Understanding Water Polo Water polo is like a combination of soccer, basketball, ice hockey and rugby, played in a deep pool 30x20 meters (slightly smaller for women). You can learn about Water Polo very quickly if you appreciate the similarities between it and the above games. However it is the unique characteristics of the game that makes water polo so interesting.
What is so different about Water Polo ? The Element - It is played in the water which makes it difficult for the referee to see exactly what is going on. Players may use subtle pushes and holds to improve their positions. Whilst this may be totally foreign to most sports people, little push-offs and pull-pasts have been a part of water polo for so long that some instructional books exist which actually show how to get away with these moves!
How Physical is Water Polo? Another interesting point is the way water polo rules distinguish between degrees of physical contact. The four rules which deal with this are; impeding; pushing; holding (sinking and pulling back), and brutality. With the exception of brutality, these rules do not apply when an opponent is holding the ball, i.e. they can be tackled.
However, impeding ( which is basically swimming over someone ) and pushing are considered minor or ordinary fouls while to `hold, sink, or pull back an opponent not holding the ball' is considered a major foul
Water Polo is similar in rules and tactics to many other games. In rules it is similar to:
Soccer
Players score through rectangular goals defended by a goal keeper at each end There are two types of 'frees':
1.Indirect frees (called ordinary fouls): no shot at goal is allowed 2.Penalty throws: for any foul inside the penalty area that stops a goal being scored. A direct shot at goal is allowed with only the goal keeper to beat. 3.There is off-side - however, the offside rule only applies when players within two meters of the goal. Players are off-side if they are in front of the line of the ball when they are 'inside the 2 meters'. Of course a player cannot be offside if he or she has the ball.
Basketball
1.Teams must shoot at goal within a certain time after gaining possession; in water polo it is 35sec, in basketball it is 30sec. 2.There are two types of fouls; * Ordinary fouls which are like Violations in basketball,and punish minor breaches of the rules, and * Major fouls which are like personal fouls in basketball, and punish actions which are bad for the flow of the game. 3.If players get 3 Major fouls awarded against them, they must be replaced, and cannot re-enter the game (in basketball it is 5 fouls) 4.The clock is stopped every time the referees whistle is blown, extending the game further than the 4 periods of 7 minutes allowed (usually about 1hr). 5.In basketball, certain large players take up a position close to the basket (called the high or low posts). The function of these players is to score, or to distribute the ball to other players who will attempt to score. Water polo has an equivalent position called the `center forward'. This player tries to occupy a space directly in front of the goal.
1.Players are sin binned if they are caught major fouling ( the only exception to this is when a penalty is awarded). 2.Players are sin binned for 20 seconds or until a goal is scored or the defending team regains possession 3.The `sin-bins' are in the corners of the field, to the defending goal keeper's right.
Rugby
1.Water polo is a physical contact sport, and a player who is holding a ball may be tackled 2.The rules only protect players from excessive violence. However, there is no `completion of the tackle' as in Rugby. Water Polo referees are quite strict, and many fouls are awarded in tackles because defenders must be very skilled to tackle without fouling.
Several tactics are unique to water polo, including:
The Centre forward/centre back battle
Watch how the centre back trys to stop the centre forward from scoring without committing a major foul and being sin binned. In fact the centre back will try to commit ordinary fouls deliberately , because the centre forward cannot shoot from the resulting free. Centre backs should themselves be large, strong, and skilfull. They should have powerful legs, so they can jump over the centre forward to get at the ball. Notice how often smaller players get scored off, or have to hold onto the centre forward and therefore get sin-binned.
Cross passes
In soccer the cross is a basic tactic, so too in water polo. Good defenders will try to prevent them; good attackers will try to create them. Notice too that an attacker will occasionally take the ball down the wing, and close to the goal line in order to defeat the off-side rule.
Extra man play
In ice hockey when a player is sin-binned, the defending team retreats around the goal, and sets up a zone defence. The attacking team trys to defeat this zone by setting up a fairly static attack which relies on quick passing, rather than player movement to out manoevre the defence. In Ice Hockey this is called a Power Play. In Water Polo, extra man play decides nearly all close matches.
Inside water play
As in most sports, attackers try to get closer to the goal than their defenders. When this happens in Water Polo, the player is said to have `driven to inside water'. An attacker with inside water is very dangerous, because any small foul which prevents a shot usually results in a penalty throw. At the same time, it is very difficult to shoot with a player `on your back', so drivers have to be well drilled at getting a shot away in close range.