A student practices on a wooden horse at Tianjin polo club. Mike Peters / China Daily

It's well known as the sport of kings and equestrian clubs, but ordinary youngsters in Tianjin are getting the opportunity to check out polo.

The first lesson they're likely to hear: It's not croquet on horseback.

"The mallets may look alike at first, but the polo mallet is longer with a very flexible handle," says Isabel Branch, senior instructor at the Tianjin Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club. "So you hit the ball with the side of the mallet. Hitting with the mallet head requires exceptional skill from the back of a horse," she adds, laughing.

Polo is played on grass, with four players on horseback per side. They generally take the field in a diamond formation, and each has a specific role: No 1 at the top point is the powerhouse on offense, while No 4 is the key defender when the other side controls the ball.

Unlike in some other field sports, any player can be anywhere on the field at any time. In a fast-moving game (the horses can sprint at about 56 km/h in the heat of battle) No 1 can suddenly become No 4 if the other side gets the ball.

"Everybody plays right-handed," says Branch, an affable Brit who was a teen champion back home. "That keeps the right-of-way clear for the umpires, and it also helps prevent dangerous collisions between horses and tangles between players."

The club will offer three residential junior and equestrian programs, the first beginning July 30, designed to teach young would-be polo players a complete skill set, with sessions in basic riding, mallet practice on a wooden horse, polo riding and playing polo. Young polo players from the United Kingdom will join each group for polo and cultural exchanges.

But the summer-camp riders will start with a shovel - learning stable management and horse welfare from a crew that starts working with the animals soon after 5 am.

Polo is an ancient game, and it may be the oldest team sport in existence, says Derek Reid, a cheerful Australian who is the club's head professional and the former captain of his country's national team.

The first matches were probably played in Persia (today's Iran) more than 2,500 years ago, and polo-field scenes adorn paintings and other artworks from the region even today.

In the 1860s, British military officers "reinvented" the game after seeing an exhibition in India and brought it to England. It became an Olympic sport in the 1930s and has developed a patina of noble sportsmanship ever since. A stone table near a polo ground in Gilgit, Pakistan reads: "Let others play at other things. The king of games is still the game of kings."

But Reid is one of many players who prefer to bring the game down to earth a little. A fourth-generation rider, he says playing with his father and two brothers is a highlight of his life, and polo has taken him to England, the United States, South Africa, Dubai and beyond.

"It is the passport to the world," he says, and that's one reason he's as eager to coach summer-camp teenagers as he is to work with touring pros.

Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club recently hosted its first international tournament for under-18s, and Young England captain William Batchelor made the same point: "We're here to show Chinese people that this isn't a game just for kings or old rich guys."

Of course, it's not for poor folks, either. The nine-day juniors' camp runs 30,000 yuan ($4,655) per student (two students sharing one twin room); or 40,000 per student (single room). When they grow up, club membership in Tianjin is by invitation and will cost from 200,000 yuan ($30,000) for "social members" to 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) if you own a polo team.

Goldin sports two international-sized polo fields, a neo-classically designed luxury hotel, a wine museum, seven restaurants and clubs, and stables for 150 horses. Harvey Lee, Goldin's vice-chairman, says the goal is to deliver "a lifestyle concept: Food, wine, entertainment, sports - all in one package, here in China."

Down the road, the club hopes to host an internationally sanctioned tournament, with a national team challenging the world's best players for the winner's cup. For now, the mission is to show a Chinese audience how to enjoy polo - and to train a growing staff to maintain a big stable of competitive horses.

AT A GLANCE

CHUKKA

This Sanskrit-based word, also spelled “chukker”, refers to a period of play. A standard game is four chukkas; the horses get such a workout that they only play two, non-consecutive chukkas in a game.

DIVOT STOMP

When big animals with sharp hooves race around on turf for a while, things get messy. Divot is an old Scottish word for a strip of glass, and at half time, guests are encouraged to go out in flat shoes of wedges and press wayward turfs of glass back in to place. It’s a fun way to meet other spectators. At matches in England, Prince Charles is known for “divot stomping” in brogues and a Panama hat. At the club in Tianjin, spectators win a prize if they find a champagne cork hidden in the turf.

PITCH

A polo field.

PONIES

OK, they’re actually horses, typically 15 hands tall. A collection of the animals is called a “string”.

WHITES

The white denim jeans worn by modern competitors. They’ve replaced “Bombay breeches”, the old-fashioned riding trousers with wing-like hips, and jodhpurs.

IF YOU GO

TIANJIN GOLDIN METROPOLIAN PPOLO CLUB

NO.16 Haitai Huakeju Lu, Binhai Gaoxin Qu, Tianjin

022-8372-8888

www.metropolianpoloclub.com

Junior equestrian & polo program

Age: 10-18

Dates: July 30-Aug 7, Aug 13-21, Aug 25-28

Cost: 30,000-40,000 yuan for nine-day programs