Compared to the chaos of the polocrosse field, it's easy for Jim Grills to sit back and appreciate the things that matter in life.

He's off to South Africa for the Polocrosse World Cup in July, but for now he's concentrating on living his life at home.

There's plenty of room for him to ride and practice at his family's property in Wantagong, near Holbrook.

Half an hour out of town, the wide open spaces were perfect for the young Grills to learn the ropes atop the saddle, and he said he had some fond memories of growing up on the  farm.

"I remember playing around in the dirt, running around with toy cars and stuff while my folks were playing polocrosse," Grills said.

"The first chance I got I got out there on the field.

"I would have been six at the time, there was an under-12 side that needed an extra player and I happily jumped in.

"I don't think I was much use to the team, but I remember that being where it all started."

Polocrosse is a family affair in the Grills clan, with Jim playing in the Australian team alongside his sister Lucy and his cousin Abbott, who is the vice-captain of the side.

The farm serves as an ideal training ground for the family, with a makeshift field providing plenty of room for the family to train on an almost daily basis.

It keeps the 20-year-old well and truly busy, given that Grills is also an up-and-coming footballer for Albury Tigers.

That busy training schedule helped Grills through a tough year last year, after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in round 1 of the Ovens and Murray season.

Grills said riding helped him maintain his fitness, but not being able to train had a huge impact on his mindset.

"I had to sit out of pretty much all my training for 15 weeks, which was hard," Grills said.

"It was a pretty tough time, and by the time I was ready to play polocrosse again I was nowhere near my best."

The layoff allowed him to focus on building his personal training business, 2Fit2Quit, with his mate Josh Jones.

His qualifications as a personal trainer held him in good stead to focus on recovering properly, and Grills said the nature of his day-to-day work helped him through the down period, as well as the support he got from the Tigers.

"Josh and I played a lot of sport together growing up, we're both reasonably fit blokes so it was a career path we were both naturally inclined to pursue," Grills said.

"I get a lot of satisfaction out of it, fundamentally it's about getting people to set goals, and then helping them through the process of achieving them.

"I get a lot out of it, and it also helped me through my own recovery, I was able to look after myself and keep myself as fit as I could and look after my knee at the same time."

By the time he was making his polocrosse comeback, the world cup squad was soon to be selected.

Admittedly not at his best, Grills found himself missing out on selection in the initial squad.

Four weeks after the national side was selected Grills played a trail game with the Albury-Holbrook polocrosse team against the initial national squad, a game the local side won.

Grills' efforts in the game marked a return to form, and he managed to fight his way back into the world cup side.

Now that his injury troubles are behind him, Grills has been able to put together a strong pre-season with the Tigers and has his sights set firmly on the world cup.

"I'm pretty lucky to be in the position I'm in, I went to Africa in 2010 with the national junior team, and that experience will be absolutely vital for me," Grills said.

"Obviously we'll be riding South African horses, they can be a little different at times so it's nice having that experience under my belt.

"I'm thrilled to be back in the world cup, I think I worked really hard through a really tough period last year, now hopefully I can get the job done while we're over there."