Which is this plastic thing, 180 grams, that can
go really fast, and hopefully won't hit you
because it can hurt.
Again, same thing.
You know, the idea is that you hit the ball.
- Wow! - Oh, wow!
- He already scored a point.
- And you score the goal, okay.
- Should we try this out?
- I think yeah, I think you should try.
- I'm gonna try to approach it and hit it--
- [Nacho] Nice and easy, okay.
- You gotta hit it!
- No, no.
- You want me to try it?
- Yeah, I want you to try it.
I'm gonna take a water break.
- Keep drinking.
Eyes on the ball.
- [Kristin] Eyes on the ball? Okay.
Not eyes on the bell, got it, okay.
So I'm going, I'm going, I'm going, I'm going.
- Eyes stay down.
- And I ... oops.
(all laughing)
- Does that happen often, when someone first tries?
- Yes.
- Okay, okay, okay, okay.
- It's your turn.
- All right, my turn?
- I'm trying to make you feel better.
- We're just gonna keep going until someone actually
hits the ball.
- Eyes on the prize, everyone!
Ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum.
(mallet smacks)
- [Nacho] Okay, good.
- [Devin] Okay.
- You did it!
- [Nacho] Not bad.
- Ah, yeah!
Okay.
- I mean, you slowed down a little bit there.
- [Nacho] Impressive.
- He says it's impressive, Kristin, let me have this!
- For someone that hasn't hit the ball yet,
you're talking too much.
- Show me what you got, girl.
- All right, I'm going.
Doo, da-doo, da-doo, da-doo, woop!
- [Nacho] Oh, look at that!
- [Devin] That was a powerful, powerful hit.
- That was a great shot!
- I did not hit the goal, but I did hit the ball.
- You didn't score but it was a great try.
I think, you know, you guys are getting better.
So now that you know how to hit the ball,
we're gonna work on defensive moves that you can do
to make the other person not hit the ball, okay?
- Okay.
- These are the things that happen, like for example,
try to hit the ball again, nice and easy.
- Okay.
- Okay?
- [Devin] Are you ready for this?
- Yeah.
- I'm ready.
- Okay, so that's called hooking.
When you try to hit the ball, I hook your mallet,
and you can not hit the ball.
Here, we'll try.
- Okay!
- Just so that you feel what it feels--
- What it's like to get hooked?
- What it's like to get hooked, yeah.
- So I'm going, I'm going, I'm going, I'm going, oof.
- Yeah.
- I still got the ball, though!
- You still did, yeah.
- This fish can't be caught.
- [Nacho] Oh my god, she can not be hooked.
- She can not be hooked!
- I mean, I can be.
- I'll show you another defensive move.
- All right, I'm not sure--
- Go hit the ball.
- Okay, I won't.
- Yeah.
- Whoa!
Okay, wow, wow, wow, wow.
- Yeah, I bump you and I ride you off.
Those are the things that you can do to each other.
- I'm afraid I'm gonna knock you over 'cause my
center of gravity is lower than yours.
- The other thing that we could do is, you both could
play against me.
- Well then we'll lose!
- [Nacho] Yeah.
- Yeah, I think let's keep it one on one.
- One more sip of champagne for you both.
- Okay (laughs). - Yep.
- [Nacho] And I'll be the umpire.
- [Devin] All right.
- And we're gonna start this game with a--
- A tip-off, yeah.
- Oh, there's a tip-off?
- A tip-off, yeah, we don't do it to the air,
but we do it on the ground.
- First player to get the ball in the goal wins this round.
The second round, we're gonna say goodbye
to Fred, Jen, and Chantel.
Sadly, Fred, Chantel, and Jen couldn't be with us today,
so we're naming our horses Fred, Chantel, and Jen.
- Oh God, I'm already, I'm riding my mallet, not my horse.
You guys ...
(intense rock music)
- I feel like I'm gonna hit you in the shin.
- You ready?
- Yeah, I'm ready.
- I didn't flinch, I'm ready.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
(laughing)
- Wow!
- That was really, really quick.
- That ended very fast.
- Yeah, really, I think it's the champagne.
- Okay, now, stage two.
- We're gonna fill up our glasses, and do it
with full champagne glasses.
- Oh!
- But we can't spill.
- Oh, wow, I like that.
The other solution to not spilling is just drinking it all.
- Okay. - Okay?
(laughs loudly)
Go!
(all laughing)
- [Devin] Oh, I spilled!
Oh wow!
- It spilled everywhere!
- [Nacho] Okay.
(all laughing)
- [Devin] Okay.
- [Nacho] It didn't go in.
- Oh, I hooked, I hooked.
- [All Three] Yay!
- Thanks!
- Well done!
(intense rock music)
- Tie-breaker. - Tie-breaker.
- Are you working in the afternoon?
It's gonna be a long day for you.
- No. - No.
- What do you prefer?
You prefer to play with glasses or with horses?
I think glasses.
- I mean, I prefer glasses, because I won that way.
- Yeah, let's do it.
- This is it, guys, sudden death.
- Sudden death. - Sudden death.
- Winner takes all.
(intense music)
- I like the game faces.
- Oh, I'm ready.
- Yeah, okay good.
There you go.
- Ooh.
- Woo!
- Ah!
- No, damnit!
- Ah, how did you miss that?
- I'm sorry, I'm drunk!
- You had the shot, oh!
- [Nacho] You were all by yourself.
- Ah, ah, ah!
(laughing)
- With your (mumbles).
- Coming.
- All right.
- Oh shit.
(all laughing)
- I just stopped, discarded the idea of not spilling.
- You can spill a little.
(mallets clash)
- Ah!
- [Devin] Did I hit you? I'm sorry.
(all screaming)
- Yes! - Woo-hoo!
- My heart's beating fast.
- Well that was good.
- Thank God I have the champagne.
- Since you are the winner, you are going to do
the champagne spraying.
- Oh!
- Which is a tradition in the sport of polo.
We're gonna open the bottle, then you untwist this wire.
- The obstacle--
(cork pops)
- Oh! - Oh!
(all laughing)
- And it just happened, how about that?
- Well, you are the champ.
- That's amazing.
- It just happened by luck, and now what you do is,
you put your finger here--
- Oh, and I shake it up and I do that?
- Yeah, and then do it.
Don't spray me.
- So I do it like that?
(champagne sprays loudly)
- Woo-hoo!
(exciting rock music)
- Great job!
- Oh my God, that was so expensive.
(all laughing)
- You won.
- That's true, I did win.
- And now you have to drink from the bottle.
- Oh, I have to drink from the bottle?
- Yeah.
Yeah, there you go.
- Thank you so much, Nacho, for teaching us how to polo.
- It was my pleasure, you were great sports--
- Thank you.
- Athletes, amazing skills.
- Wow.
- We learned fast.
- So many compliments.
- I'm honored, and this was a great pitch.
- Polo!
- It was great to be here.
- Learning to play polo from a champ ...
- [Both] Lady tested, lady sprayed!
- Well, I didn't spray all of it, so I can have some more.
- Yeah.
- Cheers!
- Cheers. - Cheers.
(energetic rock music)