We talked with Li Xinxin, who born in Hunan, China, and lives and work in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Tell us your beginnings in Polo.
I started Polo in 2020 when the pandemic starts, it actually started from a broke up. Without the breakup situation, I’m not sure if I will start playing Polo or not.
When the pandemic just starts in Indonesia ( March 2020 in Indonesia), the flight choice getting fewer and fewer, and almost no flights. My boyfriend is from another country and he decided to fly back to his country and I supported his choice, 2 months later after he stayed in Germany where he is come from and I was stuck in Indonesia cant fly anywhere. Things don’t go well between him and me, we break up.
It was a very hard time for me so I decided to go to the countryside looking for riding activities to clear my mind alone, I actually don’t know anything about Polo at that moment. I randomly searched for a place called “Nusantara Polo Club ” on Google Maps and contacted the club staff name Anna, she was quite communicative and encouraged me to take a polo lesson. Then I took the advice and had a polo lesson at Nusantara Polo Club with coach Gelen, an Indonesian national team polo player. The national team captain Novel and another coach Danny were there helping me as well. I totally fell in love with polo since that day.
Polo actually saved me from that moment, afterwards, I become a regular to keep training at Nusantara Polo Club. My focus is from the breakup change to do polo activities. The club gave me some special training with their special Indonesian warmth, and my chat topic with friends from sadness become polo activities after I went home from NPC. Then I go to NPC almost every week and brought some Chinese friends there to try riding and polo, some also really fall in love with the sport. Such as Kelly Zhang and James Wang,Jaclyn Trytsman . I want this polo activity to keep going and become more popular, so I decided to make a team.
What are the plans for China Polo Team Jakarta?
I want the team to be able to play in games and travel to the other country to play matches as well. Now I think focusing on training is the most important thing.
Since all the team members have a very tight daily schedule, managing their time to join as much training as possible is important.
Each team member also needs to understand the polo spirit and study the polo theory as well
I also welcome new teammates joining at the moment.
What’s the opinion about Chinese People about Polo?
Our team had a 1 year anniversary in this March, we invited some Chinese to join the event. Most of them think polo is hard and only high-class people will do it. But they are interested in the sport and looks very excited. they want to try , also they think is an expensive sport .
But polo sport is rising in China generally now because of polo players Paris Luo and Shi Lai Liu etc, they are expanding polo sports in the whole country now, and seems more and more places start to get to know polo and they are cooperating with different clubs in china to promote the sport. It seems Chinese female polo player Paris Luo has a big plan for polo sports and positively thinks the sport will back to the Country . Chinese ladies play polo since the Tang dynasty actually.