2.  Anum Zafarullah
 KarishmaHimatsingka
 KonstantinaDourou
 Natalie Thorne
 Sophie Quarmby
 Qian Huang

3.  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.

4.  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:

6.  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

7.  „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)”.

8.  „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”.

9.  “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.”

10.  “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”.

11.  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.

12.  “...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.

13.  “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”.

14.  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.

15.  “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.”

16.  “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.”

17.  “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”.

18. 4 ways of knowledge management :
Storytelling
– communicating meanings
and persuading
Sensemaking - making sense of complex
and uncertain situations
Dialouge – collaboration and organizing
Managing doubt

19.  “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”.

20.  “ 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.

21.  “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...”

22.  “...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.”

23.  “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”.

24.  “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.
Stick with
You need a net -->
knowledge of
how to hold the
stick and pick up
the ball etc in
the game”.