Water Polo Training

Q & A article

This is the first of many articles focused on answering your questions. It will be a collection of questions from the Water Polo Planet Forum, my website www.WaterPoloTraining.net and personal conversations I have with athletes and coaches from around the world.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to send them my way and I will do my best to give a complete answer to your question the next time I write a Q & A article.

READ MORE ....

Topics in this article:

• Periodization
• Ab training
• Butterfly
• Weightlifting for young teens
• Freshman Goal Keeper Training

Get my answers here.

Enjoy and Be Well,

Michael Reid, B.HE. CSCS, RKC

www.michaelreid.ca

www.WaterPoloTraining.net

PS. I must of been really tired when proof reading this article:)

Traditional Swim Sets or Water Polo Drills for Conditioning

I received an email from a Water Polo coach who has always used lots of 200m repeats for conditioning for his Water Polo team. After reading my articles, he wanted to try something  different. But he had a very good question with respect to his athletes effort and/or performance.

He wanted to know if he uses more game like drills for conditioning ...

"How can you "test" this to make sure that the athlete is going 100% all the time vs loafing?"

Great question and a reasonable concern for any sport coach.

Here is my quick answer:

1. Use your subjective judgment ... what do your see?

2. Still use traditional swim sets (maybe only 500-2000m max) and do more routine swim trials or swim tests to gauge your players fitness.

3. In my opinion, players will almost always work harder in a game like drill then just swimming up and down the pool.

4. You cannot force someone to work hard whether it be in a swim set or game like drill.

Be Well,

Michael Reid

www.michaelreid.ca

www.waterpolotraining.net

Swimming Speed Versus Quickness and Water Polo Savvy

Image by Paulo Avila via Flickr

This is a great article from the USA Men's Water Polo Head Coach Dr. Schroeder.

Swimming Speed Versus Quickness and Water Polo Savvy

Here is a brief excerpt:

First of all swimming speed is definitely a factor in the game of water polo.  Anyone wanting to play in college should work hard to improve their swim ability and speed.  However, I can not tell you how fast an athlete should be or needs to be (as far as swim times go) to be successful in college and beyond. 

The real question should be “What is more important swimming speed or quickness and water polo savvy?"  This is a fairly easy question to answer.  Quickness and water polo savvy are far more important.  Of course, no one can be successful in our sport without being a good swimmer.  However, the most successful water polo players are quick and smart in the water.

Chasing a faster 100m or 50m time is not always the answer to being a better player.

How fast do you think you need to be at lets say 100m free to play international Water Polo?

Please leave your comments below.

Be Well,

Mike Reid

www.michaelreid.ca

www.WaterPoloTraining.net

Coach Dante Dettamanti says "Having good ... is the single most important ..."

The below paragraph is from the WaterPoloPlanet.com message board and is republished here with Coach Dante Dettamnati's permission. Don't know who this coach is? Check out his bio.

From the thread tilted: Becoming a Dangerous Shooter

http://waterpoloplanet.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=5244

Coach Dante Dettamanti writes:

"Don't worry about not being fast. Having good water polo legs is the single most important physical factor in the sport. You can learn to swim fast, if you train correctly. Remember, you have to only swim fast for a distance of 20-25 meters. At that short distance, you won't be that much slower than the fastest players. If you are playing against a very fast player, you might have to get a little head-start on him. If you both start out even-up, he will probably beat you down the pool. Learn to react and leave a little early to get a jump on your opponent. Once you get ahead of him, weave back and forth in front of him so that he cannot get around you. Counterattack offense and defense depends a lot on reaction, not speed."

In case you couldn't be bothered to read the whole thing here are what I think are the two most critical sentences that any developing Water Polo player and youth coach needs to hear and understand.

"Having good water polo legs is the single most important physical factor in the sport."

I have to agree 100% with Coach Dettamanti but he is not the only high level coach to write about the importance of your legs in Water Polo. According to Coach Ratko Rudic, at least 50% of the game is "Water Polo legs" but probably it is even closer to 60-70% as he has written about before in a USA Water Polo document (see below references for his PDF).

"Counterattack offense and defense depends a lot on reaction, not speed."

That first 2-3 strokes are critical and it is not just reaction but also anticipating what is going to happen. You can only anticipate what is going to happen by having your head up and knowing what is going on in the entire pool, including the game and possession clocks.

How many times have you been swimming down the pool with your head down only to realize later that the ball has turned over? Keep your head up, know what is going on and you will make fewer mistakes and be able to take advantage of the opportunities that arise during the match.

Of course this is easier said then done. Swimming head down expends far less energy then head up crawl.

Which brings up the question, if head up is so important then why not train it all the time? or How much head up do we need to train?

I have talked in person to an Olympic level Water Polo coach and he suggested to train it all the time and I think he literally meant all the time (i.e. no head down swimming). All swim sets, drills, ect ... are done with head up crawl.

Interesting.

How much head up vs head down crawl should we be doing in training?

What do you think?

Please leave your comments below.

Be Well,

Mike Reid

www.michaelreid.ca

www.WaterPoloTraining.net

References

Rudic, Ratko. Basic Training for the Legs. PDF Document available at below link:

http://waterpoloplanet.com/HTML_Mike_pages/pdf/Rudic_WP_Leg_Training.pdf

Coach Dante Dettamanti - short biography

http://www.waterpoloacademy.com/instructor/bio/30/Dante%20Dettamanti