I’m not sure what exactly I’m asking but I’ll try to frame it coherently.
Some context on myself: in regards to team sports, I played some football leagues as a kid (NA “soccer”; when I was like 6-7). In polo Im a pretty average B player (maybe a 6/10 according to my A player club mates), I’ve occasionally been on the Podium at ABC tournaments. In those cases I’ve definitely carried by the A players.
So bike polo is the first team sport I’ve engaged in as an adult. I started in 2016/17, classic COVID break, and then only started really developing more effective polo skills when I moved to Europe.
The core of what I’m asking is, where do I start to train what you could call game sense?
Im almost always at pickups when they happen. But I’ve found myself kind of hitting a wall, and from what I can tell its partly two things:
Keeping my head up and watching the players on the court. I’m working on that. I hope I can break that dog like habit and lazer focus on the ball: “ball ball ball, gotta get the ball” (idk how else to describe it).
Game sense. I can only describe game sense as, knowing your next move. Thinking about your team mates. It seems like for so many it come naturally. But it’s a wall that I’ve hit.
There are definitely other shortcomings I have as a player, unnecessary and slow scoops, passing to hard, etc.
Ball Control
How is your bike control? Are you comfortable with controlling the ball when being challenged? Are you good with playing the ball in front of your wheel? Gaining a good degree of ball control with only pickups is difficuilt. Solopolo helps a lot in this aspect.
A lot of court awareness is lost when you play the ball (as a rightie) at 3 or 4 o’clock. Try to play and get comfortable playing the ball at 11-0-1-2 o’clock.
Act / React
Do you play at a speed that allows you to act rather than react to what is happening on the court? Do not try to outpace players, rather try to outplay them.
Play at a speed that allows you to maintain court awareness and keep calm.
I hope I can break that dog like habit and lazer focus on the ball: “ball ball ball, gotta get the ball”
No clue how to work on this. We have someone like this in our club and I have tried to get them to focus less on the ball and more on what is happening on the court but for some people it is not that easy. However, that kind of focus on the ball is not necessarily detrimental but can also be beneficial.
Also - from what I can tell - Geneva literally is one of the most competitive, experienced and skilled clubs in the world. With that being not enough, you also have some very strategic players in the club. Do not just compare yourself to them. It is going to be difficult to keep up. Not just for you but for anyone playing in such a club with less experience.
Do you watch videos of polo matches (shout out DownOverPolo)?
I think it can help quite a bit regarding court awareness, positioning, common plays, etc.
I appreciate the helpful response. I know Geneva has epic players, and they’ve been super helpful showing me how to improve. Its definitely hard to keep up, because when I first showed up in Geneva it was wild playing with them. So no self comparison was necessary; just a goal. I asked here cause I’m certain there are other perspectives
I do occasionally watch polo games on youtube, but watching sports has never been something I do.
On ball control: I think I have OK ball control and bike handling. I can sometimes handle being challenged by the high level folks here. But I definitely need to play with the ball in front of my line more, it’ll help keep my head up. Something one club mate has been drilling into me. I sometimes do solo polo, but Its hard to make the time with graduate school responsibilities. In the future I hope I have more time for solo polo.
Acting/reacting: This is definitely advice I’ve been given. I have the speed to keep up and sometimes outpace folks here. Along with that I’ve been told I need to slow down and plan my next move.
Which is what I’ve been trying to do.
But I think this this is the essence of my question. Because think I have an idea of what I should be doing on the court, and there are times I’ve asked folks what a good play would be in a particular situation. Occasionally they have an obvious answer, but from time to time its a response of “there’s no good answer.”
How do you learn how to out play folks? How do you get a head for the game? Is this a skill you can train?
Part of me thinks its just experience & time. But there are some bad ass new players in Swiss Romande and it blows my mind how fast and confidently they picked up the game (aller Jolie Roue !).
… situation awareness is adaptive, externally-directed consciousness that has as its products knowledge about a dynamic task environment and directed action within that environment.
tbh i think it’ll come with more experience. playing with more people in more locations and watching a lot of games online will help drill other people’s play styles into your brain and before long you’ll intuitively start to see what’s going on and kinda be able to predict what people are going to do, at least that’s been my experience. i’m still pretty new and have a long way to go but these things have helped me a lot.
also some people are just naturally talented at sports, you shouldn’t compare yourself to new players that are picking polo up super quick. they may have other sport or cycling backgrounds that are making things easier for them, or they might just be naturally good at bike polo, don’t let it discourage you!
Thanks, I didn’t know connect did full breakdowns of games like this.
I think this is exactly what I need: breakdowns of plays in a game, not just watching them. Cause right now, my brain goes “holy shit that’s a cool play” most of the time and that’s the end of it.
Now I need to figure out how to get the top players in my club to sit down and go over plays in games like this.
