Traditional Chinese Ball Games

Traditional Chinese Ball Games: Polo.

Polo refers to the sport of riding a horse and hitting the ball with a polo club. Polo in ancient China called "bow", the invention began in the Han Dynasty, flourished in the Tang and Song dynasties, in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Zhi, "Ming Du chapter" in the "even riding bow soil, skillful but end of the poem" to describe the situation of people playing polo.

Polo was popular in the Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties, and was lost in the Qing Dynasty, mainly in the army and court nobles. The world for the origin of polo has not been a precise method. But to our literature for the historical record, China's polo should belong to the local sport is not out of the country. 2008 June 7, polo by the State Council approved the inclusion of the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.

Horse cones is riding on a horse with a ball stick to hit cones, so also known as "playing cones", "hit cones", "hit bow" and so on. The sport of horseback bowing was introduced from Tibet in the Tang Dynasty. Because of the ancient sports classification is not detailed, and the aforementioned "literature", "ancient and modern book integration" horse cones into the "cuju" department, also makes the distinction between the two more complex.

The ball used for horse cones is as small as a fist, made of light but tough wood, hollowed out in the middle, painted with various colors, and somewhat decorated with carvings, known as "color cones", "seven treasures cones" and so on. The ball used in Cuju is "made of leather, with hair in the middle", and is kicked with walking feet, which is different from the origin of horse cones. An even greater difference is that horse cones are struck with cones, while foot cones are kicked with the feet.

Basic Rules:

1. In ball line play, the referee relies on the dribbling route and the player's right to attack to penalize. A dribble route is the trajectory of the ball after it has been struck.

2. Ball possession. The right of attack means that the player who has struck the ball has the right to steer his horse and then chase the ball along the dribbling route to strike the ball again. Whoever strikes the ball last has the right of offense. The rules of the game state that an opposing player may not cross the dribble path in front of an attacking player in order to intervene in the attack or to knock him off the dribble path.

3. A player may not intentionally touch another player or his mount with his club. Right-handed club holding is the rule in the game.

4. Each polo horse may participate in a maximum of two chukkas in a match.