By Prof. Eduardo Amaya sponsored by Tacos Top Argentina
It is the most efficient, economical, and reproducible technical execution of a sports action. In polo, the swing of any stroke must meet these characteristics to be effective, efficient, and successful.
A good gesture not only produces power and precision, but it does so with minimal energy expenditure and joint risk. Muscle tension is a direct enemy of the sports gesture. It is the way the body organizes movement, perception, and decision making to produce an effective action in the context of sport.
The sports gesture itself is not inherited; rather, capacities that facilitate its development are inherited, such as:
* Natural body coordination.
* Neuromotor speed.
* Good proprioception.
* Favorable body structure.
* Ease in performing complex body movements.
Can it be trained?
The sports gesture is a highly trainable motor skill, depending on:
- Intelligent repetition, always ensuring that the movement is correct, since it will be stored in muscle memory.
- Tension must be controlled; the action of flexor muscles must be separated from extensors, not activated together.
- The quality of the environment is important: good instructors, horses, surfaces (terrain), and stimuli.
Are there people who never achieve it?
Yes, more frequently than one might think. The reasons include:
Poor initial learning without technique, it is very likely to cement incorrect learning that becomes difficult to undo (muscle memory). Some repeat endlessly and yet have no gesture, no feel, just as many athletes never received proper instruction. There are also psychological limitations that cause fear, stiffness, motor anxiety or an inability to relax all of which ruin the gesture. Improvement is possible, but some will never reach a high level gesture.
Therefore, “Everyone can improve their sports gesture, but only some reach a gesture that is truly efficient and reproducible under pressure.”
Why do some players never achieve the ideal gesture in polo?
- They ride without expression; everything comes from the arm. There are no legs, no hips, no core. Thebody is not organized to hit; without a kinetic chain, there is no gesture.
- Their posture on the horse is never corrected; they lean forward, have a rigid hip, do not use the legs. If the position is flawed, the gesture will be flawed there are no miracles.
- When pressure appears in the game, bodily tension takes over.
- Without good proprioception, the gesture does not arise.
- Because no one ever taught them well—and the worst part is that they think they know.
Polo carries decades of intuitive teaching; many players never received real technical instruction. The worst learning is when the player does not know they are learning incorrectly.
As a golden rule, I would say the ideal gesture emerges when the body stops interfering and begins to collaborate.The body no longer hinders the horse, no longer fights against the swing. The player enters a technical state that is fluid, simple, economical, and repeatable.