7 minute read
Instructors Forum
Eyes wide open
by Adam Snow
Hitting the ball well is certainly one of the fundamentals of playing well. If every time our mallet makes contact with the ball is essentially a pass—either to a teammate, to oneself, or through the goalposts—then it stands to reason that the better we execute our passes, the better we can play the game.
For me, a big component of hitting the ball well is visual—both seeing my preferred pass and, then, looking well at the ball. In other words: the quality of my focus on the ball combined with a sense of where I want to send it. At different points of my career, I found that different strategies proved more effective. So, it becomes a never-ending challenge of refining what works best for you here and now ... or the next time you get to go onto the field.
There are many variables related to hitting the ball well. Certain horses “give us the ball big,” by which I mean that it looks, and therefore is, easy to hit. This pony is typically balanced and low, and rates well—all things that contribute to the proper timing. Another important factor is your riding. With a quiet lower body and legs snug to your horse, you can be confident in your ability to arrive to a spot on time, and hitting the ball well becomes easier. A good grip, holding the handle with your fingers spread (like a musical instrument not a club) allows for everything to line up at the nadir of your swing, and also for the bottom of the mallet head to be consistently flush with the surface of the turf as it sweeps through the ball. Playing with a mallet that feels (and sounds) good—balanced, but also with a cigar that makes a crisp sound (tak!) on contact—is a confidence builder that helps you swing easy. And let’s not forget about arriving to the ball with a little time and space!
When preparing for a tournament, one thing I choose not to dwell on a whole lot is swing mechanics. Admittedly, I may tweak something here or there, emphasize plane and follow-through when coaching, and I always watch what good players are doing; but fiddling with my own stroke is pretty low on my list of priorities for hitting the ball well. There are several reasons for this. First, the same fundamentals essential to baseball, tennis, or particularly golf swings, are generally applicable to polo. So, if a player is interested in generating more torque, the studies are readily available. With the helter-skelter nature of our sport, not to mention the shifting, galloping platforms, your swings are constantly adapting. And I also believe the swing I developed as a kid on a bike, with a little mallet in my hand, is by and large my swing today. So, trusting this stroke (actually forgetting it) is, in my opinion, the way to pass the ball most effectively. That’s why I choose to emphasize timing (and trust) over mechanics. And this means using my eyes.
With all sports I played, I have always been conscious of zooming in and out. Zoom out (and look around) for awareness about positioning of your teammates and your opponents; zoom in to focus on executing the specific play at hand. But how about after we are zoomed in? I have the ball, my teammate is open for a pass, laying it in front of her will create a scoring opportunity for my team. What is the process from here?
With time and space, I pick a target in front of my teammate. This is usually a divot, a piece of manure, or a discolored spot on the grass, or—in the case of a longer pass (remember that, here, pass means to a teammate, to myself, or through the goalposts!)—a tree branch at the end of the field. Then, my eyes return to the ball. Without time and space, I just look at the ball. How do you know where to hit it, if you aren’t able to look up and pick a target? In the above scenario, you at least have a sense of where on the field your teammate is open for the pass. My advice is to trust that sense and focus on hitting the ball well. In the other two pass options—to yourself or through the goalposts—you do know where they are. In other words, I’d rather hit the ball well with only a general, intuited sense of a target, than hit it poorly with a precise target in my mind’s eye.
Now, with mallet back and ready, and your horse arriving to the ball, comes the moment of truth. The moment for execution. Where are your eyes? For longer passes that require some loft (this includes 60- yard shots), I look for the bottom of the ball. This is the point where the ball becomes obscured by the grass it lies on, and often there is a wedge-shaped shadow there. If I can find a blemish or logo on the bottom half of the ball, so much the better. When I’m passing the ball to myself at speed, I look for a spot on the middle of the ball, and take it a little earlier.
Then, like all hand-eye sports, comes the challenge of not popping-up to see where it went, and keeping your head down through contact. Try to see the moment your mallet strikes the ball, and then hold that spot with your eyes, enjoying it even, while your ball flies to its target. To paraphrase the late, great Javier Novillo Astrada, from his “Sidelines” interview on penalty shooting: “For my best 60-yard penalty shots, I don’t see the ball again until it is passing over the goal line.” I love this! He’s keeping his head down for 60 yards of the ball’s flight and trusting—or at least not worrying about—where it’s going. Let it go.
It sounds easier than it is. And that’s one reason that there are myriad strategies for this process. Unlike golf, where the volumes of ball-hitting literature fill shelves at the bookstore, the polo community tends to pass these techniques along by word of mouth and, then, only sparingly to teammates and friends. Here are a few of those strategies you can practice on your stick and ball field: • Imagine a straight line (maybe a total of 12-16 inches) passing through the ball in the direction of your intended pass and then concentrate on swinging, and following through, along this line; • Pick a spot on the grass 6 inches in front of the ball (in line with your target) and focus on sending the ball over this spot; • Image the perfect pass to your target before executing it.
Once I’m zoomed-in with eyes on the ball, my strategy for keeping my head down through the swing is to hit it and listen. The sound of contact usually tells me all I need to know about the quality of my pass. If it feels good and sounds good, it’s usually headed where I want.
See the pass. Look at the ball. Hit it and listen. When alone, I practice this sequence by stick and balling with two balls. There is always a target out front, and it’s easy to vary the difficulty by moderating speed and distance. If I have a partner to stick and ball with, I like to play one-touch passes back and forth. This involves shifting focus, preparing before the ball, and hitting lag passes a certain distance. If that partner can be a teammate, even better, because these are the passes we want to execute on game day.
The last MLB player to bat above 400%, Ted Williams, said, “Hitting is 50% above the shoulders.” During a polo game, there tends to be a lot going on up above our shoulders. My strategy is to use my eyes. They serve to focus the rest of my body and maximize my chances of hitting the ball where and how I want.
See the pass. Look at the ball. Hit it and listen. My tip for the day. • DAVID LOMINSKA/POLOGRAPHICS
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