How do you play water polo?

How to prepare and skills needed to play high school water polo?

• I want to know what I can do to prepare for high school freshman water polo. What skills do I need? Obviously, I know how to swim, but what techniques and swimming styles (e.g. breaststroke, butterfly) do I need to master to be good at water polo? Also, if you could provide me with an ideal height and arm span measurements for water polo for a 14 year old boy, that'd be great. Thanks in advance!

• Answer:

  Height and arm span won't matter unless you are a goalie. A water polo workout looks like this: 200 meter warm up 100 m breaststroke 4x25 m sprints 25 m eggbeater 25 m eggbeater hands out 25 m eggbeater elbows out 25 m eggbeater arms out passing the ball shooting the ball and then whatever your team may be working on You should definitely swim a lot, the main stroke being freestyle. You should be able to swim 100 m in 90 seconds, for frosh water polo. Also, work on swimming freestyle head up, as this is how you will swim in a game. Make sure when you sprint head up that your head is straight. You can practice this by focusing on a point at the end of the pool. Also, your elbows should be nice and high, and your strokes short and choppy. Also, you need to learn eggbeater. This is mainly how you will stay afloat during the game. It's hard to explain over the internet, but this video should be helpful http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR5S04vYe2I Once you are able to eggbeater well, try to do it hands out, elbows out, and then arms all the way outstretched. Water Polo is an intense sport, so you'll want to make sure you have strength. I'd recommend a little bit of weight lifting up to bench pressing maybe 100 lbs, depending on your size. Also, go on runs to make sure you have cardiovascular strength. NUMBER ONE THING IN WATER POLO (besides swimming) LEGS!!!! Do squats, squats with weights, run, abosultely anything you can think of to strenghten your legs. this may seem kind of spaced out, but feel free to email me with any specific questions. [email protected]