SpawnPoint

I might as well repost this so that it has some paragraphs lol. Time to show off my l337 copy/paste skills!


I realize that most if not all of you have no idea what polocrosse is, so here I am to tell you about it. Polocrosse is a combination of lacrosse and the popular horse sport polo. The polocrosse racquet is around three feet long with a net on the end, like lacrosse. The net is round, however, and much deeper than a lacrosse racquet. The handle of the polocrosse racquet is shaped like that of a polo mallet.   

The teams are made up of three players each - the number 1, number 2, and number 3. The 1 plays offense and is the only player allowed to score a goal. The 2 is the midfielder. It is his job to keep the ball away from the other team, block for his team, and keep play moving in his team's favor. The 3 is the defensive player and guards the opposing 1.  

The game is played on a field that is 60 yards x 160 yards (a lot larger than a football field). It is divided into three sections - two 30 x 60 yard areas on either end of the field, and a 100 x 60 yard mid-field. There are also "T's" at both longer sides of the field. The goals are two PVC pipes that are 8 feet apart on either end of the field.   At the start of play, players line up in numerical order on both sides of the "T" facing the umpire. The ball is thrown in down the middle of the teams and the game begins. The players go after the ball and try to pick it up off the ground (moving very fast, might I add) and try to move in the direction of their goal. (For now we will call the team with posession of the ball "red" and the team without posession "blue".)   

Let's say the red 2 picks up the ball. It is the blue 2's job to try and guard him, getting the ball out of the racquet by hitting it, or by pushing him out-of-bounds. The blue 3 immediately goes toward the red 1 and tries to keep him out of the area, while the blue 1 tries to keep the red 3 away from the other players so that he cannot help out. The play manages to move down-field in the direction of the red team's goal. Remember, the goal area is divided into a 30 x 60 yard rectangle. The entrance of the area is a line 30 yards away from the goal (this line is known as the 30-yard line, or the penalty line). Only the red 1 and blue 3 are allowed into the area, and the ball CANNOT be carried over. If the 1 has posessionof the ball, he must bounce it over the line. If one of his teammates has posession, they must pass it to the red 1 without crossing the penalty line. Around the goal is an 11 yard half-circle. The 1 must shoot from OUTSIDE this line for the goal to be counted (this keeps the 1 from simply putting his racquet through the posts). When the goal is made, the teams move back to the "T" and play restarts.   

Lots of rules, yes, but a very fun game. Feel free to ask questions, and I will gladly elaborate.

This weekend, I went to Pinehurst, NC to the American Polocrosse Association National Championships. I was on a team with 5 people (2 sections of 3 people) from Minnesota that I'd never met before. This never turns out well for me.

I pull into the Pinehurst Harness Track (site of Nationals) and see my barn with like 5 trailers there - all from Minnesota. I started thinking "Ok, these guys are fairly serious if they sent this many teams. This might not be too bad."

The first day of the tournament, we played against a team with a couple B/A grade players on it. This kinda scared me a bit cause we were playing C grade (nearly everyone downgrades for Nationals to make it more competitive). One of the guys has a wife who is the Secretary for the APA and he is now a professional polo player. The other one just got back from Iraq as a Colonel, has a wife on the Nationals Tournament Committee, and a son on the U16 team. Also a hardcore player. We beat this team 4-3. I played DECENT but mostly got to see how my teammates were. Our number 3's are probably the best I've ever played with (aside from playing A grade). The other number 1 (my position) is a good rider, but his ball-handling skills weren't that great. Thats ok with me as long as he can score lol. The number 2 that played on my section (I was told) was the highest rated player in our division, and got the "Most Aggressive Player" award. That made me happy.
The second game we won 10-5.

The second day of the tournament, my horse was a little stiff during the first game (which we won 4-3). After I came off the field and got all the tack off, Mom realized he was limping a bit on his right-hind leg, and that it was swollen. We iced it for 30 minutes right after that game and for another 20 before the second game before it went down.

The last game of the tournament, my team was battling for first. This game decided the winner of the division. After the first chukka (8-minute time period; 2 per game) I had only scored one goal and my other number 1 scored one. At this point we were losing 3-2 because my horse was still a bit sore and couldn't quite push past their number 3. We iced his ass for another 5 minutes.

The last game was be far the best I have ever done. I scored 2 goals right at the beginning and psyched out the number 3. My teammates were incredible at holding off the opposing players and the other team's 3 was getting so pissed he started crying, swinging his racket around as fast as he could (hitting his horse in the process), and swearing. I scored a total of 5 goals that game.

After I played my chukka, I went over to Mom's truck to take all the tack off Leo (my horse) cause he was sweating. After I got ALL the tack off of him (you should see the list of required tack for polocrosse...its huge), I asked Mom what the score was. She said it was 8-8 and I could tell she was getting nervous. A few seconds later she came running over to the truck flailing her arms around screaming "MICHAEL GET THE TACK BACK ON YOUR HORSE! WE MIGHT HAVE SUDDEN DEATH AND YOUR SECTION PLAYS!!!"

