Ignacio Fernandez Llorente

POLO PROFESSIONALS

For more than 30 years, professionalism in polo is in sight, that is, a player charges money to play. Before players did not charge for playing but sold horses to their teammates, as compensation.

From so many years of professionalism, you can see a considerable improvement in the skill of the players and improvement in the level of horses.

In most sports, being professional, that is, the person who lives from competing in his sport, is only possible for a small number of athletes. If you are not among the first in the world rankings, you cannot live off the sport. We can see fabulous athletes who cannot live off the sport.

In polo, being a sport of few people and the existence of a handicap system, there are professionals of all levels who live from playing polo. In many cases this is helped by the buying and selling of horses, horse training and polo classes.

In polo through handicap, a world ranking can be established. Despite the ranking we find professionals of all handicaps.

Polo is very generous compared to other sports, low level players live from polo. My estimates on Polo are that a person who does not live from polo, and who has another job can play up to 2 handicap. To play 3 handicap you have to almost dedicate yourself and have started before 18 years of age to play and still be young. So it can be said that from 3 handicap players are professionals.

When a team is formed where a professional participates, the professional is expected, with his talent compensates the performance of the other players.

Getting to this level and to dedicate yourself as a polo professional, although it does not seem to require skills, and requires training.

To train you need horses, and time, so training is not free, it is an investment, which begins to recover through participating in tournaments. From the point of view of the amateur, where polo is fun, it is hard for him to understand professionalism, but the professional lives off the sport, and cannot give away his work.

The professional charges for what he brings to his team. The professional will also risk capital when using their horses, and will have to demand much more than their amateur peers, it can be said that the professional provides a service to their peers to play better, to win the game, to have fun. The amateurs who do not accept professionals can compete against them, but for this they will have to dedicate a lot of training.

In short, the professional is an athlete who trains and competes for much longer (have more kilometres on a horse). In Argentina where there are more Professionals, the practices and matches are 6 chukkas, when in most other countries there are 4 chukkas. In other words, there is 50% more training on the same day. This is 3 enhanced in weeks, months, years.

Professionals are looking for ways to compete throughout the year so they move to countries. The amateurs every year expect their season to begin again.

There are countries that raise handicaps without to keep in mind that your players cannot compete against players who are dedicated to it all year.

The amateur player after a certain time, the handicap is raised, improved. a few in comparison others amateur, and nothing in compare Professions It is to incentivise faster improvement. This takes away competitiveness.

Amateur players usually have overvalued handicap compared to professionals. The amateur players between -2 and +2 there is more difference than 4, so the creation of the amateur handicap, as the female handicap is necessary. And players who begin to decline their level of play do not lose their handicap, which also takes away competitiveness. (you can't live from the past)

When we talk about professionals, I include horses, a player who has to contribute almost everything to the team will have to render their horses at a superlative level compared to the rest of the players.

A Patron would have to know what horses the professional is going to contribute to the game. If the professional has horses that are not up to par, success is unlikely.

If the professional does not help anyone on the team, and you have to play against two

professionals, the two professionals will almost certainly win.

As it is also very likely that a team with a very good organisation and budget (good horses and professionals, that is, spend more money) wins a team with little organisation.

The professional who loses will seek to blame the referee, the player of the team that is not a Patron (3rd player in handicap), the ground, the schedule of the game, the organisation of the tournament, the groom., etc He will never assume that his horses are inferior, that his handicap is overrated, that he had a bad day, tournament or season, that the team does not work, that the game strategy was wrong, that they had to have previously trained and trained, that with this team there are few chances of winning or that the other team is better.

Professionals who, on the ground, with all the work they have, seek to discuss with the referee, in order to obtain benefits or blame the defeat, instead of empowering and improving their peers.

Every day I see teams surprised by a defeat, when before starting the games, they already know who is the favourite. (Will they enter the field thinking that they are the favourites?)

The professional off the field has an advisory role in everything related to polo where to have horses, tournaments to participate, team building, buyer and seller of horses, relationship with grooms, polo teacher. And he establishes a friendly relationship with his Patrons. It is a shame that the professional relationship Patron has an excessive obligation to win. We know that only one wins, it is very difficult.