Instructors Forum

By Julio Arellano

It is great to see women’s polo really growing. Recently, I’ve had some opportunities to coach women’s teams. It’s not hard to believe, but women are definitely more apt for coaching then men are.

While women’s and men’s polo may have differences, I try not to coach differently. The coaching I’ve done for [my daughter], Hope’s teams has been for tournaments like the U.S. Women’s Open and the women’s Texas Open, so I try to get them to play like we do in men’s high-goal polo, playing that style. The difference is you typically don’t have the really big hitters so they are playing a lot closer together, following each other up and doing a lot more rotation.

I’ll stay with the basic principles of man-to-man coverage because women have gotten so good, that, like in mixed polo, you don’t want to be chasing your opponent. It is always the player that gets free that will hurt you. Women’s polo is still the same style and uses the same ideas.

In women’s polo there is no Tommy Biddle that will hit 150-yard shots so when you are going for the long passes don’t go beyond about 60 yards. If you get beyond the point where the hitter can reach you for a pass, turn around and follow behind.

The key is to hit and run. Go to an open area, mark the man and keep the ball moving. Use your horsepower and open the game up. Don’t slow it down and make it into a lower-goal match. In Houston, Hope took some of my old high-goal mares. I would tell her to look for an open area and do a quick release, even if nobody’s there. It is the No. 1s job to get there, it’s not the hitter’s job to find the No. 1 to hit to. Because players are generally marked much closer in women’s polo, the first person might not be able to get the hit, so someone has to be next. Everybody follows in behind and gets a slot.

It is similar to when you are driving down the highway and you don’t want to leave an opening where somebody from the next lane can come in. Everybody has got to be matched up with an opponent, following one behind the other—No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and back. It’s rare that the No. 1 is going to get the ball and run the whole way down the field and score. So, it’s super important to have everybody back each other up. If the No. 1 misses or can’t get to the ball, the No. 2 is right behind her to pick it up, then the No. 3 and then the back. If you leave an opening between your players, the opponent can come in and get the ball if your player loses it.

Women tend to be much more disciplined and you see this when they are both playing with you and against you so take that into consideration when strategizing. The closer marking sometimes bunches the game up a bit so you have to try to open it up.

In the higher-goal flights of women’s polo, you generally have two stronger players and two that aren’t as experienced so mark up your players according to ability. As a coach, I put the best player marking the best player on the other team, or the second-best player can mark the best player if they are really well-mounted and can mark another player really well. If the other team has its strongest player at No. 4 and we have a lower-goal player at No. 1, I’m not going to match them up.

A lot of women’s polo is played as four chukkers rather than six. That means you can’t have a weak first or second chukker like you do playing a six-chukker match, which allows time to recuperate. If you’re down 3-0 in the first, there is very little chance you are going to come back. You have got to plan out your team’s horses so you don’t have a very weak chukker. There is no warm-up chukker. You’ve got to get right into the game that first chukker, period.

Just like in mixed polo, it is difficult to play a horse that is just a runner with no handle, or a horse that is tough to play. Handiness is making a comeback. Even in Argentina, the game is changing in the sense that players need something that can run like a high-goal pony and still be as handy as a six-goal pony. You can’t just have handle without speed, and you can’t have speed without handle. In the higher-levels of both women’s and mixed polo, you have to be, not just wellmounted but, really well-mounted.

Overall, game strategy is not much different then in mixed polo. When knocking in, again, you generally don’t have really long-ball hitters so you have to take that into consideration. It makes the field a little smaller and makes it harder. You can’t hold the ball and wait for your players to line up, then hit a 100-yard pass from a standstill. It is a much quicker release. The players are more concentrated, so there are not as many places to go. When Hope knocked in, she would pick one of two sides and look for the No. 2 as long as that player stays

within reach. If the other players were focused on marking our No. 4, she could still reach the No. 2. If you are being marked closely, you lose the opponent with anticipation and quick reaction time. Being well mounted also helps to shake an opponent.

Without someone who can hit 100-plus yards, you don’t want to hit down the center because if it doesn’t work out and the play turns, you don’t want the opposing team to have a shot on goal.

When defending, because you are unlikely to have someone that can boom really powerful back shots, the team has to anticipate shorter back shots by playing closer. Still, use back shots rather than turning every ball. If everyone has their man beat and is in range, a back shot is a good option.

Strategies for taking penalties are not much different from mixed polo either. If the penalty is from midfield, sometimes you opt for a tap followed by a big hit while other times the hitter goes for a big hit right off the bat. Hope could often get 60 or even 80 yards, helping open up and stretch the game out.

On Penalty 4s, Hope practices taking penalties a lot so she can hit a 60-yarder in one shot. Most women that are rated 7, 8 or 9 goals can hit 60s really well. I saw another team use a different strategy that worked pretty well for them. A teammate would ride next to the hitter, and when the hitter hit the 60, if it didn’t reach the goal the teammate would be on the line running flat out so nobody could come in without crossing the line.

If you are defending penalties, it is never easy to stop a ball. The team has to be prepared if the opponent is going to hit down the middle with a 60, using the strategy mentioned above with the hitter’s teammate running down the line. So, I tell the defending players not to stand sideways and risk fouling. One defender is on the 30-yard line, another is on the 40 and the other two are by the goal posts. They should be more worried about the ball bouncing then trying to stop the 60. If you foul, the other team will be given an open goal from the spot so it is imperative defenders pick up their opponents first before going to the ball instead of just looking to stop the ball.

In lower-levels, whether mixed or women’s polo, if you have a 2- or 3-goal player that just plays summer polo or is a weekend warrior, they likely won’t be as effective hitting the 60s as a 7- or 8-goal player playing professionally year-round.

With Penalty 2s and 3s, women tend to be better then men because they focus more on hitting well and hitting straight then trying to get the big hit. Men generally try to hit too hard.

Throw-ins are treated the same as in mixed polo. You have somebody focusing on defense, somebody that is going forward looking for a pass and somebody, who is good with the ball to stay out. Like in mixed polo, teams often want to have the two best players playing No. 3 and 4. They want ball control and then can go from there. You need to have strength in the back, particularly with knock-ins and set plays. You can’t have a weaker player knocking in because then you are not going to go anywhere.

Most women can ride well, can carry the ball and at least get one hit and move at speed, but few of them can get that initial big hit. So, you want to have stronger players playing No. 3 and 4.

Women’s polo is still growing and handicaps are getting readjusted bi-annually because sometimes women are rated based on their mixed handicaps. So, it is not unusual in some of these tournaments to see really lopsided scores. Often times this happens in preliminary games when the winner will have to play a much tougher team in the final. In games like that, I was never able to turn it on and off. If you do, the horses won’t be quite as ready and you won’t be as sharp mentally for your next game. So, you’ve got to play every game hard and you can’t think about the score. You can’t go easy on a weaker team. •