Came across a lovely post by Polo-Velo-Bloomington on a new mallet head design from Geneva. The author of the article is quite taken with the design, which in thier own words:

“The boys from Geneva have created what i consider the most advanced mallet head to date. Now, if you think that looks a helluva lot like the Milwaukee heads sold at Benscycle, you’d be right, but the Geneva guys even say (here) that they learned of the material and were inspired by the MKE mallets. But whereas the MKE heads are lathed UHMW tubing, the MILK heads are CNC’d UHMW rod.”

The cost  is really high ($25 for the mallet, $25 for the shaft), but I thought I’d point it out as there is a video and interesting schematics.

I don’t know if I’d lay down $50.00 (plus shipping) to try these out, but it seems like the good folks at Bloomington are planning to – I’ll keep track of what their experience is.

This new offering points to (again) the increasing effort by multiple groups to come up with pre-fab equipment. I think 10 years down the line all the new polokins will laugh at us for ever getting ski shop reject poles and mallet head material from…other sources.

I’m not trying to get on the high horse about the subject, but I think this is a very good sign. The arguement can exist that we need to keep polo down to its DIY roots – but all sports that sustained themselves started with home made equipment and then moved to specifically designed, more specialized material.

What do you cats think of 1. this particular mallet and 2. the ever expanding market for mallet heads/poles/etc.?