Beginners Polo

Hey Wicksie, I'm looking to start a bike polo soc at uni, roughly startin september 2010, don't suppose you'd be willing, if i popped over to east london, to show me the ropes? I haven't played before properly and have basically no equipment to hand (I lie, I have one child's hockey stick and three helmets and plan to use the hire bikes) so basically any help would be brilliant! If this works out well, there should be a new court opening for play in kensington!

Hi there.

Sorry for the late reply, I"ve been out riding my bike. :)

Firstly, I think the boris bikes would be terrible to play polo on. Apart from them being the heaviest bikes known to man and the turning circle as big as a polo court, if you damage these things the fee is something astronomical like £450. It is of course up to you though.

I'm not sure where your uni is, but is there any way you can get down to SE5?
I'm not sure of the merits of spending an evening 1 on 1 with me and then you going off to teach other people.
You don't HAVE to do beginners polo and since it's a new thing there are plenty of people who went straight to throw ins. If you can make to one of the east / north polo sessions then I'm sure someone there would help you out. They're all very lovely people.
Or, if you give me a while I SHOULD have a loaner bike you can borrow.

Ski poles: go and ask a ski place nicely if they have any old poles they don't want. Or (not graphite) golf clubs are fine too. I even have someone use a broom handle, granted it only lasted a couple of games but that's better than nothing.

I also have a 54cm helmet if you want it.

Failing all this I might be able to a one off session to show you all the ropes, but I'm not the best teacher as there are far better players out there than me.

Good luck with it all, let me know what I can help with.