Polo is arguably the oldest recorded team sport in known history, with the first matches being played in Persia over 2500 years ago. Initially thought to have been created by competing tribes of Central Asia, it was quickly taken up as a training method for the King’s elite cavalry. These matches could resemble a battle with up to 100 men to a side.
As mounted armies swept back and forth across this part of the world, conquering and re-conquering, polo was adopted as the most noble of pastimes by the Kings and Emperors, Shahs and Sultans, Khans and Caliphs of the ancient Persians, Arabs, Mughals, Mongols and Chinese. It was for this reason it became known across the lands as "the game of kings".
British officers themselves re-invented the game in 1862 after seeing a horsemanship exhibition in Manipur, India. The sport was introduced into England in 1869, and seven years later sportsman James Gordon Bennett imported it to the United States. After 1886, English and American teams occasionally met for the International Polo Challenge Cup. Polo was on several Olympic games schedules, but was last an Olympic sport in 1936.
Polo continues, as it has done for so long, to represent the pinnacle of sport, and reaffirms the special bond between horse and rider. The feeling of many of its players are epitomized by a famous verse inscribed on a stone tablet next to a polo ground in Gilgit, Pakistan: "Let others play at other things. The king of games is still the game of kings."
Source: pro-polo.com
Quote from Xenophon
POLO FACTS
· The Basics: Polo is a ball sport, played on horses. Where one team attempts to score goals by hitting hard hockey-sized ball through their oppositions' goal with a mallet attached to the end of a 4 1/4 foot stick.
· The Pitch: The outdoor polo field is 300 yards long and 160 yards wide, the largest field in organized sport. The goal posts at each end are 24 feet apart and a minimum of 10 feet high. Penalty lines are marked at 30 yards from the goal, 40 yards, 60 yards, and at midfield.
· Chukkas: Each polo match is divided in to "Chukkas". A chukka is 7 1/2 minutes of active play time and is supposed to represent the amount of time a horse can reasonably exert itself before needing a rest. Polo Matches are divided into 4,5, or 6 Chukkas depending whether the level is Low, Medium, or High goal polo.
· Players: In outdoor polo there is four players on a team. Numbers 1 - 2 are traditionally attacking whilst 3 is the midfield playmaker and 4 is Defense. However as the sport is so fluid there are no definite positions in Polo.
· Handicaps: Handicaps in Polo range from -2 to 10 "goals". With 10 being the best. A player who is playing above his handicap level (i.e. 3 playing as a 5) is known as a bandit, and is a very valuable but short lived commodity. Handicaps are assessed and independently mediated several times during the season.
· Umpires: Two mounted umpires, referee the game. They must agree on each foul/call made, if they disagree they refer to the "3rd Man" who would be on the edge of the pitch in line with the center mark. His decision will settle the argument.
· The Rules: The Rules of polo are centered almost in totality around safety. When you have 1/2 a ton of horse traveling one way in excess of 30mph, you do not want to be hit by 1/2 a ton of horse traveling in excess of 30 mph the other way. Polo is inherently dangerous, which may be part of the allure; however, the rules go a long way to negate risk.
MORE POLO HISTORY...
"The King of Games" - Let other people play at other things. The King of Games is still the Game of Kings.
This verse, inscribed on a stone tablet beside a polo ground South of the fables silk route from China to the West, sums up the ancient history of what is believed to be the oldest organized sport in the world. Polo was truly a game of Kings, for most of its reputed 2,500 years or more of existence. Although the precise origin of polo is obscure and undocumented, there is ample evidence of the game's regal place in the history of Asia. No one knows where or when stick first met ball after the horse was domesticated by the tribes of Central Asia, but it seems likely that as the use of light cavalry spread throughout Asia Minor, China and the Indian sub-continent so did this rugged game on horse back. As mounted Armies swept back and forth across this part of the world, conquering and re-conquering, polo was adopted as the most noble of pastimes by the Kings and Emperors, Shahs and Sultans, Khans and Caliphs of the ancient Persians, Arabs, Mughals, Mongols and Chinese. The great rulers and their horsemen real and legendary, of those early centuries were expected to be brave warriors, skillful hunters and polo players of exceptional prowess.
Some scholars believe that polo originated among the Iranian tribes sometime before Darius-I and his cavalry forged the first great Persian Empire in the 6th century B.C. Certainly it is Persian literature and art which give us the richest accounts of polo in antiquity. Firdausi, the most famous of Persia’s poet-historian, gives a number of accounts of royal polo tournaments in his 9th century epic, Shahnamah. Some believe that the Chinese (the Mongols) were the first to try their hands at the game. In the earliest account, Firdausi romanticizes an international match between Turanian force and the followers of Syavoush, a legendary Persian ruler from the earliest centuries of the Empire. The poet is eloquent in his praise of Syavoush's skills on the polo field. Firdausi also tells of Sapor-II Sassanid, King of the 4th Century A.D., who learn to play polo when he was only seven years old. Another 9th century historian, Dinvari, describes polo and its general rules and gives some instructions to players including such advice as 'polo requires a great deal of exercise’, ‘if polo stick breaks during a game it is a sign of inefficiency' and 'a player should strictly avoid using strong language and should be patient and temperate'. During the 10th century the Persian King Qabus also set down some general rules of polo and especially mentioned the risks and dangers of the game.
