Clyde's Polo Playing History

~ Headings on this Page ~

Coaching

This page wont change too much as you might understand, it’s just a little bit of history of what I’ve got up to, just thought it should be up here since so many of you seem to take a keen interest.

What I'm up to now...

Currently I’m playing with Dragon in Britain’s National Division 1. Despite early assumptions we didn't get kicked out first season.
We are still doing a ridiculous number of events a year which is not only financially challenging but also physically hard work too.
With differing player commitments throughout the team members we aren't doing so many comps now as we used to.
As a team we are especially looking to support less popular events to meet new teams make new friends and maybe even help bring a little more prestige to some of the smaller, but perhaps more interesting events around. We particularly like to go where the locals are accommodating and very friendly ! We like to have a bit of a laugh and the social side of travelling is very important to us.
Personally, as a member of the Chief Referee Panel for the BCU Canoe Polo Committee I always seem to be up to my eye balls in Refereeing stuff, which not only includes running courses, sorting out paper work, but also putting new ideas into practice as well as training referees to become course leaders. At least with an Administrator this is less of a burdon now.
I have recently set up Clyde's Polo Kit Supplies (www.clydespolokit.com) to help people get hold of polo kit which I may have had a hand at the development of, but also to promote British designed and made polo kit.
With this 2004 year at a close - having played in the Japan World Champs (for the first time for me), I am thinking to try out for next seasons squad - strictly for the last time.

My Polo Playing History...

Any team I have played for I generally play under the cover of number ‘9’ and have done so for about 20 years. I started playing polo in Stubbers Canoe club mainly just as something to do instead of messing around in kayaks. I first started Canoeing and Kayaking on a holiday camp when I was ten and joined Stubbers soon after. My first experience of any form of competition was in marathon racing and after a while I was converted to polo. I learnt to roll for polo after one session of getting pushed in. The usefulness of hand rolling then made an impression on me but I had to work a little harder on that. In those days, good paddlers (they were then) showed me the basics and allowed me to find my own way round. I now realise they knew very little about technique.
After moving from Essex to Kent at the age of 14, I started playing in a youth team for Meridian Canoe Club. This was very disappointing for me due to the lack of other players and events to play at.
At the age of 16 I made my first International Debut playing for Dragon - the Welsh team in Lyon. I found this very difficult mentally as I thought I knew most of the rules, yet at times, it seemed like the referees were looking at a completely different game.
Soon after I slipped into the Meridian A-Team and after a while I replaced the sprinter allowing him to spend more time sailing.
Having played most of my time in an attacking position, like all old goats (36 last June), I find myself slipping into more of a defensive role. Despite showing my age at times, not to mention a little middle aged spread, I find my shooting getting better, and even my speed gets me by, though that doesn't last for long - good job they reduced the playing area down to 35M. Not only does this mean I can shoot from my goal line after a good warm-up but I don’t have to sprint so far when my the rest of the lads send me up to fetch the ball.
Over the years I have played in the GB squad for about 7 seasons, only ever reaching the men's B team previous to 2004 season.
In 1997 I played my first season in the Italian National Championships. I was the first foreign player singed to a team in Italy and soon enjoyed playing against other visiting players from the likes Germany, France and of course GB.
The team I played for, Pro Scogli Chiavari, are based in Northern Italy 1 hour south of Genoa on the Mediterranean coast. We finished third in the finals having won the Series first as well as the International in Lerici, Italy. The following year we put the record straight, by finishing the Series 1st, the Lerici International 1st and the Championship finals 1st. Winning that really meant a lot to me as we had a good team including two very talented young players (both only 15 years old), and generally a very good club wide atmosphere. The 1999 season was much harder though as one of our defenders moved to Chilly and our goal keeper had to go to the Military to do his National Service. We ended this 3rd in the Championships behind Possilipo and Lerici and finished 3rd in Amsterdam. I figured I had made my impact and with a wealth of experience and happy memories decided not to continue there.
Again in 2004 (a very busy year for me) I played with Chiavari again and we won the championships.
For a few years I had written a feature for Paddles Magazine since September 1998. The articles varried according to what people ask me about – rules, repairing kit, tactics, skills, the lot. They did seem to be very popular which is nice, but multiple changes of editors and other agrovation there made me think my time was better spent elsewhere.

Coaching...

