The Game: Understanding Water Polo

Water polo is played by both men and women and is the longest standing team sport in the Olympic Games, having been introduced in Paris in 1900. The sport is governed by F.I.N.A., the world body, and is played in over 100 countries.

Water polo is the most physically demanding of all team games, requiring top performers to cover up to 3 kilometres in the pool over the 1 hour 15 minutes it takes to complete a game. This exertion is quite apart from the physical contact, both above and below the surface of the water, that players must endure; despite this, the sport is almost totally devoid of injury from personal contact.

People view water polo as a tough sport, and even though this is not generally the case, water polo players command a respect reserved for few other athletes. This may be due to a mixture of the mystique of the game, and the recognition of the qualities of power and fitness required. The typical player is tall, well built, powerful, and possessed of outstanding endurance.

Current players cringe every time the 1956 Olympics game between USSR and Hungary is trotted out as an example of the ferocity of the game. The very fact that no-one can remember any subsequent game for violence reasons bears testimony to the fact that the sport is now tough, physically demanding, skilful, but never brutal.

Is Water Polo Similar to Other Sports?
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 ?
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’ are considered major fouls.

Water Polo rules and tactics similar to other games.

Soccer

1. Players score through rectangular goals defended by a goalkeeper at each end.
2. There are two types of 'frees':
• Indirect frees (called ordinary fouls): no shot at goal is allowed
• 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 goalkeeper to beat.
3. There is offside - however, the offside rule only applies when players are within two metres of the goal. Players are offside if they are in front of the line of the ball when they are ‘inside the 2 metres'. Of course a player cannot be offside if he or she has the ball.

1. Teams must shoot at goal within a certain time after gaining possession; in water polo it is 35 seconds, in basketball it is 30 seconds.
2. There are two types of fouls:
• ordinary fouls which are like Violations in basketball, and punish minor breaches of the rules
• 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 referee’s whistle is blown, extending the game further than the 4 periods of 7 minutes allowed (usually about 1hour).
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' or ‘hole'. 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, usually to the defending goalkeeper's right.

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.

The Centre forward/centre back battle
Watch how the centre back/‘hole check’ tries to stop the centre forward/‘hole’ 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 be large, strong, and skilful. 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 offside 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 tries to defeat this zone by setting up a fairly static attack which relies on quick passing, rather than player movement to outmanoeuvre 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.

The Game
Water polo is a game of strength, quickness and endurance. Ball-handling skills and exceptional swimming ability are especially important with the mobile, fast-paced style of game played.
Each team is allowed 13 players, with seven (a goalkeeper and six field players) participating at any one time. Players tread water the entire game and cannot touch the bottom or sides of the pool and, except for the goalkeeper, may handle the ball with only one hand.

The game is played in four quarters, each quarter being seven minutes in length with two-minute intervals between quarters (28 minutes of stopped time). Substitutions are permitted only after a goal is scored, between periods, or for an ejected player. There are time-outs.

As in basketball, two clocks are used to time a water polo game. One indicates the time remaining in the quarter. The other, called the shot clock or thirty-five second clock, indicates how much time remains for the offensive team to shoot the ball (the team is allowed 35 seconds to shoot the ball).
Each quarter is started with the teams lined up on opposite goal lines. On a signal (whistle) from the referee, the teams sprint toward centre pool for the ball. The team gaining possession of the ball advances it toward its offensive end of the pool by swimming, dribbling or passing the ball.
A goal 1 (point) is scored when the ball is thrown or pushed completely past the face of the goal.
Physical contact is the rule rather than the exception, as the players manoeuvre for position in front of the goal. The referee indicates fouls by blowing a whistle and holding up a flag mounted on a short pole. The colour of the displayed flag indicates which team is awarded the ball: white for visiting team, blue for home team. Unlike most sports that stop on a whistle, action in water polo is initiated by the whistle.

There are two types of fouls in water polo. Ordinary fouls account for approximately 90 percent of the whistles during the game, and personal faults (or major fouls). Major fouls include exclusion and penalty fouls.

Ordinary fouls include:

1. touching the ball with two hands;
2. taking the ball under water when tackled;
3. impeding an opponent who is not holding the ball;
4. pushing off an opponent; and
5. stalling (failing to shoot or advance the ball within 35 seconds).

Exclusion fouls include:

1. kicking or striking;
2. deliberate splashing in the face;
3. an ordinary foul committed by the defence during dead time;
4. interfering with a free throw;
5. misconduct or disrespect to the referee;
6. holding, sinking or pulling back an opponent not holding the ball.

Penalty fouls are awarded in the following situations within the four-meter area:

1. including the goalkeeper, any player pulling down or pushing away the goal;
2. any player, except the goalkeeper, playing the ball with both hands or with a clenched fist;
3. the goalkeeper or a defensive player taking the ball underwater; when an offensive player in control of the ball, and facing the goal, is fouled by holding, sinking or pulling back.

Playing area: 30x20m (25x17m for women), minimum of 2m depth. 

The preceeding was adapted from information provided by the Australian Water Polo Association.