Polo Tip 55: The Stick Side by Tom Goodspeed.

“Stick-side”

Talk about a confusing term….what the “you know what” does stick-side mean…and more importantly can it be used in scrabble? Polo sticks are round…they don’t even have a side…do they?

Some of us more fortunate in our playing abilities and horses, can gallop ahead of most of the rest of the field carrying the ball with a few powerful lofting drives with the last one sailing high over the center of the goal posts.

The rest of us chasing them from behind, hopefully have the option and enough horse to try to come up and get a hook. So when you are chasing from behind….are you coming up on what is considered the strong side, the offside. This may sound simple….but many a player will gallop up on the nearside and only have an option for a ride-off, whereas if they had just angled right instead of left….earlier….they would be coming up on the offside…..which is the strong side….which is also sometimes called the…stick-side!

Granted, that player may move over and ride you off and go to their nearside…but that is a much more difficult side to carry the ball, even in high goal. So you are doing well to at least force them to their nearside.

Now here is a trick question. When you see someone ahead with someone forcing them to their nearside, or in the arena, they are heading down the wall with the ball against the boards on their nearside….which is the stick-side now?

If you answered nearside you were correct….unfortunately you don’t win anything today….but you will be winning more plays on the field.
So when you have the option come up on the stick-side, whichever side that may be, you have the opportunity to play the ball side and get a hook or a chance at the ball. If the opponent already is being ridden by a teammate, and you come up to hook them on their nearside, you have to realize that opponent has drawn two of you to the play. You may get the hook, but the next player to the ball may be the player you were supposed to be marking. So if you do double-team an opponent, you should be pretty confident you can get ball possession and not just a hook. Better yet, if the second teammate can get to the ball first and back it to the teammate now peeling away from that opponent, you have turned a defensive effort into an offensive drive.

If you are ahead of a single player and they are coming up from behind you with the ball, if I gave you two choices as to which side of the field to be……. we all should know that directly in front of them is not a good option….because of that whistle thing….not to mention the getting run over thing.

So do you want to wind up on their . . .

a) nearside or left-side of field

or

b) strong-side, offside, stick-side or right-side (there is a clue in right-side)

If you answered a, please kindly begin rereading from the start of this article. If you answered b…congratulations…you are ready to advance to the next article…or at least to a few more plays….and I wish you many of those. I look forward to seeing you…… stickside! Happy Polo.

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