Water polo

Wrenn

Member
I'm a sophomore in high school right now in a water polo club since the high school season ended and I'm terrible I doubt I'll make varsity next year with my friends, is there any other nsers who play that have advice on how to get better outside of the pool?
 
Squat like a boss, gotta get those egg-beater legs ready. Focus on strenghtening your shoulders, and core (abs). Throw around a medicine ball or something. Besides lifting, practicing passing and treading water is the only way to prepare for the onslaught.
 
Start running and swim a lot. You need good endurance I used to play and its mostly about your swimming ability. If you are a good swimmer you can be an awesome water polo player but you also need to know how to handle people in the water when they are around you. Grab on to them and kick them or whatever underwater when they try and come towards you and the ball. Don't keep kicking them through out the game but try and make distance from you and the other person using your arms and feet.

Stuff that happens underwater generally goes unchecked and people would pull shit on me all the time its part of the game so you have to play aggressively. Get comfortable with pressure on you when you have the ball, passing and keep moving around when the ball is on the opposite edge of the pool in order to get open. Its kind of like basketball but there is a goal instead of a hoop. When you get things moving around when people are set up in their positions things open up and goals can be scored.

Again you have to play rough, when I was playing this one game I kicked this kid square in the face (on accident) because they are pulling me back and I was trying to kick free the ball was in front of my goal so I kicked the shit out of the guy and he immediately let go and the referee didn't do anything and this kid had his nose gushing blood in the pool. I felt is jaw pop but thats what he gets for holding me back underwater. I was just tying to get to the ball no matter what. It's a rough game so you have to play rough or you will get the ball taken.
 
13218855:Sir.Bluntington said:
Stuff that happens underwater generally goes unchecked and people would pull shit on me all the time its part of the game so you have to play aggressively. Get comfortable with pressure on you when you have the ball, passing and keep moving around when the ball is on the opposite edge of the pool in order to get open. Its kind of like basketball but there is a goal instead of a hoop. When you get things moving around when people are set up in their positions things open up and goals can be scored.

Again you have to play rough, when I was playing this one game I kicked this kid square in the face (on accident) because they are pulling me back and I was trying to kick free the ball was in front of my goal so I kicked the shit out of the guy and he immediately let go and the referee didn't do anything and this kid had his nose gushing blood in the pool. I felt is jaw pop but thats what he gets for holding me back underwater. I was just tying to get to the ball no matter what. It's a rough game so you have to play rough or you will get the ball taken.

I've heard fucked up shit about water polo. A buddy of mine played a really really high level and said hes seen people sharpening their toe nails, a guy on his team had his nut crushed, he said the girls team coach told them to "fish hook" if necessary, shits greasy.
 
13218805:PM4FreeJiberish said:
Just play football like a man. No need to be grabbing half naked men in pools.

Yea. run into each other on a field and grab fully naked men in the locker room instead- fuck off.

OP I played competitively for 5 years, 4 of which were in HSV + university summer camps, so I can help with some pointers.

You're big focus should be on endurance. As I'm sure you're well aware its one of the biggest aspects of the sport. You should practice swimming heads up laps w/o any walls and doing sprint bursts and random direction changes (including rolls onto back for returns) (KICK KICK KICK)

Endurance also means treading, practice doing eggbeater and rotating between fingertips out of water, elbows out of water, and then arms out. Use a diving brick or weight ball and push yourself to tread with (hands out) it and switch right into wall-less 100y headsup sprints. 10 second rest regular treading above the brick, dive, tread, repeat.

A big aspect of that is also location awareness (both players and ball) thats going to let you have some mean breakaways.

I don't know what your team dynamic is like but you're probably doing nonstop hole rotations and drives. You need to efficiently work with your team mates to signal rotations and trap the driving defender so you leave an open man.

For shooting, break out the brick or wight ball again and work on getting the fuck outta the water. Seriously. If you can get out of the water well you're shots going to be a lot more accurate, a lot harder to block and much faster.

Work on passing/shooting with yourself against a hard wall and a polo ball. Sit, kneel and stand.

Focus on getting the full extension of your arm so the ball rolls off your fingers as it points to the intended target. Its also very important that you work on QUICK catch and release shooting.

practice with old balls so you master handling skills, then train with better balls and the grip will make you feel like the hulk
 
13218861:Blurst said:
I've heard fucked up shit about water polo. A buddy of mine played a really really high level and said hes seen people sharpening their toe nails, a guy on his team had his nut crushed, he said the girls team coach told them to "fish hook" if necessary, shits greasy.

lol at one of our games a Dhole was playing real dirty and just being a fuck boy, but nothing was getting called the entire game. One of our seniors, kevin, was a real big, real funny guy, he had enough. Were playing a half/half pool and he does something underwater to Kevin. He stands up in the 5ft depth, screams "FUCKK YOUU" (theres like ~100 parents/students watching in this small ass pool) and just punches him straight in the fucking face, breaks his nose.

He got sent to the corner and the coach rotated him out and thats it hahaha
 
13218805:PM4FreeJiberish said:
Just play football like a man. No need to be grabbing half naked men in pools.

fuck off. I played water polo throughout high school and it is the most physically hardest sort i have ever played. People like you suck and make the sport look bad. GTFO
 
13218921:_Jeffrey_ said:
fuck off. I played water polo throughout high school and it is the most physically hardest sort i have ever played. People like you suck and make the sport look bad. GTFO

Dude playing for 10 seconds at a time for a total of 6 minutes of on-field time during a game is tough... you wouldn't understand.
 
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