Beach Polo
Beach Polo is a team sport that was directly derived from polo. The gameplay is exactly similar to that of polo, where players compete on horseback with mallets and a ball. It is a close variant to Arena Polo. The sport was invented by Rashid Al Habtoor and Sam Katiela of Dubai in 2004, and soon began to spread to polo playing nations around the world.
The major difference between beach polo and polo is the surface on which games are played. Beach polo is played on sand covered fields rather than grass surfaces used for regular polo.
The playing field used for beach polo is similar to that of regular polo with 15ft wide goalposts. However, for beach polo the edges of the field are padded with sideboards, so there are no out-of-bounds and the ball is always in play. The other significant difference from polo is that there are only three players per team instead of four as in regular polo. The ball used is an inflated rubber or a leather ball which is at least 12.5 inches in circumference.
A match is played for four seven-minute periods. The objective is same as other forms of polo, which is to score as many goals as possible by striking the ball through the goalposts.
Not to be confused with Surf Polo, which is water polo played in the water at the beach while riding surfboards
Similar Sports
- Polo (Horse Polo) — a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to hit a ball into a goal using a long-handled mallet.
- Arena Polo — a minified version of polo that is played on horseback on a field much smaller in size and enclosed by walls on all sides.
- Snow Polo — a variation of Polo on horseback that is played on compacted snow on flat ground or a frozen lake.
- Cowboy Polo — similar to regular Polo, though riders compete with western saddles, usually in a smaller arena and with an inflatable rubber medicine ball.
- Surf Polo — water polo played in the water at the beach while riding surfboards.
Related Pages
- List of all sports involving horses
- Complete list of sports
- The Encyclopedia of Sports
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