Sports development is a crucial area for UK polocrosse as the sport needs to grow in order to ensure it survives; if it simply stays the size that it is then it is far too easy for polocrosse to suddenly decline within the UK.
In order to grow the sport and to increase the knowledge of it within the equestrian world and world in general there are a number of sports development projects being worked on. These include increasing the number of riding clubs, pony clubs and riding schools that offer polocrosse to their members and increasing media exposure of polocrosse so that more people learn about the sport. Also there is the ongoing battle to obtain more sponsorship for the sport and new avenues of funding are being looked into.
Sports development is something that all members of the UKPA can help with and this year the sports development team have produced a new document called “Promoting Polocrosse†which details how clubs and individuals can promote polocrosse, their clubs and their tournaments. This document is within all the 2008 welcome packs and is also readily available on the UKPA website.
The internet is becoming an increasingly important tool for the promotion of polocrosse and hopefully in 2008 there will be big improvements to the UKPA website and in particular to the role it plays in sports development.
The other tool that is vital to the promotion of polocrosse is the UKPA dvd and it is excellent to see clubs and individuals using this to both promote polocrosse and generate money for the UKPA by selling it to interested parties at a few pounds a time and then donating that money to the UKPA so that it can be reinvested into polocrosse.
The development of polocrosse within the UK is both a vital task and an overwhelming task so anything that you can do to help is much appreciated. If you have ideas for sports development or want to get involved then please contact me on
sdo@polocrosse.org.uk or calling me on 07799 360439
Iain Heaton
Sports Development Officer
Jul 162008