Water Polo?? Who the hell plays that?

[Blln]

I do! Water Polo has to be the most unappreciated sport ever created. Games are fast paced and goals are scored every couple of minutes, ejections are called, fast breaks happen back and forth, it's as exciting as a sport can get, and yet nobody plays it anywhere but the west coast and like Hungary.

I've been playing for about 3 years on my high school's Varsity team, and I've loved every minute of it. I've really come to love the sport, it just isn't played like any other. I play hole set most of time, for those who know about the game, since I'm pretty big, but if the team we play has a dominant hole defender, or front the hole, I'll often just hang around at strong flat on the 5m and try to get fouled to pick off a 5m shot. The problem is that I live in the Northeast, where there are like 6 water polo teams, so not many opponents... which hopefully will change in the future (uh, yeah right)

So I was wondering... do ANY smogoners at all play water polo? do any even have any idea what it is? does anybody even know anybody who plays water polo?? It really is a cool sport. I encourage anybody who enjoys swimming to check it out...

speaking of swimming, since swimming and water polo are such similar sports, do any smogoners swim competitivley, or even just for exercize? I starterd swimming to get my endurance snd speed up for water polo, but I'm starting to get more into it. Swimming is a great sport to get into; it's really great exercize, and so many people, you will find, swim on a competitive level. Right now, for my 100 yard free, which is the standard 4 laps of most high school pools, and my best event, I've gotten down to 58.95 seconds, which I feel is pretty damn good for high school atleast. I also swim 100 fly (yards), but I'm not so good at that. My best is ~1:06..

So yeah, anybody ever watch / play / hear of water polo? Anybody swim? If you don't do either I encourage you to try them out, they really are great sports to get into.

 

[Uskuri]

At my school, if the swim team does well in a meet, we get to play Water Polo the next Friday instead of practice. It is indeed fun, although theres only a few people who have any actual skill in it- everything else is pretty much just luck and flailing around. We don't actually have a Water Polo team, but I'd probably try out if there was one.

Also I do swim semi-competitively. Last year for the school team- this year I don't have time. I swim 100 Breast Stroke usually, but I can't remember any of my times for it.

 

[Lee]

I have a morbid fear of swimming. I think it's called aquaphobia. A few months ago, I summed up the courage to go on a speedboat with some Royal Marines. I managed to hide it, but I was fucking shitting myself. I was gripping the rope to my right so tight that I got blisters.

I start swimming lessons in a few months. But even the smell of chlorine is worrying me. So you can keep your Water Polo.

 

[Omega]

I have a morbid fear of swimming. I think it's called aquaphobia. A few months ago, I summed up the courage to go on a speedboat with some Royal Marines. I managed to hide it, but I was fucking shitting myself. I was gripping the rope to my right so tight that I got blisters.

I start swimming lessons in a few months. But even the smell of chlorine is worrying me. So you can keep your Water Polo.

Well if you don't know how to swim, fear in water deeper than you is a natural feeling. Once you learn how to swim, most fear eventually goes away.

 

[Synecdoche]

One of my friends in high school did competitive water polo at girl's state level in California and was offered an athletic scholarship at Stanford because of it >_>; (She went to a diff. college with a more prestigious water polo record though!) She had been apparently water-polo'ing for years and I always recall her being roughed up during season. It's apparently a very intense sport.

that being said, it's really more of a west coast thing, I'd think, because on the east coast you'd have to have an indoor heated pool to have practice year-round :P which would be quite expensive indeed

 

[DragonPhoenix]

For me water polo is only fun when I'm playing with floaties because I'm just not fit enough lol. I'm a good sprint swimmer though. ( < 50m)

 

[rekt]

I live in New England, so like the OP it's not common at all. On rainy days there are normally one group of kids who go to one of the local pools, and we play sometimes. We don't really know what we are doing, and we just use two chairs as goals, but it's fun.

 

[Kuri-Chan]

I'd acctually love to try Water Polo, but there's nowhere around here to do it. It sounds like a really fun, unique sport. I hope some day I'll get to play. I do competitive swimming (I usually only do races of about 50m, IMO)

 

[joshua]

we play water polo in pe sometimes, i definitely agree that its exhausting. but because we play it at school, no one else swims competitively at all, so its not nearly as fun as i can imagine it could be with people as who swim competitively as well. we don't play the rules properly either, we can all hold the ball with two hands and stuff. its awesome, nonetheless.

i do competitive swimming too, normally short events like 25m or 50m.

edit: when i saw the post title, i thought it was going to be saying how bad water polo is

 

[Mekkah]

So I was wondering... do ANY smogoners at all play water polo? do any even have any idea what it is? does anybody even know anybody who plays water polo?? It really is a cool sport. I encourage anybody who enjoys swimming to check it out...

