Developing your racquet skills takes practice and there are lots of exercises that can help you do so. There are exercises you can do individually and in groups; on horse back and on foot. Coaches can help you with your technique and teach you new skills.
The basic skills that polocrosse players need are picking up the ball, throwing (both under arm and over arm), bouncing the ball and tackling. Normally players will be taught these basic skills by a coach but getting really good at them all takes lots of training.
A lot of practice can be done individually on foot – all members need is a racquet and a ball and some space to train in. As with sports like tennis or football a wall can be a great training partner, allowing you to bounce a ball off it to practise your throwing and catching.
Skills like picking up can be practised individually both on foot and on horse back. Members can get really good at picking up the ball simply by practising regularly in a field or arena and getting used to picking up at walk, trot and canter.
Some exercises do need a group of players, such as passing exercises. However, what is important for Branches and Centres to be aware of is you don’t necessarily need a specialised polocrosse coach to run these exercises at every training session. Ultimately getting the members practising together will help them develop their skills and some of the time you will just need a coach who can supervise training, help set up the exercises for them and keep everyone safe.
Having good racquet skills comes down to having good hand eye coordination and quick reactions so there are also training exercises that don’t even involve a racquet and ball that can help you develop these skills.