Anum Zafarullah

KarishmaHimatsingka

KonstantinaDourou

Natalie Thorne

Sophie Quarmby

Qian Huang

The presentation we are going to deliver

is going to look at Polocrosse, a sport

society that is part of Lancaster

University.

We have split our presentation up into

five types of knowledge that derive from

polocrosse; COP‟s, Tacit and

Explicit, Tools, and Language Tools.

Before we look at the knowledge

analysis aspect of our presentation, we

are going to explain what polocrosse

entails. To help explain we have a short

video to show:

Communities are bound together by

shared expertise and passion

Wenger (1998)

› Joint Enterprise – what is it about

› Mutuality – how it functions

› Shared Repertoire – what capability is has

produced

„CoP are groups of people; who share a

passion for something that they know

how to do and to interact regularly to

learn how to do it better „(Wenger)

› “We have training as a group and each

week its continuous, you may have to repeat

a training method if your riding a different

horse or playing alongside a different player to match the skills and ability (to horse and

player)”.

„Success of people, organizations and communities will come from the way they gather and share information, knowledge ....‟ (Jan Lee Marin) › “In each game, the course of play will vary

so you as an individual and a team experience something new, which means skills and knowledge are learnt each time. Communicating as a group and suggesting new tactics encourages learning and makes the team and our relationship stronger”.

“We do openly share skills and knowledge...it helps if someone else has ridden the horse before if someone else is struggling to overcome that obstacle. We also look at explaining different ways to hold the stick in a throw in, or techniques that make ball control easier, marking a player or tackling an opponent. In a game situation we look at sharing tactics between the team only.”

“The members of polocrosse all have a

specific range of club wear, which is

different from the rest of the equestrian

club, which makes us more of a

community. There is a unsaid „them and

us‟ attitude”.

A considerable amount of tacit knowledge is used in polocrosse. Like riding a bike or swimming you can be told, and there are different techniques to be learned, but the experience and overall technique will have to be discovered by the rider. Explicit knowledge can be used to increase rider ability, but even then no rider will incorporate or interpret that technique in the same way; each rider and horse are individual.

“...Because you are riding a living thing in polocrosse it means you have to adapt to the horse. For example during warm up you may have to do something different to a different rider because your horse has unbalanced movements, or you can feel is stiff in its paces, its head strong and you need to work it off the bit more”. A lot of this skill is tacit you have to take the initiative from your own knowledge and experience.

“Sometimes the horse will spook away

(get scared) from the ball, and maybe

buck, take off, or kick out, no-one can

instinctively tell you how to handle that

situation – you just have to respond using

the best of your knowledge. You have to

take into account so much at once, like

what situation you are in, will you hurt

another player, what is best for your

horse, safest for you etc”.

To play polocrosse you need to have an

expert skill and knowledge of riding and

horsemanship which is obtained through

years of lessons and experience. Riders

can learn by being taught, but also by

watching another person; explicit

knowledge.

“Riding is a technical sport and these

techniques are needed in polocrosse.

Our instructor will help us develop our

riding and skills, and similarly we learn by

watching and teaching each other.”

“We do openly share skills and knowledge...it helps if someone else has ridden the horse before if someone else is struggling to overcome that obstacle.. We also look at explaining different ways to hold the stick in a throw in, or techniques that make ball control easier, marking a player or tackling an opponent. In a game situation we look at sharing tactics between the team only.”

“In polocrosse you need to bridge your

reins (ride with your reins in one hand), so

you need to know how to leg yield. You

need to be confident to get the horse to

trust you and listening to you. These skills

are taught to riders continually”.

4 ways of knowledge management :

Storytelling – communicating meanings and persuading

Sensemaking - making sense of complex and uncertain situations

Dialouge – collaboration and organizing

Managing doubt

“Our instructor helps build and share

knowledge through language tools. She

will either be on ground level or

horseback so she can offer different

perspectives , and transfer advice

through speech, demonstration or both

simultaneously”.

“ In polocrosse and the equine community having an understanding of language and terms is an important knowledge tool because often without understanding what certain thing means you cant learn or progress. A lot of what people say to each other will presuppose someone else also has an understanding of what that word means. “

“In polocrosse we use speech massively

to communicate and help us know what

the other rider is thinking or suggesting. In

game play we will yell different aids or

tactics at each other to try beat the

other team. Without language the game

would be very unsuccessful...”

“...but its not only the other riders you

have to communicate with, you will also

have to communicate with the horse not

only through riding aids but speech too;

talking to the horse is a big part of

riding.”

“In polocrosse we use a range of different tools, to allow knowledge transfer, progression or the availability to ride at all. Without the tack we would not be able to play the game easily, the tack allows us to stay on the horse because its a quick game. The reins allow quick direction changes and to slow the horse down. The stirrups allow us to balance so we can pick the ball up for the ground, or throw it across the arena, or to tackle another players stick”.

“To play polocrosse we also use a stick with

a net at the end to scope the ball off the

floor and to throw and catch it between

players. The stick, and ball are all important

tools needed to play the game. We use a

soft ball so that it doesn‟t hurt the horse.

You need a

knowledge of

how to hold the

stick and pick up

the ball etc in

the game”.

Stick with

net -->