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hurlinghampolo.com
TA L K
I PA P O LO. C O M
The Polo Development application
will be made available internationally
to coaches and players to improve
methods and standards across polo
A N O T H E R L E V E L
A global initiative to develop coaching standards using Olympic-quality
technology has received backing from FIP, as Charlie Froggatt reports
At the recent Pyeongchang Winter Olympics,
72 per cent of the medal winners – and their
coaches – used the same technology that
umpires, high-goal teams and development
squads at the United States Polo Association,
Hurlingham Polo Association and Argentine
Polo Association have been using for the past
five years.This technology will now be made
available to all polo coaches, in the form of
the Polo Development application for iOS
and Android devices.
Swiss company Dartfish will power the
app, which will be managed and populated
by the International Polo Academy, which
has customised Dartfish’s technology for
polo by analysing over 2,000 games and
techniques from the past eight years. The
app will harness the latest technology and
methods to propagate standards and rules
internationally, via a partnership with the
Federation of International Polo (FIP).
‘We must move with the times,’ says FIP
President Nicholas Colquhoun-Denvers.
‘One of FIP’s goals is to help enhance
coaching methods and standards among
our 70 member countries around the world.
We are therefore supporting the programme
through the FIP Polo Development Fund
(PDF), created in 2013 to provide funding
assistance to new initiatives and projects
within the context of the FIPmission.’
Just as umpires and players at the top
level can access analysis of games, coaches
and players from every FIP-registered country
that joins the programme will now be able to
access the latest research on techniques, play
and rules, wherever there is a data connection.
‘We have been monitoring the polo
analysis programme and getting feedback
