Ladies and Gentlemen,

First post here.  If I violate any protocol, please don't hesitate to correct me.

I'm curious as to the demographics of pro polo players.  I'm new to the sport (and already in love with it), so I don't have a lot of knowledge about high-goal/professional polo norms, and you'd be surprised how little information Google can find on the subject.  Perhaps I'm just searching the wrong way.

Specifically, I'd like to find the age range of pro polo players, the "peak performance" age range, and whether there are any cases of players going pro after taking up the game as adults (mid-twenties, perhaps...it never hurts to dream, right?).  I'm not necessarily looking for a bell-curve charts, etc. (although I'd love to see them if you have them), but if anyone out there can give me a general idea of these figures, I'd be very interested to hear what you have to say.

Also, can anyone point me towards information about the process of going pro?  Is there a sort of "pipeline," like in major American professional sports where players generally play in college and compete to get drafted by individual teams, or do potential pros simply submit résumés to dozens of different clubs and hope to find a job?

I know this might be pretty obvious information to the guys who have been playing all their lives, but if anyone could point me towards some resource(s) where I can start learning this stuff, I'd really appreciate it.

All the best,

Paul