Suppose we are planning to train an athlete and his horse for a polo match.
Surely some of the following issues should be considered:
• Physical training for the person
• Physical training for the horse
In both situations, whenever we talk about polo, we will surely take into account the quality of the studs, as well as the type of horse. Surely not many will think about training the eyes and sight, but honestly, it is very necessary and we will detail why.
For example, a tennis ball in a serve exceeds 120 km / h, our body has a second for the eye to travel the ball from the moment the racket hits it until it reaches us, and in that second it has to move if body to receive, put the racket to return and try to hit it with a force so that the ball does not break his arm. Let’s think about that situation with our eyes closed, or with our eyes open, but our eyes moving in slow motion. At the moment that our eyes look for the ball, it has already passed.
Although tennis is the exaggeration of the speed of a ball, something very similar happens in polo. A ball is shot through the air, you have to see how it lifts, follows it as far as it goes, see where it will fall and direct the horse in that position. Many times you cannot fix or focus since you have to pay attention to more than one thing at a time, so while looking at the horse, you look at the ball sideways and vice versa. And think about all the above mentioned AT NIGHT!
For this we mentioned, eyes are trained !! Movement speed is trained, the arc of vision is trained, the focus is trained, a second in high performance can be a won match. Whoever sees the ball before, runs first with the horse, comes first to the blow.
Some tips for eye trainers:
• Perform eye movements in a semicircle on both sides and complete circles
• Look at a spot on the wall at about 45 ° height. Still fixing your eyes on that point, throw paper balls into a paper basket. Move the basket by placing it at different distances and heights.
• Draw a point in the centre of the sheet of a book with a pencil and fix your eyes on it. Try to identify as many words as possible around you. Look at a fixed point and move your head while still looking at the defined point.
• Throw a set of keys from one hand towards the other, always looking at a fixed point placed on the wall.
All this is intensified with sports that are performed at night because it must be added that the darkness of the night makes vision even more difficult.
So the next time you watch a night polo game, pay attention not only to the horses or the polo players, see the speed the ball takes and how long it takes to focus on it.
