Short update on polocrosse activities in Norway 2001
2001 We organized three weekend coaching sessions (January, June, November), with no external coaching help. The sessions attracted between 12 and 19 participants, very few of whom were newcomers. In July we also organized a mid-week training camp (Tuesday - Friday) with 15 participants. At this camp, the first official mini-tournament was organized, with 5 sections playing.
Best regards, Norsk Polocrosse Klubb
Feb 2, 2001 - We have still been organizing 3 - 4 weekend training sessions annually, for about 20 players, using riding school ponies and horses. Play a few practice games.
In May of last year, 6 Norwegian players went to Ireland (Horetown) for a 4-day stay, to get coaching and play. We're organizing a similar visit this year.
At the end of March, I shall travel to Australia to attend a conference in Melbourne (work). I plan to extend my stay, and hope to be able to see the test match between Australia and New Zealand on 7 and 8 April.
I hope to meet and talk to some polocrosse people when there.
Mar 26, 2000 - We've formed a club (more like an association) to organize training sessions and promote the sport in Norway. Its name is Norsk Polocrosse Klubb. It has a "homepage" you may want to visit at www.ridesenter.net/polocrosse. Its all in Norwegian, so not many people will be able to read it, but it may have a certain exotic appeal. Regards Amund Brede Svendsen
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Polocrosse Introduced In Norway
On 29th to 31st January 1999 an introductory coaching weekend was staged at a riding centre in Rauland, in southern Norway. After having seen and tried polocrosse at Horetown, Ireland, last summer, I decided it had to be introduced back home. As far as I know, polocrosse had never been played in Norway before. I spoke to the manager of the riding centre at Rauland, Malvin Paulsen about it, and he was immediately willing to stage a coaching session at the centre. I enquired with the president of Polocrosse Ireland, Ivor Young of Horetown, about equipment and rules. In addition to helping us with this, he offered to come to Norway to coach polocrosse. The participants at the first coaching session were mostly adult riders who ride in different riding centres in the Oslo area. The event was a big success, and work is now in progress to stage two more coaching weekends in May and September. Also, Malvin Paulsen will organize one of this summer's riding weeks (for unaccompanied youngsters) as a polocrosse week.
The Coaching Weekend
Invitations went out in October to about 35 riders, most of whom had been to Rauland before and knew Malvin's centre is well run and has good horses and ponies. We had decided to go ahead with the event if we could get a minimum of 12 people to register by 15th November. This was no problem. In early January we had to say no to people, because Ivor had said 24 participants was the maximum number we could expect to be able to handle. We were surprised how easy it was to get so many people register to learn a sport none of them had ever heard about before, let alone seen.
For the coaching session, we had a 20x60 indoor arena (the temperature outside was - 17 degrees C) and about 14 horses and ponies, mostly warmblood, with the odd trakhener.
Most of the participants had to drive for 3-4 hours to get to the riding centre. The coaching started at 7 p.m. of the Friday, Ivor Young introducing everyone to the basic rules and to some ground practice with racquet and ball. There were quite a lot of sceptical faces to be seen in the arena that night. "And this we're supposed to be doing on horseback?" was the typical comment heard. After about one hour we split into two groups of 12, and got our horses and ponies. Great care was taken to warm up properly. Some of the horses were a bit jumpy when the balls started to fly around them, although most of them had been introduced to racquets and balls in advance. The emphasis was on pick-ups and passing and catching the ball.
On the Saturday morning, the first group of 12 started with a joint one hour's training session, and continued with a first attempt at play. We played 4 chukkas. Obviously the game was neither fast nor spectacular, and had to be interrupted quite often for faults, as the players' knowledge of the rules still left a lot to be desired, and Ivor had to explain the faults made and the respective penalties. However, everyone enjoyed it very much, which you could tell from the calls and yells of encouragement when a player had the ball and was coming down to the penalty line or attempting a throw at goal. Some local lookers-on had curiosity painted on their faces at first, but gradually appeared to grasp the idea of the game and to appreciate it.
After lunch we watched two Australian polocrosse coaching videos received from The International Polocrosse Council and the Polocrosse Association of Australia, and everyone was enormously impressed by the feats of riders and horses alike.
In the afternoon, the second group trained and played, and the first group went for a hack on some of the horses considered less suitable for polocrosse.
The programme on the Sunday was identical to the Saturday, with the nearside pick-up being introduced during the training sessions before play. After the lunch break we had a theory session, with Ivor going through coaching and training principles, the emphasis being on safety of riders and horses.
Everyone went home with a feeling of having learned something, and agreed that on the Friday they would never have thought they would be doing on the Sunday what they actually did. Some people were surprised at the ease with which they had ridden when playing. Most of them were asking when can we play again.
After the polocrosse weekend held in January, Malvin Paulsen has had other groups staying at his centre, and has given basic coaching to some of them. He reports the response is very positive. He has been invited to a riding school about 150 km from Rauland to give polocrosse coaching. So, there are signs that we are creating an interest that will make it possible to proceed with the introduction of the sport in Norway.
We are thinking about forming a club/association both to help those already introduced to the game of polocrosse get opportunities to play, and to interest riding clubs and riding centres in Norway in polocrosse and to help them getting started.
We are truly thankful to Ivor Young for his help and hard work in bringing this about. It was a great pleasure to have him and his wife Ann come and visit.
