Weekly Newbie Polo?

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that if you want to run your own newbie session, you will have to find your own court to do it on. Pretty soon Downham won't be playable week nights, as well.

it already isn't really.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that if you want to run your own newbie session, you will have to find your own court to do it on. Pretty soon Downham won't be playable week nights, as well.

Well fair enough. That wasn't really what I was trying to achieve, I don't think an entirely separate newbie session is sustainable for various reasons, so at this point I'm out. If someone else wants to try and set it up, then go for it.

Yeah, where were you last night?

I have a broken polo bike and two half built polo bikes... I'll be done by next week (one of them anyways) and can finally hit Newington again, I love your courts.

I also have a toe that has seen better days... pulled the nail off and think I may have fractured it. Stupid.

Pretty soon Downham won't be playable week nights, as well.

Shall we all write letters to the council like the park guy to petition for lights/refurb? Anyone heard back from the council about Downham yet?

when we first started souths we had 5 - 9 people every week. Its a way to get better quickly. Don't bail just because you think you can't get enough people and don't bail because the 'pros' as you call them don't want to change the dynamic of what are already established polo nights. Do you not think that we had entirely newbie nights when we were all newbies? Didnt that turn us into polo addicts and 'pros'. Take the advice that has been written, use your new found passion and for god sake HTFU!

Shall we all write letters to the council like the park guy to petition for lights/refurb? Anyone heard back from the council about Downham yet?

I live locally to Downham, so let me know if I can help.

I should point out that in no way am i against beginners coming to souths, i'm just against calling it a beginners night.

With all the recent interest i think a dedicated beginners polo night somewhere central could work really well. Then as people become a little more confident they can try there hands at playing on a normal evening at their nearest court. If you're worried about numbers then maybe it could be a bi-weekly thing

I should point out that in no way am i against beginners coming to souths, i'm just against calling it a beginners night.

With all the recent interest i think a dedicated beginners polo night somewhere central could work really well. Then as people become a little more confident they can try there hands at playing on a normal evening at their nearest court. If you're worried about numbers then maybe it could be a bi-monthly thing

Yeah no worries that's fair enough, I can understand why that might be a problem.

Bi-monthly might be a better idea too.

I guess my main worry is that as people get better they will play at the beginners nights less and less, and in the end it will die because there's no consistency. I may well be wrong though. So maybe Newbies Polo Central... Oxford Circus? ;)

On the other hand what you did at Souths, or what Mattty is planning at Norths will stay because while at the start everyone is a newbie, they get better, but don't stop playing there. At least that's how I see it.

Either way I'm going to come down to the normal sessions anyway, and I hope others do to.

sorry I did actually mean bi-weakly (or maybe monthly)

no offence to all the new players, but it seems to me that alot of new players seem to want to run before they can walk. I agree that being 'thrown in at the deep end' is good, but actually you won't get many chances to play the ball in a heated match and may well just end up getting in the way of players who are zooming round - i have seen the resulting crashes (and many many close calls). One of the most useful things a newbie could be doing in a game of this type would be sitting in goal and putting up a defense, and yet it seems to me that this vital skill is being bypassed in the search for glory, or trying to emulate players 'from the euros'.

And also, as many people have tried to point on this thread, most of the players you are counting as 'pros', only started playing one year ago. they started off fumbling around with the ball on their own without expert advice. Look where they are now. There is definitely no substitute for time on the court and it is in all the the new players best possible interests to find a court and just play on their own (like west polo are doing now and like what happened last year) . It will help you get better quicker (for sure) and you won't disrupt the normal nights. you don;'t need to always have 3 on 3 to practise playing, but i'm sure you will get those numbers now there are so many new players starting at the same time.

sorry for the rant but yeah..

Well said Cohen and great advice to any new players.

wise head on young shoulders there cohen.