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Playing Tips
Playing tips with Rege Ludwig Two Forms of Rotation Lateral & Vertical
Renowned polo coach, Rege Ludwig gives his expert advice on how to get more out of your game
When executing an offside fore shot, it only makes sense that your right shoulder rotates back, laterally. What is not typically realized is that your hips initiate torso rotation, which initiates torso rotation, and torso rotation initiates shoulder rotation, which is a continuation of The Law of Sequence theory. The order and the degree of upper body rotation for hitting an offside fore shot are as follows: 1. Your hips rotate first up to a possible 20 degrees from perpendicular, with ten to 15 degrees being the typical degree of range of motion of the hips for most offside fore shots. 2. Your torso, then, rotates laterally up to another possible 40 degrees beyond hip rotation, with 20 to 30 degrees of torso rotation being the norm for most offside fore shots. At this point, your upper body will have rotated between 30 to 50 degrees from perpendicular. 3. Then your shoulders rotate laterally up to another 25 degrees beyond torso rotation, with the norm being ten to 15 degrees of rotation of your shoulders. Depending on the power you want to create within the swing process of hitting an offside fore shot, your upper body should
Initial lateral rotation of hips, torso, and shoulders
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be rotating between 40 to 75 degrees from perpendicular. 4. Finally, if you want to create more power, your shoulders should begin rotating vertically around your spine, which will have your shoulders rotating close to parallel to your horse’s spine. When swinging the mallet with the intention of generating power, the rotation of your shoulders should seldom be greater than 75 degrees from perpendicular. The reason being, when you rotate your shoulders past 75 degrees from perpendicular; you will, most likely, soften your upper leg grip into your horse’s shoulders proportionately to achieve that greater degree of rotation. A negative effect associated with softening the grip of your upper legs is, your hitting platform begins to destabilize to the degree that your upper leg grip softened. Because the power of the swing is equated to how strongly your hips rotate against your upper legs gripping strongly into your horse’s shoulders; any softening of your upper leg grip decreases the power that can be generated because your hips are rotating against a softer upper leg grip. The softening of your upper leg grip is not the only negative effect of rotating
your upper body past 75 degrees from perpendicular. Once you have rotated your shoulders to 75 degrees from perpendicular, your mallet hand has most likely reached the point of being established on a plane of the swing that is correct for a straightforward offside fore shot. As you continue rotating your shoulders past 75 degrees, your mallet hand begins to move to the inside of the plane of swing to the degree that your shoulders rotated past 75 degrees. At that point, your hand and the mallet must be moved out toward the plane during the downswing. The problem with the outward movement during the downswing is, your hand and the mallet typically do not stop at the plane, but continue moving out past the plane as the mallet continues its decent down toward the ball. And, because your hand and the mallet have moved out past the plane during the downswing, they both have to be moved back in to the plane before the mallet head reaches the ball. Because of all of that extraneous movement (inside, to outside, to inside) there is little chance of the mallet head establishing on a plane of swing that is consistent with the desired direction of the hit, prior to reaching the ball. Consequently, there is little chance of the ball going in the intended direction. Once your shoulders have rotated laterally to a maximum of 75 degrees from perpendicular, that is when your shoulders should begin the second form of rotation, which is vertically up and down around your spine; as well as, parallel to your horse’s spine. In my first video, “Hitting with Power and Accuracy,” I refer to that action as rotisserating to suggest that your shoulders should rotate around your spine in a manner similar to something cooking on a rotisserie grill. Another example of vertical rotation was stated to me by Carlos Gracida during a penalty lesson I was conducting with him. Carlos told me, “If I want to hit an offside fore shot with power, I concentrate on pointing my left shoulder down toward the ball”. From the way I understand the hitting process, the twisting, or rotating, of your shoulders vertically around your spine is the most difficult form of rotation to use correctly. With that having been said, I must also let www.polotimes.co.uk
