Thanks to the USPA’s Intercollegiate Clinic Reimbursement Grant we were lucky enough to have a clinic with Julio Arellano at the Virginia Polo Center October 21st and 22nd.
Julio Arellano is a former 9-goal player, world class horseman, and top level polo coach based in Aiken, South Carolina. We were incredibly lucky he was able to make it to Charlottesville between his other polo coaching commitments, including an eminent trip to Argentina to coach daughter Hope Arellano’s team in the Women’s Argentine Open.
In addition to the USPA’s Clinic Reimbursement Grant, Virginia Polo added funding in order to offer a session with Julio Club players as well. These players, many of whom got their introduction in the Polo Club while at UVA, also got to benefit from Julio’s incredible wealth of knowledge and approachable teaching style. We were thrilled to be able to include them in this once in a lifetime private clinic opportunity with one of American’s polo greats.
The clinic was structured over two days to enable Julio to work with each group separately. The Club group worked with him Saturday afternoon, the men’s team had their session Sunday morning, and the women’s team on Sunday afternoon. With each group Julio tailored his instruction to the players’ needs. The varsity teams benefitted from detailed instruction on making plans for games and how to enact them, and how to utilize each team members’ strengths and operate as a unit while in the arena. This sit down session was done in the Beh House with a whiteboard and included helpful bits of his experiences playing high goal polo and what methods he found successful. Mounted exercises included proper ride off techniques and a special focus on riding for polo. Each player in all the groups had an individual session with Julio in the hitting cage demonstrating their swing and then receiving subtle corrections to technique and time to practice a few shots.
We greatly appreciate Julio making the trip to Charlottesville and his time focusing on our players of all levels. We also greatly appreciate the financial support we received from the USPA via the Clinic Reimbursement Grant and our Virginia Polo donors so we could include everyone in this great learning experience.
