it's our last water polo season (probably) and gearing up for summer tournaments there is drama as there usually is. Since there aren't enough girls at any one club, clubs will join forces to create more competitive teams. Anyway my daughter's club and another club were merging and planned to have an A team and a B team. At least that's what one of the coaches thought. There were 3 or 4 combined tournaments with one team and eventually the other coach (who was going to lead the A team in summer tourneys) thought it was going to be one big team with a huge bench while my daughter's coach thought there would be an A and a B team (so weaker players from both clubs could play a lot at an appropriate level).
The two team would have worked brilliantly EXCEPT the A team coach and/or his weaker players decided that his weaker players would not play on the B team, despite the fact that they clearly should based on ability. Which led to my daughter's coach pressuring my daughter (who was clearly an A-teamer) into playing with the B team to guarantee the weaker players of his club would have an opportunity to play on a more competitive team. Like, he tried to tell her she were depriving the weaker players of a chance to play at all and that the A-team coach didn't want her or have space for her when the A coach flat out told her he wanted her on the team and told them that they were depriving the weaker players of a chance to play. Really not cool.
anyway she is playing with the a-team in a couple of weeks and she will have a lot of fun (hopefully)
Besides watching maybe 5 minutes of Olympic coverage of Water polo I have no idea how it works. What makes someone good a water polo?
Is it similar to football where people with all different body sizes (Lineman/receivers/etc) play at the same time in different positions?
Is it more similar to basketball where being tall is a huge advantage?
Are you swimming/treading water the whole time or can you touch the bottom when the ball is on the other side of the pool?
Ok here we go!
Obviously they need to be a solid swimmer, but just being fast at like a 50m won't cut it. They need to be able to have good lateral movement, change of direction, and quick bursts in the water. Height is a definite advantage, but much less than you'd get in basketball, maybe with the exception of goalies. Leverage and strength in the water is also huge - imagine boxing someone out in the water- there is constant pushing, sealing, etc. and knowing how to use your body to get position is important.
In a regulation pool they need to read water all the time, but there are quite a few "shallow-deep" pools outside of California where you will be able to touch at one end - you just can't touch the bottom to make a play on or with the ball. It's tough to officiate.
As for positions, it's 6 on 6, and most set up on two rows of 3 with the offense centered around a player that sets up right in front of the goal, much like a post in basketball. They are generally the biggest/strongest player in the pool and so much strategy is centered around getting the ball or defending the post which is usually called "center", "set", "hole set", or "2 meter" because 2 meters is the closest they can get to the goal without the ball.
They're guarded by a "2m defender", "center d", or "set d" that also needs to be strong but also be able to be nimble in the water because they need to either push the set away from the goal, or front the set, or get on the other side of them when the ball is reversed. Depending on the defense, they might also need to block shots so height is good here.
One interesting thing about polo is that if you are closest to the goal on defense, you are generally furthest away on offense, so the set d essentially becomes the point guard on offense. They need to see the pool, set up the offense, and be ready to shoot outside if their defender (the center) is sagging to help defend the post, which is really common.
The 4 outside players are a little more interchangeable, although lefties are really valuable on the right side closest to the goal because they can shoot from tighter angles than a righty can. The 4 wing players are often called attackers or drivers because depending on the defense they will try make a move to the goal away from the ball (like a backdoor cut in basketball) to gain an advantage on the defender or also get shots from the outside. I'd compare them to a shooting guard in basketball or a winger in soccer. They need to be good shooters but also try to gain advantage on their defenders with drives, which requires bursts of speed, change of direction, and leverage against defenders. These players are often the shortest but height won't hurt you.
Also a big part of polo is that drives and getting the ball in center leads to a lot of penalty fouls, which lead to either an exclusion of the defender or a penalty shot. There are also "ordinary" fouls when you are grabbing an offensive player with no advantage without the ball. Like, if a player has the ball and no advantage, the defender can grab them and push them away from the goal, and players can decide to drop the ball which requires the defense to not touch them for a pass or shot depending on the location.
Anyway that's probably too much info but a start.