The 13th century poet Nizami weaves the love story of the Sassanid King Khusru and his beautiful consort Shirin, around her ability on the polo field, and describes matches between Khusru and his courtiers and Shirin and her ladies-in-waiting. Nurjehan, wife of the 19th century Mughal Emperor Jahangir, was also skilled at polo. Polo was a popular royal pastime for many centuries in China, the Chinese probably having learned the game from the same Indian tribes who were taught by the Persians. The polo stick appears on royal coats of arms in China and the game was part of the court life in the golden age of Chinese classical culture under Ming-Hung, the Radiant Emperor, who as an enthusiastic patron of equestrian activities. Less cultured, one might think, was the reaction of Emperor Tai Tsu in 9 10 A.D. who according to one source, ordered all the other players beheaded after a favorite was killed in a match.
Several controversies still run rampant over the exact origins of polo. Depending on what country you are in the exact history of polo can vary. However, some parts of the history do remain the same.
POLO - The oldest team sport, the exact origin of polo is unknown. Polo was probably first played by nomadic warriors over two thousand years ago. Used for training cavalry, the game was played from Constantinople to Japan in the Middle Ages. Tamerlane's polo grounds can still be seen in Samarkand. British tea planters in India first saw the game in the early 1800's. However, it was not until the 1850's that the British cavalry drew up the first rules and by the 1870's, the game was well established in England.
James Gordon Bennett, a noted American publisher, brought polo to New York in 1876. Within ten years, there were major clubs all over the east including Long Island.
Over the next 50 years, polo achieved tremendous popularity in the United States. By the 1930's, polo was an Olympic sport and crowds in excess of 30,000 regularly attended international matches at the Meadow Brook Polo Club on Long Island.
In the 1950's, intercollegiate polo was played by only four teams. Today, it includes more than 25 colleges and universities. Player membership in the United States Polo Association has more than tripled with over 250 active clubs, with almost 1000 polo clubs worldwide in almost every country on the globe.
As mounted armies swept back and forth across this part of the world, conquering and re-conquering, polo was adopted as the most noble of pastimes by the Kings and Emperors, Shahs and Sultans, Khans and Caliphs of the ancient Persians, Arabs, Mughals, Mongols and Chinese. It was for this reason it became known across the lands as "the game of kings".
British officers themselves re-invented the game in 1862 after seeing a horsemanship exhibition in Manipur, India. The sport was introduced into England in 1869, and seven years later sportsman James Gordon Bennett imported it to the United States. After 1886, English and American teams occasionally met for the International Polo Challenge Cup. Polo was on several Olympic games schedules, but was last an Olympic sport in 1936.
Polo continues, as it has done for so long, to represent the pinnacle of sport, and reaffirms the special bond between horse and rider. The feeling of many of its players are epitomized by a famous verse inscribed on a stone tablet next to a polo ground in Gilgit, Pakistan: "Let others play at other things. The king of games is still the game of kings."
Source: pro-polo.com
Quote from Xenophon
POLO FACTS
· The Basics: Polo is a ball sport, played on horses. Where one team attempts to score goals by hitting hard hockey-sized ball through their oppositions' goal with a mallet attached to the end of a 4 1/4 foot stick.
· The Pitch: The outdoor polo field is 300 yards long and 160 yards wide, the largest field in organized sport. The goal posts at each end are 24 feet apart and a minimum of 10 feet high. Penalty lines are marked at 30 yards from the goal, 40 yards, 60 yards, and at midfield.
· Chukkas: Each polo match is divided in to "Chukkas". A chukka is 7 1/2 minutes of active play time and is supposed to represent the amount of time a horse can reasonably exert itself before needing a rest. Polo Matches are divided into 4,5, or 6 Chukkas depending whether the level is Low, Medium, or High goal polo.
· Players: In outdoor polo there is four players on a team. Numbers 1 - 2 are traditionally attacking whilst 3 is the midfield playmaker and 4 is Defense. However as the sport is so fluid there are no definite positions in Polo.
· Handicaps: Handicaps in Polo range from -2 to 10 "goals". With 10 being the best. A player who is playing above his handicap level (i.e. 3 playing as a 5) is known as a bandit, and is a very valuable but short lived commodity. Handicaps are assessed and independently mediated several times during the season.
