London Fixed-gear and Single-speed

Confess your love of solo polo.

These are some of the things I like to do:

1) Do a lap of the court using as few touches as possible, ideally 1 along the width and 1 along the length.

2) Pass the ball the length of the court and then ride the front wheel around the ball as many times as possible before running out of court.

3) Dribble the length of the court at a constant speed, keeping the ball within the length of the bike but moving it forwards to the front axle, stopping it until the rear axle catches up and then moving it forwards again. Repeat on the offside.

4) Shots at cones/cans/whatever from various angles, distances, backhands, forehands, off-side, foot on, foot off, high kicks, golf shots etc.

5) Whatever trick is hype that week, currently hopping the front wheel over the ball so it's on your off-side and then shooting.

6) Lobs into the basketball ring.

7) Hockey dribbles where your wrist turns through 180 and the ball moves left to right. Repeat on the off-side.

8) Off the bike, standing feet apart and dribble the ball in a figure 8 round your body and between your feet. Use as few touches as possible or learn to keep the ball on the mallet NON-euro-cheater style.

What else?

9) ride as hard and as fast as possible at the fence, braking late and just touching the ball to 'tap in'

shouldnt this be in the beginners thread?

Which one? The one with advice for new players?

I'd like stuff like this to be in here as well as there so that anyone looking for anything to do with improving their game can come here.

I'd also like some more solo polo ideas for myself!

10) On the bike, pass the ball through your BB and back again, imagine you're going around a player, add some wheelies over the ball and turns to mix it up.

11) On the bike, dribble the ball in a figure 8 round your back wheel, between your BB, back around the front wheel and repeat in the other direction. Learn to keep the ball on the mallet NON-euro-cheater style.

12) Shoot at a specific location/cone/can/whatever, charge in and follow up your shot if you miss, etc.

This is really important - you see a lot of players take a shot and then basically give up if it's not a goal. Train yourself to pick up those rebounds.

Ssssoooooo annoying. Gormley.

This personal attack violates suggested codes of conduct for this sub-forum.



But he plays for Spring Break so it's probably ok.

Coach? <gives James 'betrayed puppy' look>

It's subversive coaching - trying to encourage Gormley to get emotional on the internet is the first step to him introducing emotion and passion into his game.

Adam is a machine, leave him be.

I'd be more worried about Cam's mental state... I heard he's gone rogue.

13) Learn to shit talk other polo teams, write down notes beforehand if it helps.

14) Pass the ball along the long end of the court, sprint after it and tap it in at the last moment. Can have a goalie (also good practice) to make it a bit harder.

also known as number 9) ^

I've posted a link with the other info on the first page.
Not sure it's entirely for beginners though as I'm sure some intermediates could benefit from this?

The idea of the Strategy and Coaching forum is to create a resource for all players to dip into, no matter what their ability.

Hopefully we can get together a decent list of solo drills for people to take away and try out to improve their game.

Which was my point.
Different abilities do need different strategies though as we've agreed also.

^^ +1

Yep, just agreeing with you and clarifying.

Not solo polo but if there are two/three of you..

One takes net, the others try and score on you, scorer becomes keeper.
Love that shit.

Two of you:

Half court ,both of you score on the same net 1v1, if you gain possession of the ball you have to take it to half court before you can score.

True solo. I just ride laps of the court dribbling and shooting from as many angles as possible, massove +1 on catching the rebounds.

http://www.lfgss.com/thread40227.html

Praps this should be move in to the strategy section?

I prefer, scorer keep playing, loser becomes keeper.

I've been reading all these posts about skills and strategy and thinking about getting more serious and competitive now that there's a european ladies tourney on the horizon...

It's going to start with solo polo and drills but also wondered if I could encourage any of you lot to give a bit of constructive feedback to Los Coños (courtside) throughout the upcoming play offs. Just so we can try and improve our game like, in prep for Geneva.

defo, i would say one thing. When i played with you last week, you were always looking for space and didn't bunch too close to me. I think you and jo tend to go for the same balls sometimes, So clearer communication, where one of you has to trust and stay in space, as well as be able to double back if the other loses the ball.

Cheers B, will take it on board and try to think a bit more about what and why we're doing things

Hi there guys! This is Marek ex Netto. I was wondering if I could use these drills and pass them on to some very new polo players in Slovakia. As Im part of Bratislava and Vienna polo community I would like to help them little with this kind of stuff. Any other suggestions regarding to how to help polo here to grow would be very much appreciated. Thanks hope I will see you all at some tourney soon.
Marek

of course dude, thats what they are there for!

I am a big fan of solo polo!!! < hosed.

Not solo polo, as such, but solo team polo:

1 v 2. The 1 can touch the ball as many times as they like, but the 2 can only touch the ball twice. If this is too hard, go to three touch.

15. Score a goal, pick up the ball (or rebound), ride towards the center point, make an as tight as possible 180 turn (or add another 360), try to score again, make another circle on the center point but with the ball on your off side. Repeat till your sick of it. (hope this explanation makes any sense)

I do something like that but instead of going round the centre I try to stick to the walls, clockwise with the ball on either side then anti clock. Also varying the angle of attack from down the middle all the way to from behind the goal...