Man/line/ball…no…line/man/ball…no wait…line/all player positioning/ ball…no..better still…ball/ball/ball!
By Tom Goodspeed
How often have you heard…..man/line/ball? More importantly, how often do you apply it? When we first start playing,…………you remember………, that stage where you are being wined and dined as a new recruit. You can trot to the ball at any angle to the line and the only words uttered are “great shot” and “have you done this before ?” ….”you are a natural”. Then after you lose your mind and invest in horses and make the full commitment, someone starts blowing whistles when you make those same great plays. Welcome to the greatest game on earth, the honeymoon is officially over, and you are now forced to incorporate the rules of play into your strategies.
There could be a credible debate whether man or line should come first in the man/line/ball adage. The reason a lot of instructors coach man first is to make it easier for a beginner novice to get into the flow of traffic. A real problem with this approach is that the new player will focus entirely on the opponent they are attempting to mark and not be aware of the rest of the field of players. They are getting more proficient at riding off, so they may even push their opponent into dangerous play situations. An additional problem is if you hook up with a fellow beginner novice as your tour guide. Then your guide would be someone like me walking you through open heart surgery. The prognosis would not be good if you were following my lead. So the argument for line/man/ball encourages us to start taking responsibility for proper movement around the playing field. However, even when a novice player is aware of the line and their opponent, they are still missing some very vital information……….the positioning and movement of all the other players and umpires.
If we want to grow our sport, we need to pay more attention to getting amateurs off to a better start with the foundation blocks of horsemanship and field awareness. In Driver’s Ed, for those of you that can remember back that far, they show a film clip of horrible accidents. The purpose is to startle us into taking the responsibility of driving a car far more seriously, and we do. Maybe we need to do a film of polo wrecks. I would offer that many new players may have a greater appreciation for the rules of the road. Polo is a ton of fun…but the game must be respected. Like a drive along the coast on a sunny afternoon, the awesome scenery comes packaged with the potential of a head on if our car veers across the centerline. In a car, we are supposed to be aware of traffic coming form all directions as well as potential calamity and where is our escape route. And we need this acute awareness while we are text messaging and chomping on a burger. If we apply the same practices to polo, less the text messaging and burgers, we have a far greater chance of enjoying this awesome sport for a very long time.
When I teach, I offer my students an entry level formula:
Polo Formula I
Line + Man =Ball
I know that pretty much everyone shares the hope of hitting the ball, so the sooner I can convince them that the formula is an effective one, they will start getting to more balls without a whistle.
Once they get formula one down, we move to formula two:
Polo Formula II
Line + Field positioning of all others= Better play decisions
Formula II takes getting to hit the ball to a higher level of better play execution with the opportunities earned by our adherence to line/man/ball. The other real plus of Formula II is that it increases our field awareness which in turn helps us stay out of trouble on both levels of rule infractions and safety.
So maybe we need to introduce Formula II in Polo I, instead of waiting for polo AP. (AP stands for advance placement with relation to course study). I would agree that too much info can be overwhelming to the novice, but too little could also be life threatening.
I offer you the following four levels of ability or maybe awareness is a better word:
Level I-Beginner-Novice
All ball with no awareness of others—this player tends to foul a lot…and is pretty much like the bull in a china shop. We’ve all been here…..actually at times, we all tend to go back and visit this level.
Level II-Novice-Intermediate
Man/Line/Ball- This is the player who may mark their man well, but they may ride you into other traffic with no awareness. They may also miss ball opportunities as their total focus is man. They have their man, but they ride them right into a player running up the right of way. If right of way does not mean anything to you, you are still Level I.
Level III-Intermediate-Advanced
Line/Man/Ball-This player is the next level up, but is still a little too restricted as they are only working with three pieces of a much bigger puzzle. This player is much more of an asset as they are not going to cost the team as many fouls and they are much more capable of being a solid team player. However, without all the other pieces of the puzzle, they will tend to turn the ball over a lot. They will often arrive at the same play as one or more of their teammates. They will not have enough of the needed information to make better decisions with the ball and movement on the field.
Level IV-Advanced-Expert
Line/Field Positioning of all players/Ball
They have all the information. If they come with the full skill package of horsemanship, team-work, and mallet skills, they are a high goal player. If they don’t have the full skill package in polo, as they have a different profession, they are a valuable and unusual amateur player. If you are a one goal player and you are in this level, your ability to see the field as you play will be a huge asset to your team.
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