Polo Rules

Polo is a sport played on horses; two teams formed by four players each, which try to take a small ball into the other team?s goal with a wooden stick from on top of a horse. The object of the game is obviously to make more goals than the other team.

A polo match can be played either outdoors or indoors, but the rules vary depending on where it is played. When played outdoors the teams are formed by four players, while playing indoors only has three players.

The match is divided into periods of time called ?Chukkas?, each made out of seven minutes and thirty seconds. A normal outdoor match is formed by six ?Chukkas?, while when the matches played indoors are only formed by four ?Chukkas?. When playing an International game, there can be up to eight ?Chukkas?. When the ?Chukkas? end, and if the match is still tied, then there will be extra ?Chukkas? played in sudden death style, this is that, the team who scores first wins.

Players have a rating or handicap, based on their abilities and value to the team. The largest the handicap that a player has, the better that player is considered to be. Matches are usually played based on the handicap of each team member. The best handicap is ten, which is what the best players in the world have; only fifty five players in history, have obtained a handicap of ten. A good player has a handicap of five, there for a good team has a handicap of twenty or more. In the history of polo there have been only two matches between two teams with a handicap of forty, which means that all of the players in both of the teams had a handicap of ten.

The polo field must be between some specific measures, established by the Hurlingham Polo Association. When played outside the field must measure between 274.3 in length by 182 in width. When played indoors, the proper field size should be 91.5 meters in length by 45.1 meters in width.

Polo is a very complex game, learning to play it takes years of practicing and achieving a handicap of ten seems almost impossible.

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