JULY 2001 NEWSLETTER

No. 5/2001

STATE NEWS

INSURANCE

The Zone has been notified of the final outcome regarding player insurance. The good news is there will be no increase to Junior player fees, Club or Zone registration fees. However all registered Senior, Intermediate, Veteran and "one-off" tournament players will be required to pay an additional $38.00 to their club. Please note that this is an increase to the insurance component only and will be going to the insurance broker, not to polocrosse.
 
The NSWPA has been advised that the total premium amount (over $108,000) is due at the end of June and the PAA will be charging interest on outstanding amounts. Accordingly, the Zone Treasurer has calculated the due amounts owing by clubs and has invoiced them for the shortfall (approximately $7,000 in total). Your co-operation in reimbursing your club ASAP is sought.
 
The State Executive is pursuing enquiries on various options of insurance. They have sought a legal opinion from insurance lawyers Phillips Fox re the NSWPA providing insurance.
 
Excerpt in summary relating to Duty of Care in no longer providing extended insurance for players ….
 
"in our opinion there is no duty of care, as understood by the law of negligence, which would require the Association to be responsible for (providing) insurance for its players…."
 
"…. if it changes its previous practice of arranging insurance, so long as Members are fully informed (in writing) the Association may offer to players whatever options it prefers…"
 
The Executive is also canvassing Zones re the number of players who have their own insurance. Could you please let your club secretary know if you carry your own accident insurance and whether or not polocrosse is included in the cover.
 
The State should have further information available at the NSWPA AGM on 27th October.

NSW Zone Championships
Glen Valley 9-10 June

The three Southern Highlands teams which travelled to Glen Valley were very successful. The Open Junior and Intermediate teams were runners-up in the finals and the Intermediate Mixed team won a thrilling finals match against New England.
 
The full results from the Championships (as supplied by Glen Valley Club) were as follows:

NSW Zone Championships (cont)

ZONE NEWS

Southern Highlands
"End of Year Carnival"
21-22 July at Hall

Preparations are well under way for the Zone's End of Year Carnival and Annual Presentation Evening.
 
The majority consensus was to run this year's carnival along the same lines as last year, ie to run a combined player competition over the whole weekend. All zone members who wish to play are invited to participate - your Club Secretaries have the details.
 
The Annual Presentation Evening will be held at the Hall pavilion on the Saturday Night. Awards will be presented to "Players of the Year" for Mens, Womens, Intermediates (male & female), Juniors (boy & girl) and Sub-Junior. There will also be awards for umpire's and encouragement awards.
 
In addition there are three perpetual trophies to be awarded:
 
The Jacko Sillis Memorial
For outstanding dedication and achievement in horsemanship
 
The Hal O'Donnell Memorial
For the best horse and rider combination
 
The Mick Blenkinsopp Memorial
For the best no 2 player
 
Each year, all Clubs and their members assist with the running of the zone carnival and following is a brief run down of each clubs responsibilities:

HALL Club

• Saturday Evening dinner
• Liquor licence & Bar
• Set up PA System
• Collect Firewood

BUNGENDORE Club

• Field Marking

LAKE GEORGE Club

• Umpire's Horses

YASS Club

• Canteen

BURRADOO Club

• Receive Nominations and prepare draw

BRAIDWOOD Club

• Amenities Block

MOSS VALE Club

• Raffle

ALL CLUBS

• Supply cakes, slices and soups
• Bring spare horses for umpiring
• Intermediates/Juniors to decorate hall

CLUB NEWS

Where's Elke??

Over the past few weeks many people have come up to me at carnivals and asked either "Where's Elke?" or "How's Elke going?"
 
Elke is doing very well. To bring you up to date, she left Australia at the end of April for the USA. She had applied to work at a summer camp and was delighted when the camps equine director, Liz Pohl, invited her to arrive a month early to play polocrosse with them.
 
