It is pretty exciting to work with the same teammates over a period of time to develop team strength. By team strength I mean the extra handicap goals of the team that are in excess of the sum of the individual handicaps. The paper might have shown our three handicaps totaling 23 goals in LA, but we were easily playing as a 26-goal team.

“Field Awareness”, next to horsemanship, is probably the most important factor when it comes to your own safety as well as the ability to make better play decisions.

Well, every once in a while, we all miss our man. Missing a man often times results in the development of a breakaway. Now how do we handle this opportunity that each team will be given a limited number of times in every match.

Player Number Three, Greatest Attributes: Playmaker. Field Leader.

Hooking is the second best alternative in the list of defensive plays. If we place our self in position properly as soon as the play turns, we should be able to get advantage on our opponent with a ride-off and have the ball on our free side to hit.

Position Number Two, Greatest Attributes: Effort, Horses, Finesse

This player, similar to their opposing number one must be highly disciplined to proper positioning; carefully watching for any offensive drives being mounted and quickly moving into a position of advantage to defend the attack.

The “Attack Position”, the Number One needs to be a disciplined player who can anticipate his team breaking to offense and get into a reasonable position to be able to accept a passing shot coming from teammates.

Tommy Hitchcock Jr. carried a 10-goal handicap from 1922-1940. He was one of the greatest U.S. Polo players of all time. This is his advice to his Westchester Cup teammates in 1930.