Mar 01, 2017 1:40 PM
The All Pro Polo League (APPL) took center stage February 21-24, at the International Polo Club Palm Beach (IPC) in Wellington, Florida. Polo fans gathered in droves to watch All Pro Polo League founder Javier Tanoira’s brainchild: a faster-paced, more spectator-friendly version of traditional polo, designed to help the sport gain equal traction among competitors, similar to professional basketball and professional baseball.
The All Pro Polo League has attracted young rising stars such as Tommy Collingwood, Juan Martin Obregon and Team USPA members Rob Jornayvaz, Felipe Viana and Wesley Finlayson. Playing eight chukkers lasting 4 ½ minutes each, players use one horse per chukker and throw-ins are minimized in favor of spot hits.
“Players have much more contact with the ball, and they learn to go fast and anticipate,” Tanoira said. “Today’s modern players have a lot of skills, and our goal is to bring the best parts of the modern game and the older style of polo together.”
Juan Martin Obregon played for Pampas with Rob Jornayvaz (Team USPA), Joaquin Panelo and Juan Monteverde. He also worked with Tanoira, Monteverde and USPA Executive Director Bob Puetz to help organize the North American games.
“We made a really good team working together to make today happen,” Obregon said. “We wanted to get the information out to the public that we can have a nice open game with a few modified rules, and bring back traditional hit-and-run polo using all four members of the team. It was a lot of fun today connecting with my teammates and getting to really use my horses.”
Viana played for the Eagles at IPC, and he was also a member of the APPL team that played in a test match against Argentina at the Pilar Chico Polo Club in Pilar, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
“It’s a balance between some of the more closed, strategic games you might see and more open polo,” Viana said. “It’s fun to play, and I think it’s very audience-friendly. We all have the same mindset, so it’s great and dynamic.”
For more information about the All Pro Polo League, visit allpropololeague.com.
All photos courtesy of Snoopy Productions.
Effective Date: Saturday, May 16, 2020
The suspension of USPA Tournaments and Events will be lifted for USPA Member Clubs in locales where hosting polo matches and tournaments is permitted under applicable state and local laws, executive orders and similar decrees. The USPA Member Clubs in these locales are encouraged to follow all such requirements of their state and local authorities with respect to polo operations. In addition, we also encourage all USPA Member Clubs to take the precautions recommended by the CDC. We are preparing a detailed list of best practices for USPA Member Clubs as they return to hosting USPA Tournaments and Events and plan to circulate these guidelines within the next week. We will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation closely and will notify you if we determine a different course of action is necessary.
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