“Olympic water polo is the most nightmarish sport in the world” - Insider, “No Love! Water Polo easily the toughest Olympic and overall sport” - Bleacher report. Without a doubt waterpolo is one of the toughest sports out there. Despite it not being as popular as football or soccer. Doesn’t mean it's not challenging, people often describe water polo as a mix of swimming, soccer, basketball, ice hockey, rugby and wrestling. Like all sports it comes with its special unique challenges and situations. Here’s the steps to become a good water polo player.
Step 1: Learn how to swim! If you lack the fundamentals of swimming you’ll soon find it
an impossible sport to play. One of the main aspects of waterpolo is swimming, you’ll be
swimming 24/7. It’ll go a long way towards becoming a good swimmer since you’re gonna be
having people push off of you, pull you, kick you and anything just to get an advantage over you. So you need a strong foundation to start out with.
Step 2: Know what you’re getting yourself into, waterpolo is a very contact heavy sport,
you will without a doubt get kicked, scratches, pulled and even punched. You will bleed from
time to time from the seriousness of how bad some of those things were. Anything that happens underwater goes. As long as the ref doesn’t see it (they don’t most of the time). Throughout the whole game you’re nearly always in contact with someone so it’s very important to know what you’re getting yourself into coming into this sport. Knowing this allows you to focus on what's ahead of you and not all paranoid of getting hurt.
Step 3: Get somewhat familiar with the rules. It’s never easy to learn a whole new set of
rules in a new sport. Trust me though, the faster you learn them the faster you’ll be able to
progress. First start out with the basic rules and you can work your way up with the more little
rules (which can have a huge impact on a game). First you gotta learn what waterpolo is, it’s
played in water between two teams of seven players each. Each team has 30 seconds to shoot
the ball and when times up possession falls to the other team. Your goal is to score more points
than the other team by the end of the game. Players aren’t allowed to touch the bottom of the
pool so get used to treading water. A major rule is you’re only allowed to use one hand (besides
goalies which can use two), if you do use two hands it's a turn over so possession to the other
team. There isn’t really a tip to learn the rules, you just gotta learn it through practice and
experience.
Step 4: Technique! Is without a doubt one of the most important things you need to know
in order to become a good water polo player. Depending what position you play, it is either being goalie or field. Goalie is often considered the hardest position since you need to be light on your feet, really good at treading water, be ready to react at a moment's notice and of course be ready to throw your body into a ball hurling towards your body. If you are talking purely about technique, the goalie is the most demanding since it is all about how you position yourself, one wrong move and the ball would just bounce right off of you and back at them or slide past your hand. Technique for any player is crucial since technique defines a good water polo player vs abad. The good thing about it is that you don’t have to be strong to have good technique and if used correctly you can out maneuver even the strongest of players. In order to have good technique you can be afraid to be called or asking questions even if you’re the only person with the question. One thing I'm often told is you can be a good runner but that doesn't mean you’re a good soccer player.
Step 5: The fifth and final step in order to become a good water polo player is mentality.
Mentality is a determining factor when it comes to games. You can’t be going into a game with a bad mentality because (speaking from experience) it would almost always never turn out the
way you wanted it to. You have to go into a game with the correct mentality, you can let outside
factors influence anything. You have to be ready to win and the only thing on your mind is
waterpolo. Going into a game with a good mentality can already determine who will come out
victorious before the game even begins.
I never know about water polo until junior year, and I'm definitely not a good swimmer. Your personal experience allows me to picture that water polo is really competitive. I strongly agree with step 5, and I believe having a good mentality in sports is more important than skills.
ReplyDeleteHello Brian, I thought this piece was very interesting and well written. I never realized how many aspects are required to play this sport and how all the factors like the fundamentals of swimming, safety precautions, rules of the sport, and mentality all really tie in together. Before reading your text, I had only viewed water polo as a simple sport where people push around each other just to throw the ball into the net while swimming. I never realized that there are serious laws to game, as well as that someone must have the right mentality to be ready because they must be reflexive and strategic. With the information you have provided, I will know what is really going on in water polo games and what calls are being made. Now I can really enjoy the game for itself, so thank you.
ReplyDeleteWater Polo has many different aspects of it that worldwide sports use. It is very intense now that you describe it especially due to the swimming part. Playing a physician sport on ground is one thing, but in water would cause the sport to increase in intensity. Great piece and great for anyone trying to get into the sport.
ReplyDeleteWater Polo has many different aspects of it that worldwide sports use. It is very intense now that you describe it especially due to the swimming part. Playing a physician sport on ground is one thing, but in water would cause the sport to increase in intensity. Great piece and great for anyone trying to get into the sport.
ReplyDelete