Bizarre Sport
Posted by: Bradley McDonald
Everyone knows elephants aren't the fleetest afoot, so I was quite surprised to find that someone came up with the idea of using them in polo matches. There is an actual "World Elephant Polo Association." Probably not something you can sign up for at your local city park.
Not surprisingly, the co-founders of the Association came up with the idea in a bar. I can just imagine how that conversation went.
Here's a little more information on Elephant Polo, if any of you are interested in trying it out.
Everyone knows elephants aren't the fleetest afoot, so I was quite surprised to find that someone came up with the idea of using them in polo matches. There is an actual "World Elephant Polo Association." Probably not something you can sign up for at your local city park.
Not surprisingly, the co-founders of the Association came up with the idea in a bar. I can just imagine how that conversation went.
Here's a little more information on Elephant Polo, if any of you are interested in trying it out.
Elephant polo was first played in India around the turn of the 20th century by members of the British aristocracy. The World Elephant Polo Association is the first and paramount organization in modern times to host the sport. The first games were played with a soccer ball, but after finding that the elephants like to smash the balls, the soccer ball was replaced with a standard polo ball. The sticks are made of bamboo and have a standard polo mallet on the end. The length of the stick depends on the size of the elephant - anywhere from 6 to 9 feet.
The rules of the game are similar to horse polo, but the pitch is 3/4 length (because of the slower speed of the elephants) and there are some necessary additions - for instance, it is a penalty for an elephant to lie down in front of the goal line. Players are secured in rope harnesses, with a rope across their thighs and rope stirrups. The game will stop if a player's harness becomes too loose and there is a danger of the player falling off. Players have fallen off elephants only a few times in WEPA's 20 year history.
The primary difference between horse and elephant polo, besides the substitution of an elephant for a horse, is that the elephants are "driven" by their trainers, called "mahouts." The mahouts have generally worked with the elephant for many years and the elephants respond quickly to the mahouts signals and commands. The mahouts communicates with the elephant with verbal commands and by applying pressure to the back of the elephant's ears with their feet. The player's responsibility is to let the mahout know where to go, how fast, when to stop, etc. Most of the mahouts and all of the elephants only understand Nepali, so the communication is difficult at times. The professional players tend to learn some basics of the Nepali language to help with the communication on the pitch.