· Umpires: Two mounted umpires, referee the game. They must agree on each foul/call made, if they disagree they refer to the "3rd Man" who would be on the edge of the pitch in line with the center mark. His decision will settle the argument.
· The Rules: The Rules of polo are centered almost in totality around safety. When you have 1/2 a ton of horse traveling one way in excess of 30mph, you do not want to be hit by 1/2 a ton of horse traveling in excess of 30 mph the other way. Polo is inherently dangerous, which may be part of the allure; however, the rules go a long way to negate risk.
MORE POLO HISTORY...
"The King of Games" - Let other people play at other things. The King of Games is still the Game of Kings.
This verse, inscribed on a stone tablet beside a polo ground South of the fables silk route from China to the West, sums up the ancient history of what is believed to be the oldest organized sport in the world. Polo was truly a game of Kings, for most of its reputed 2,500 years or more of existence. Although the precise origin of polo is obscure and undocumented, there is ample evidence of the game's regal place in the history of Asia. No one knows where or when stick first met ball after the horse was domesticated by the tribes of Central Asia, but it seems likely that as the use of light cavalry spread throughout Asia Minor, China and the Indian sub-continent so did this rugged game on horse back. As mounted Armies swept back and forth across this part of the world, conquering and re-conquering, polo was adopted as the most noble of pastimes by the Kings and Emperors, Shahs and Sultans, Khans and Caliphs of the ancient Persians, Arabs, Mughals, Mongols and Chinese. The great rulers and their horsemen real and legendary, of those early centuries were expected to be brave warriors, skillful hunters and polo players of exceptional prowess.
Some scholars believe that polo originated among the Iranian tribes sometime before Darius-I and his cavalry forged the first great Persian Empire in the 6th century B.C. Certainly it is Persian literature and art which give us the richest accounts of polo in antiquity. Firdausi, the most famous of Persia’s poet-historian, gives a number of accounts of royal polo tournaments in his 9th century epic, Shahnamah. Some believe that the Chinese (the Mongols) were the first to try their hands at the game. In the earliest account, Firdausi romanticizes an international match between Turanian force and the followers of Syavoush, a legendary Persian ruler from the earliest centuries of the Empire. The poet is eloquent in his praise of Syavoush's skills on the polo field. Firdausi also tells of Sapor-II Sassanid, King of the 4th Century A.D., who learn to play polo when he was only seven years old. Another 9th century historian, Dinvari, describes polo and its general rules and gives some instructions to players including such advice as 'polo requires a great deal of exercise’, ‘if polo stick breaks during a game it is a sign of inefficiency' and 'a player should strictly avoid using strong language and should be patient and temperate'. During the 10th century the Persian King Qabus also set down some general rules of polo and especially mentioned the risks and dangers of the game.
The 13th century poet Nizami weaves the love story of the Sassanid King Khusru and his beautiful consort Shirin, around her ability on the polo field, and describes matches between Khusru and his courtiers and Shirin and her ladies-in-waiting. Nurjehan, wife of the 19th century Mughal Emperor Jahangir, was also skilled at polo. Polo was a popular royal pastime for many centuries in China, the Chinese probably having learned the game from the same Indian tribes who were taught by the Persians. The polo stick appears on royal coats of arms in China and the game was part of the court life in the golden age of Chinese classical culture under Ming-Hung, the Radiant Emperor, who as an enthusiastic patron of equestrian activities. Less cultured, one might think, was the reaction of Emperor Tai Tsu in 9 10 A.D. who according to one source, ordered all the other players beheaded after a favorite was killed in a match.
Several controversies still run rampant over the exact origins of polo. Depending on what country you are in the exact history of polo can vary. However, some parts of the history do remain the same.
POLO - The oldest team sport, the exact origin of polo is unknown. Polo was probably first played by nomadic warriors over two thousand years ago. Used for training cavalry, the game was played from Constantinople to Japan in the Middle Ages. Tamerlane's polo grounds can still be seen in Samarkand. British tea planters in India first saw the game in the early 1800's. However, it was not until the 1850's that the British cavalry drew up the first rules and by the 1870's, the game was well established in England.
James Gordon Bennett, a noted American publisher, brought polo to New York in 1876. Within ten years, there were major clubs all over the east including Long Island.
Over the next 50 years, polo achieved tremendous popularity in the United States. By the 1930's, polo was an Olympic sport and crowds in excess of 30,000 regularly attended international matches at the Meadow Brook Polo Club on Long Island.
In the 1950's, intercollegiate polo was played by only four teams. Today, it includes more than 25 colleges and universities. Player membership in the United States Polo Association has more than tripled with over 250 active clubs, with almost 1000 polo clubs worldwide in almost every country on the globe.
No comments:
Post a Comment