PLAYING WATER POLO
Water polo is a game of skill, strength, speed and stamina.
FITNESS AND STRENGTH
Water polo players need to be physically fit to handle the swimming that is involved but also to be able to wrestle with their opponent in order to gain position. Wrestling and then a fast breakaway are an exhausting combination.
A water polo player needs strong legs to keep them up in the water when wrestling, shooting, blocking, intercepting.
BASIC SKILLS
The basic skills required for playing water polo are:
Swimming
Treading water (egg-beating)
Ball skills (passing, catching, shooting, blocking)
Teamwork
DRILLS
ESPECIALLY FOR GOALIES
Goalies have four main functions :
1. Defend against shots
2. Marshall the defence
3. Launch quick counter-attacks
4. Watching and calling the clock
Defending against shots (or saving goals) is the obvious and primary task of the goalkeeper. It requires the following important skills:
1. Positioning yourself in such a way as to increase your chances of saving the goal and to decrease the shooters chance of scoring the goal. This means you need to try and force long shots from your shooters and give them the most difficult angles to make their shots. The closer you are to the shooter the less the angles that they have (but also the bigger opportunity they have to lob you). The further out that they shoot from the less the speed of the ball when it reaches you and the more time you have to react.
2. Positioning your body in such a way as to give yourself the best chance of stopping shots at goal. You need to get some art of your body in the path of the shot in order to get a deflection. The more that you can fill the goal, the more chance of this and the more you force the shooter to go wide. The higher that you can get in the water, the more you can fill the goal space and the quicker you can stretch to try and reach good shots. Your body position should adjust for the distance that the shooter is away from you. The closer they are, the higher you need to be. You cannot keep the highest position for too long but you can give one of your defenders time to assist or you can force an early shot from the attacker.
3. Predicting the path of the shot by carefully watching the ball holder.
4. Quickly reacting to block the shot.
5. Quickly recovering to continue the play.
Marshaling the defence means communicating with your players so that the team defence is optimised.
The goalie has the best perspective on the positioning of his team and their blocking. Working together with the defenders increases the obstacles that a shooter has to negotiate. Speak to your defenders and move them in or out of their positions so your defence works together as a team.
In order to launch quick counter-attacks you must be able to:
1. Recover the ball quickly and protect the ball from attacking players.
2. Quickly scan the pool to look for opportunities to pass.
3. Accurately pass the ball to a player.
4. Return to your position quickly.
It is your job to keep an eye on the time and to call this out loudly to your players. When shot-clocks are running you need to let your players know when time is short so they can attempt a shot or bin the ball. The same situation occurs at the end of quarters.
ESPECIALLY FOR CENTRE FORWARDS
ESPECIALLY FOR CENTRE BACKS
ESPECIALLY FOR DRIVERS
WATER POLO SITES
Admin Login