After travelling for more than 20 hours, she was met at the Austin airport by Liz and her sister Catherine. It was 5:00pm Friday afternoon Texas time, and they whisked her away to nearby Coupland for her first carnival that weekend. It didn't take her long to get to know them as her accommodation for the weekend was sharing a tent with four others!
 
However, over the next four weeks, the accommodation stakes improved greatly as Elke stayed with Catherine in her charming two bedroom cottage, nestled between large trees and located next to the paddocks where the mares and foals were kept.
 
During her first week, Elke was taken out to Waldemar's winter ranch to collect some horses for the camp. After yarding a few, they went on a long trail ride looking for more, but didn't have any luck - little wonder as the ranch is about 20,000 acres and divided into three separate pastures. However, the ride itself was a really enjoyable experience.
 
Her first four weeks were fairly hectic, with carnivals held every weekend but one.
 
At the Camp Stewart carnival, she was teamed up with Catherine and Rachel. The girls won all their games and were also awarded best Nos 1, 2 and 3 of the carnival.
 
On the last weekend before "short term" started (and the arrival of about 200 girls aged between 8 and 10), they travelled to Albuquerque, a 14 hour drive across the desert to New Mexico. However, the effort was worth it. This time she played the 3 in a section with two Gregs - one a Kiwi, the other an American and they won the A Grade competition.
 
There was a bit of excitement at Albuquerque - she and Renee Sissons (an ex-pat) left the property where the carnival was being held to buy some groceries. They stopped at a service station to get directions and felt a little uneasy as there were a number of unsavoury looking characters standing around. Their anxiety did not improve as they drove down some of Albuquerque's back lane-ways so Renee hit the central locking button! However, shopping mission successfully accomplished, they arrived back at the property to find out that another polocrosse player had arrived at the same service station a half hour later to find it crawling with police as there had been a shooting - no other details provided!
 
First term is now in full swing. There are over 300 girls at camp aged between 9 and 16. Elke's duties involve bunking in and being in charge of seven 13 year old girls, taking different groups of girls for a total of 15 riding classes per week (each class has 6 riders and is 1 hour 50 minutes). Elke is also involved with some of the camps evening functions.
 
Pretty exhausting stuff, especially when the temperature is +30 deg C but she tells me the girls are extremely polite and well behaved. Some of them have been coming to the camp for a number of years and are very keen to "earn points" for their "tribe" for the four weeks they are there. Deducting points for not doing their jobs keeps them toeing the line.
 
When this term ends, Elke gets a couple of days break before term 2 begins and the process starts all over again.
 
However, once camp finishes on 12th August, she won't be rushing home, she will spend a few days in London then five weeks touring Germany.
 
For anyone who's interested and has access to the internet, Elke is in a couple of photos on the Waldemar website - the URL is www.waldemar.com follow the links at the bottom of the page "Camper Photos Summer 2001 on Cyberpix" - 1st term - 12th and 14th June. It's nice to see her looking so well, I'd almost forgotten what she looks like!
 
Odette Neumann

Agility Drills for Polocrosse
By Tania Churchill

The ability of the horse and rider to change direction quickly, accelerate and decelerate quickly, and the ability to mirror the opponent's movements are all very important aspects in being able to play a good game of polocrosse. This need for agility is very similar to that needed in human team sport games, such as touch football, and soccer.
 
In this article, I will look at how team sport agility drills can be adapted for use in training for polocrosse. The drills have been adapted from the ACT Academy of Sport Agility Manual. Some of the drills mentioned can be practised alone, while some are ideal for team training.
 
The drills are designed to develop the physiological components that are important in increasing agility for team sports. These include acceleration, maximal speed, proprioception (the awareness of where one's limbs are in space), reaction time and response time, decision making, agility endurance and aerobic and anaerobic capacity. By developing these elements, you should notice an improvement in the horse's polocrosse performance.