I've played it back when I was on vacation in Croatia. The entertainment team on the campsite there organized the whole deal and you could subscribe. I watched a few games and volunteered to sub in for someone, and for the last few days I really enjoyed playing. I was goalie at first but it was harder than it looked, so I switched with one of the field players. We did 4vs4 or 5vs5 iirc though in a much smaller pool, but it's still exhausting. I couldn't score a goal to save my life so usually I was more of a hung-back guy so they couldn't counter at once.

Really, waterpolo is hard as hell but it was also a lot of fun.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I played it again on Cyprus. Totally owned the competition thanks to an rather professional player on our team against a bunch of big and/or fast guys who just didn't play it professionally. That really makes a difference.

 

[bullfrogegg8]

Well... my brother plays water polo, we both swim, but thats in california.

 

[apocalex13]

I swam competitvely for the last few years, but dropped it this year because of my school demands, and was thinking about joining a water polo team since it's a less demanding schedule (not 6 to 8 times a week). Only problem is, like you said, it's really violent and can get really tough, and the truth is I'm not that big of a guy (5'5") for my age, and I'd probably get killed out there. Too bad =/

 

[_Rex_]

Have you heard about Carlsbad High School's water polo team?
They're one of the best in the nation, and I have a few friends on the team. I've even considered signing up next year.

 

[Blln]

heh, it's cool to see so many Smogoners interested in water polo. It's a really difficult sport to get into if you don't live in a region where it's popular, since it can be difficult to find teams and opponents. The only reason my school has one is because our swim coach is really more of a water polo player than swimmer, and volunteered to coach if enough kids were interested.

Although water polo sounds like a crazy difficult sport, most water polo players are hardcore swimmers even before they hear of water polo, so to those people, water polo isn't really exhausting, they just need to learn the technical aspects. It's very, very difficult to be a good water polo player without first being a superb swimmer, but once you are a good swimmer, you'll find the treading and swimming back and forth of a water polo game to be almost effortless, (that is, for a couple quarters atleast, play a full game and you'll be tired no matter what).

But it's interesting that so many people have played semi-serious games with their swim teams and stuff. Even if you aren't the most seasoned swimmer, playing can be fun if your opponents are about as good as you are.

And @_Rex_, I've never heard of the Carlsbad High School team, but that's probably because I live in NY, and our team doesn't really have to do with anything outside the tristate area, but that's pretty cool to know some people on the one of the best teams in the nation.

 

[Topofira]

I used to swim competitively, but not anymore.
Summer swim team and year-round swim team at the same time gets very bothersome.
Also, the swimming in water polo sounds perfectly fine to me. I would not play it due to the fact that I dislike contact sports where physical contact is not the primary point. (Pretty much non martial art stuff)

 

[Wishy]

I used to play Water Polo. I played for 3 years and stopped. It was a pretty cool sport, and it was fun but I just quit one day. I kinda regret it know and would like to get back into soon.

Because of Water Polo, I'm a pretty good swimmer if I may say. =]

 

[Stefywefy215]

our water polo team went to hungary this year, they got in trouble for drinking though lol. Water polo is tied with wrestling for the most physically demanding ever

 

[Shadowhunt]

There you are. Your center of gravity is in a more convenient spot for you for swimming and lifting heavy objects, and you float slightly. I learned this in Earth Science today, you'd have the advantage against a skinny runner like me.

I don't like Water Polo too much, it sounds like Soccer, which I'm terrible at, and I've never palmed a ball before. I prefer sports like Badminton, and I'm going to try out Tennis. I'm also doing Track this year or the next.:)

 

[Lee]

Well if you don't know how to swim, fear in water deeper than you is a natural feeling. Once you learn how to swim, most fear eventually goes away.

Easy for you and your Vaporeon avatar to say. I have a fucking Blaziken avatar. Vaporeons swim, Blazikens die horribly.

 

[pinecone]

I've only played Water Polo during Wrestling season during christmas break when we get to slack off a little but I do enjoy it. For me Water Polo is fun for me as long as I don't have to tred water as I am a rather dense person and have trouble tredding water for any amount of time and sink faster than every person I know but as long as the water is low enough for me to run its a lot of fun. And as you can imagine a wrestling team playing water polo just ends up in basically a game of smeer the queer.

 

[QuickDraw]

i was going to join my schools water polo team but my nose was broken during the first day of tryouts. the giant blood splotch in the middle of the pool was pretty awesome though