Water Polo School

This page is, for now, intended to give new players and parents an overview of how water polo works. In the future, I plan on making this a much more in-depth source for players and parents of all levels to learn more about the game.

 

First, here's a video about what polo is like at Garden Grove High School. It shows a little bit from practices and games.

 

 

 

Now, about polo.

 

Sport Similarities

Most people are completely unfamiliar with Water Polo when they first come to Grove, but most have a good idea of how other sports are played. Water Polo does have similarities to other sports, so perhaps this will help give you an idea of how it works.

Basketball - Similar number of players, lots of movement back and forth across the court (pool), similar strategy.

Soccer - You must get the ball into a goal to score, that goal is guarded by a goalie who has special priveleges.

Swimming - Of course, you must swim a lot, but sometimes you have to "race" another to get to the ball first.

Wrestling - There is a lot of "wrestling" to get position and to get others out of position.

 

The Field of Play

Water Polo is played in a pool that is 25 yards long and 15-25 yards wide. There is a goal at each end that is 10 feet wide and 3 feet tall.

 

The Players

Each team has 7 players playing at a time. 1 of them is the goalie.

 

The Sprint

Each period starts with a sprint to the ball. Each team lines up at their defensive end of the pool, then the referee blows their whistle and both teams sprint to the ball which is dropped in the middle. Whoever gets it first has the first possession.

 

Offense

The six offensive players usually set-up what is called the "Umbrella" offense. One person gets in the middle near the 2-meter line (the 2-meter player) and the rest make an umbrella around them. Between all of them we get passes to the 2-meter player for a shot, drives, outside shots, and other crazy things.

 

Defense

The basic objective is to not let the other team score. We always play in-between our player and the goal. You never let your player get closer to the goal than you are. We use several defensive strategies for different situations. Sometimes we "press", meaning every player sticks very close to another player; and sometimes we "slough" (pronounces "sluff"), which means that all players are ready to rush to the middle if the ball goes to the other team's 2-meter player. Please understand that Defense Wins Games.

 

Counterattack

The easiest way to score is on the counterattack. This is the time when a team is swimming from defense to offense. The basic idea is to swim faster than your player, get the ball, and be all alone in front of their goal for an easy score. Please also keep in mind that the easiest way to get scored on is also the counterattack, so we must spend a lot of time working on our swimming skills so that we can keep up.

 

Fouls

Ordinary fouls are called a lot in water polo. Quite simply, if you make another player lose the ball by doing anything other than just taking the ball away from them, you fouled them. The referee will blow a whistle and point toward the end that the player's team is trying to score on. It is their "Free Pass". The defender is not allowed to defend them anymore, until the ball goes to another player or is picked-up and put back on the water.

 

Exclusions

Usually we call these "Ejections", but that is actually an incorrect term. More commonly, though, they are called "Kick-Outs" since the player gets kicked-out of the game for a certain amount of time. There are a lot of ways to get kicked-out. The common ones are: fouling somebody who has inside water (meaning they are closer to the goal than you), holding somebody, or fouling somebody hard. The player is excluded for 20 seconds, or until their team gets the ball (whichever comes first). The other team has a "6 on 5" opportunity, meaning they have six players and the defense only has five. A player is "Ejected" (kicked-out for good) from the game once they get 3 exclusions.

 

Penalty Shots

Once in a while there will be a foul that takes away an almost definite goal. In this case there is a penalty shot, more commonly referred to as a "5-meter" because it is taken at the 5-meter line. It is simply a shooter against a goalie.

 

Other Rules (Breaking these gives the other team a free pass)