I have never seen anyone tack up a horse so fast. It was a freakin assembly line! Me, Mom, Dad, and Mom's friend Tom were all rolling polo-wraps (leg protection...basically leg bandages) and throwing all the tack back on my horse. This took all of about 2 and a half minutes (normally takes anywhere from 10-30 minutes depending on how much time I waste). As I'm walking my horse toward the field, my number 1 is in the goal-scoring area trying to out-maneuver the opposing 3. He barely had an opening and took some crazy-ass shot that I probably would have taken (my teammates' favorite hobby this weekend was yelling at me for my crazy shots...the shut up after they went in though lol) and it fell out of his racket and rolled along the ground and through the goal posts. Within the next 30 seconds, the timer went off and everyone started screaming that we won.

Now, this was my first experience in polocrosse Nationals and it was a blast. Winning made it even better :D. I got a belt-buckle and a shirt (which I will post pics of, along with shots of the rest of the tourny).

Oh and I played so rough that I split my racket. I need to replace the head of it now (again, pics of it).

YAY FOR COOP!!!

As per Phil's request, I found a YouTube video of the match between the U21 USA vs Ireland teams. These are just clips of some of the plays, so you won't get the full effect but here it is anyway.

The weekend of July 7-8 was the Kentucky Polocrosse Club's annual tournament, held at my farm. We had players from all over the eastern portion come and play. It was a small tournament compared to most of our others, but there was a large match held in Washington D.C. the same weekend (USA vs Australia) so most polocrosse people went to that.     We still had 8 full teams come to our tournament: 4 teams in two divisions.     The divisions of polocrosse are simple. There are four divisions: A, B, C, and D. These divisions are sometimes called "Grade". D Grade is the lowest division, consisting of beginner players and sometimes beginner riders, too. C Grade starts getting a little faster: the players know the rules better and have better racquet skills. B grade is crazy fast sometimes and have a lot of injuries. The players are excited to be going faster and know they have good racquet skills so they are much more agressive. A grade is just as fast as B, but the players have the rules memorized, make little to no mistakes, and have impeccable racquet and riding skills. These players are the ones who can play at the International level.   I play B Grade. Yes, I'm good at the game. I'm the best player in Kentucky and am getting better every tournament. I can say that because there are less than 15 players in Kentucky and my old instructer has been out for two years because she had 2 kids and barely rides now, haha. My team placed 4th at the tournament, but my teammates are extremely inexperienced (it was their second tournament and they wanted to play B Grade). Needless to say, we lost every game but I was invited to Florida for two weeks to help a family train their horses and players for their tournament that is coming next weekend. The Australian under-16 team is in the country and are coming into town tonight. I get to train with them until the tournament, which is exciting to say the least. The guy I'm staying with wants me to try out for the American youth team but I'm not sure if I will. We'll see how I play against the Australians.   Oh and I forgot to mention, the game originated in Australia. These guys are some of the best in the world, and they're teenagers. I get to play with them, too. Who wants to take guesses as to how much we'll lose by? 5? 15? LOL!     More to come as I get info...or get bored. ;)

I realize that most if not all of you have no idea what polocrosse is, so here I am to tell you about it. Polocrosse is a combination of lacrosse and the popular horse sport polo. The polocrosse racquet is around three feet long with a net on the end, like lacrosse. The net is round, however, and much deeper than a lacrosse racquet. The handle of the polocrosse racquet is shaped like that of a polo mallet.    The teams are made up of three players each - the number 1, number 2, and number 3. The 1 plays offense and is the only player allowed to score a goal. The 2 is the midfielder. It is his job to keep the ball away from the other team, block for his team, and keep play moving in his team's favor. The 3 is the defensive player and guards the opposing 1.   The game is played on a field that is 60 yards x 160 yards (a lot larger than a football field). It is divided into three sections - two 30 x 60 yard areas on either end of the field, and a 100 x 60 yard mid-field. There are also "T's" at both longer sides of the field. The goals are two PVC pipes that are 8 feet apart on either end of the field.   At the start of play, players line up in numerical order on both sides of the "T" facing the umpire. The ball is thrown in down the middle of the teams and the game begins. The players go after the ball and try to pick it up off the ground (moving very fast, might I add) and try to move in the direction of their goal. (For now we will call the team with posession of the ball "red" and the team without posession "blue".)    Let's say the red 2 picks up the ball. It is the blue 2's job to try and guard him, getting the ball out of the racquet by hitting it, or by pushing him out-of-bounds. The blue 3 immediately goes toward the red 1 and tries to keep him out of the area, while the blue 1 tries to keep the red 3 away from the other players so that he cannot help out. The play manages to move down-field in the direction of the red team's goal. Remember, the goal area is divided into a 30 x 60 yard rectangle. The entrance of the area is a line 30 yards away from the goal (this line is known as the 30-yard line, or the penalty line). Only the red 1 and blue 3 are allowed into the area, and the ball CANNOT be carried over. If the 1 has posessionof the ball, he must bounce it over the line. If one of his teammates has posession, they must pass it to the red 1 without crossing the penalty line. Around the goal is an 11 yard half-circle. The 1 must shoot from OUTSIDE this line for the goal to be counted (this keeps the 1 from simply putting his racquet through the posts). When the goal is made, the teams move back to the "T" and play restarts.    Lots of rules, yes, but a very fun game. Feel free to ask questions, and I will gladly elaborate.