The sport is one of endurance more than speed or agility, though there are some players whose fast swimming skills are put to good use. The game consists of 4 quarters, 7 minutes each. An athlete can swim up to around 16 MILES in one game! It is an incredibly physical game with constant battles for position.
We were lucky enough to have George Fenton of the Dallas Water Polo Club welcome us to one of their practices. We first started in the shallow end of the pool to get some basic info on the rules and start working on passing techniques. Teams play with one goaltender plus 6 swimmers. In general, you can never have two hands on the ball, instead "flicking" or passing from hand to hand. "Dribbling" is accomplished by touching the ball with the inside of your arms as you swim down the pool. A quick shot might be made by then flicking the ball out of the water, only by about 2", then slapping the ball for a shot. Or even a quick partial dunk of the ball to buoy it out of the water, a quick grab and back swing, then full on shot. Defense is constant, both on the ball and off the ball. In fact, a LOT of contact is allowed away from the ball, with less allowed where the ball actually is. Dunking, pushing, nudging, pulling is all pretty much legal - possibly because it would be too difficult for the referees to police. (We went to a USA Women's tournament earlier this year in our area and one woman even had to leave the game to change suits because hers got torn.)
We then moved to the deep end of the pool to work on our treading water (same motion as we used in synchronized swimming!) and on getting lift out of the water for passes and shots.
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| In the deep end! |
We quickly found that it took a lot of energy and concentration just to try basic skills while staying afloat - much less above the water for shots and passes!
Next we moved in front of goal to take turns taking shots. We also each took a turn playing goaltender, which was quite exhausting. The timing for when to try and launch yourself either upwards or sideways was very difficult to gauge.
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| L2 takes a shot on goal |
We finally moved back to the shallow end and asked some more questions about the sport. Then we took some time to watch the experienced players play their pick-up game. There are so many little details with this game that would be hard to master even on dry land - kind of like putting soccer, basketball and handball together - it has to take so much longer to get in the water!
One last note as we donned some caps for our group photo... George mentioned the caps were introduced not for the "player number" aspect, but really for safety. Competition can get brutal and some players were known for popping ear drums of their opponents from behind! The caps have build in plastic covers to protect ears from such blows.
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| Water polo complete! |