I still do a little coaching from time to time. The bits and pieces that I've done have enabled me to travel in recent years. It's something that I pretty much slipped into rather than planned to do. Currently I'm spending a lot more time working with those nearest to me in Meridian in the youth section with Mark Preddy. Yes, I am still a member of the club.
I've still - nearly finished the new Polo Book which is specifically targeted at players from beginners to average as well as club / youth group coaches. The only thing holding this up now is the massive number of illustrations and photographs that need to be produced - It's a very visual book !

	This was my first effort at a Polo Skills book, (Photo of Polo Skills Book Cover). It was a way of putting into writing what so many had asked me to show them in practice. Nothing more and nothing less. It was 100% my own work including all the tacky illustrations. I made pennies out of it since I donated about a quarter of the takings, not profit, but sales, to the GB Squads and a
quarter to Meridian Canoe Club. This could only have happened as a result of the advertisements within, which I didn't really want to do, but it served many purposes including not having to go to a real publisher and then have the reader pay twice as much so more people could profit from my work. It's now in it's limited 3rd re-print and it still tickles me to get people asking for it now.

I personally believe I can teach people who want to learn polo skills better than most, but that's it. I don't profess to be a highly accurate shooter, nor a fast sprinter, but I know how others can be. I don't claim to be a great tactician, yet I know a thing or two about the game. I also believe I can get the message across to others in a way that they can relate to, that other coaches maybe don’t agree with or understand.
I guess I enjoy working with players who are of the lower standards as much as top flight players, as I feel I can raise the level of their overall playing standard quickly, though I would like the challenge some day of getting a group of top players to actually play like a team.
Finally with a decent digital video camera I am making some progress to a series of coaching videos.

A little word about my Sponsors...

Mega International Group sponsor me by supplying me with polo boats. At the moment I paddle the Raptor for training and the VelociT for competition, which was joint designed by myself and Malcolm Pearcey of Mega.
Mega currently have something of a world renowned reputation for designing and building the kayaks of world champion surf, rodeo and play-boat paddlers, and has done so for quite some time.
This polo venture started in order to capture an eager market place of polo players less than satisfied with paying high prices for low quality kayaks. I make no secret of my interest in Mega . The deal is that the Mega Man sponsors me by way of boats as and when needed. I’m not on the pay role as such but I do get commission for UK boats sold.
I also feel happy that by dealing with a man who is interested in building boats to sustain his reputation. This to me seems like a safer investment for a player's money.
One of the best things about Mega is that they are approachable. Ordering is easy and you don't get charged to have a seat in your new boat, it comes with it. And you certainly don't have to pay for the privilege of not having a company logo plastered half way across your back deck as part of the construction. In fact, if you make a team order, and ask the Mega Man to design your teams unique graphics, then you may actually pay less for the order. For more information you can mail me directly from here.
I used to paddle with Mega blades too, until I bought the paddle making part of the business. So, now I guess Clyde's Polo Kit sponsors me for paddles.

Potential Sponsors...

I am seriously looking for commercial sponsorship to help me host this web site.

What am I looking for ?

I am looking for assistance in a number of ways:

Funding to support the commercial hosting of www.clydespolopage.com.
Equipment to write and edit these pages, including a PC or laptop with a decent monitor, and Digital Camera.
Funding which will enable me to travel to report more about what's going on around the polo world.
A sponsor for Cold weather paddling kit wouldn’t go a miss as it gets pretty darn cold here in London. I paddle all year round outside as much as I can. I don’t like paddling in swimming pools !

Why am I looking for this kind of sponsorship ?

I feel passionate about this sport and would like to help make it bigger and better. One of the ways to do this is to share information and bring like minded people together. Another way is to bring outsiders to us and share with them a part of our sport which could easily be described as the best sport in the world considering the many skills involved.
I think web pages allow the easiest, cheapest access to the most people to share with them what we already know - that Canoe Polo is a great spectator Sport and deserves as much access to the public as the more established sports.

What Can I offer in return ?

This site is visited by well over 1000 people every month. I haven't registered it on any search engines and don't advertise it anywhere. Many readers mail me directly about things they see and read on this site.
Basically there is an enormous advertising potential here (within reason). If the site were to be allowed to grow and take on a more professional appearance, then many more people could be encouraged to visit.

If you are the slightest bit interested in any of this then mail me and we'll see what we can do.

The site policy is that no personal phone numbers are include on any of these pages.

There is also no political content and while some items on the Front Page may express my personal feeling about something, no offence is meant to anyone.

Generally speaking there is a concentration of information exchange which has a quick load up time, so not much in the way of flashy graphics which slow things up too much.

Clyde

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Updated: 28th November 2004 ~ All Copy Owned by Clyde 2000-2004