Playing Tips with Rege Ludwig: The Polo Style of Riding

Importance of upper leg grip

Renowned polo coach, Rege Ludwig gives his expert advice on how to get more out of your game

Within my style of teaching, I use analogies to describe how to use your body for the purpose of communicating accurately to your horse, and for hitting the polo ball most effectively.

One of the most significant analogies I use is, Bolt Through Knees. I use the Bolt Through Knees analogy to stress the importance of attaching yourself securely to the horse. That strong and secure upper leg attachment is crucial to the process of securing your seat to the horse for the purpose of communicating accurately to your horse what you are asking of it at any given moment.

Consistent with communicating accurately to your horse, a strong and secure upper leg attachment of you to your hose is crucial because, every move your upper body makes is transmitted into your upper legs, and from your there into your horse’s shoulders.

If your upper legs are not gripping strongly enough, there is a good chance your upper body could be moving with some degree of uncontrolled movement; causing your horse to respond to that uncontrolled movement; which, could have you wondering, “What is this horse doing, and why is it doing it?

There is a good chance you will not know that your horse is moving because of a slightly uncontrolled movement of your upper body that was affected by your upper legs not attaching you securely enough to your horse to prevent that uncontrolled movement from occurring.

The move your horse makes might not be strong enough to be obvious, it might be subtle enough to make the play just difficult enough for you to execute correctly without being aware that it was initiated by insufficiently attached upper legs to the horse. There is a good chance you will not be aware that it was a slightly uncontrolled movement on your part that initiated the horse’s movement, or that your insufficiently attached upper legs initiated it.

The point to take away from all of this is, the polo horse is trained to respond to your movement on its back, and the horse has no choice but to respond to your weight and balance shifting on its back; especially if that movement changes the balance and weight distribution of the horse.

Consider, that if there were a bolt running through your knees and the horse’s shoulders, then as you lean your upper body forward and down, that movement is pushing forward and

Gripping with your upper legs is the most significant and defining factor of The Polo Style of Riding

down into your upper legs, and your upper legs are pushing forward and down into your horse’s shoulders, which causes your horse to shift its balance and weight forward, and probably causing it to probably accelerate.

Likewise, if you were to lean your upper body up and back or to either side of the horse, your horse will almost be forced to respond accordingly by shifting its weight and balance in that direction. Any time you move, or shift, your weight and balance on your horse’s back, the horse is almost forced to shift its balance and weight in the same direction; which will probably cause the horse to move in that direction.

That strong and secure upper leg attachment of you to the horse is also crucial to the development of the power that you want to hit the ball with.

Relative to hitting the polo ball, the imaginary bolt keeps your knees and upper legs gripping into your horse’s shoulders for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a secure and stable hitting platform.

Unfortunately, far too often polo players soften their upper leg gripping effort during the hitting process. They do that by allowing their supporting knee to turn out and away from the horse to facilitate rotating their hips, torso, and shoulders to a greater degree to the side on which they are going to hit the ball.

As the mechanics of the hitting process would have it; the more strongly you are capable of rotating your hips against strongly gripping upper legs, the more power you can generate within your hip, torso, and shoulder rotation.

The fact of the matter is, when executing an offside fore shot, your hips should not rotate much more than fifteen degrees from perpendicular to the horse’s spine. Your torso should not rotate more than forty degrees from perpendicular, and your shoulders should not rotate more than seventy-five degrees from perpendicular to the horse’s spine.

Under those conditions, your supporting upper leg gripping effort will not have to soften for the purpose of facilitating a greater degree of upper body rotation.

The fact of the matter is, throughout the hitting process, your upper leg gripping effort should be maintained pretty much equal to the degree of intensity with which you wish to hit the ball.

Consider a golf player or baseball player preparing to hit their ball. Neither of those players would allow their supporting knee to soften, or turn out, as they are moving the hitting instrument back and up to the top of the downswing position. They would not allow that to happen because doing so would severely compromise the stability of their hitting platform, as well as, decrease the power they can be developed for use within the downswing.

When executing the back swing in preparation of swinging at the ball, and when swinging it at the ball, the golf and the baseball player are gripping in quite strongly with their upper legs for the purpose of stabilizing their hitting platform, and generating sufficient power with which to swing the hitting instrument at the ball.

That same reasoning applies to the polo player. You should keep your supporting knee gripping into your horse’s shoulder when executing the back swing of an offside fore shot, and when swinging the mallet at the ball.

If you, the polo player, are to establish and maintain a secure and stable hitting platform, and if you intend to communicate accurately to your horse, then your knees and upper legs should be maintaining a gripping effort that is consistent with a bolt holding your knees together.

WRITE THIS DOWN: Gripping with your upper legs, (i.e., Bolt Through Knees), is the most significant and defining factor of The Polo Style of Riding.