TAG AND CHASE
RESPONSE TIME - visual

This drill develops the rider's response time, and develops the horse's response time to the aids. The coach/ helper stands 2 - 3 metres in front of the riders with a ball. The coach gives a quick pass to either of the riders and the rider receiving the ball is required to reach the line closest to them before being tagged by the other rider. Tagging occurs if the pursuing horse's head draws level with the other horse's quarters. If the rider with the ball does get tagged then he/she has to turn around and try to tag the other rider, before that rider reaches their own line.

SHADOWING

Shadowing involves two riders playing within a square or rectangular area (about half a polocrosse field). The riders face each other on opposite sides of the square. One rider is nominated as the first leader and the other is the shadower. The leader executes varying movement patterns in the confined area, such as quick accelerations and decelerations, changes of direction, turns on the haunches, sidepass etc. The shadower mimics the movement patterns as quickly and accurately as possible, whilst trying to keep up with the leader's movements.

WHICH DIRECTION?

This drill uses both verbal and visual cues to change direction. The horse and rider canter quickly to the coach, pole or cone and then have to quickly make a decision when the coach says or points to the direction in which to turn and canter to.

ROUND THE BEND

The rider completes the drill as quickly as possible. At each cone (corner) the horse and rider turns in either a clockwise or anticlockwise direction to complete a full circle and then continues to the next cone.

PICKING UP THE BALL

A polocrosse ball is placed at each drop zone. The rider starts by galloping out to pick up the first ball and bringing it back to the start. The rider repeats the process until all the balls have been picked up. When the rider is returning the last ball he/she passes it to the next rider who completes the drill by placing each ball at the designated drop zones.

SLALOM

Cones or bending poles are set out in a slalom course pattern. The rider tries to get around the poles are quickly as possible to reach the finish line. The horse and rider then walk back to the start and completes the drill again after ample rest.

360 DEGREE TURNS

This drill develops a horse's proprioceptive (awareness of where limbs are in space) and agility skills. The horse and rider ride at a fast canter towards the first cone (the cones are set 15 metres apart) and completes a full turn and then heads towards the next cone. At the final cone, the rider does a 180° turn, and then gallops at maximal speed back to the start line. The drill is gradually made harder by increasing the horse's speed through the cones.

CHASER

One rider is the 'runner' and the other is the 'chaser'. The 'runner' is given a five metre head start and travels around the designated area changing direction and movement patterns so the 'chaser' does not catch him/her. The 'runner' is caught if the chasing horse 'pushes' the running horse. Once the 'runner' is caught the riders change roles and continue the game. The game continues for five minutes.

L DRILL

The horse and rider accelerate to the first corner and before reaching it begin to decelerate so he/she can turn and accelerate towards the next corner. The horse and rider can start from a different starting position such as facing backwards, or sideways, which makes the drill harder and more game specific.

All the drills detailed above are only examples and can be changed in any way to suit a given situation. The majority of the drills are designed to have a high level of coach involvement, however some exercises can also be practised at home in training with a minimum of equipment. The only limit to the exercises is your imagination and the goal/s of the session.
 
It is important when using these drills to mimic the game situation as accurately as possible. This means having accurate work to rest ratios. Polocrosse games generally have a period of intense action (work) of 30seconds to 2mins, then a less intense period (rest) of approximately a minute. A chukka is 6 minutes long. The work to rest ratio when completing the drills should reflect these numbers, and the intensity at which they are conducted should also be high.
 
By regularly incorporating these drills into training sessions, improvements should be seen in the horse's polocrosse ability. They should also be fun for the rider!
 
Tania Churchill has a degree in equine management, and currently runs a fitness consultancy service called Performance Equine Training Advice. For more informative articles and information on the services PETA offers, go to www.members.eisa/~pequineta/, or call Tania on 0408 11 0607.
 
Drills adapted from:
Wisbey, B, Templeton, C., 2001. Agility Manual, ACT Academy of Sport.

SHPSA PUBLICITY OFFICER:
Odette Neumann

Ph/Fax: 02 6238 2300 (ah); 02 6280 7677 (bh)
Mobile: 0429 489 613