It can be tough to structure a water polo practice when there isn’t a goalie in attendance, or when you want to run multiple drills but only have one goalie. Usually teams will have field players take turns in goal to give shooters some level of defense. Plus, it’s a great leg workout and can give the shooter a different perspective when field players try to play goalie. Here are a few water polo shooting drills to try that can be run with a field player in goal or no goalie at all.
Embed from Getty ImagesShooting Drills
Hit the Back of The Net
Your goal here is simple: hit the net. No skip shots. No bar-ins. Just focus on shooting so that the ball drills the back of the net. You can incorporate this concept from multiple shooting positions and angles so that you’re hitting different parts of the net.
Shoot from up top at the 2 or 4 position to have players focus on hitting the back or sides of the net or shoot from the wings to focus on shooting cross cage into the sides of the net.
This shooting drill can help both younger and experienced players work on their shot accuracy and power.
Try this: Add a row of field blockers in front of the shooter to add some complexity to this drill, forcing the shooter to shoot over their arms.
Rapid Fire
Set up with a field player in goal (mainly to gather shots), a shooter up top at the 2 or 4 position, and a passer on either wing. The passer should start with multiple water polo balls floating next to them.
The passer then picks up the first ball and passes to the shooter, who then shoots off the pass. The passer continues to pass balls to the shooter until there are no balls remaining.
This drill helps the shooter practice shooting multiple shots in succession, building endurance and muscle memory. It also gives the passer an opportunity to practice making good passes that the shooter can shoot off of.
Variations of this drill can include:
- changing passing and shooting positions, so that the shooter is practicing both strong and cross-face catching and shooting
- adding a fake after catching the ball, or adding a slight pause to tread up and then shoot
- practicing certain shot types, like skips, bar-ins, lobs, cross-cage, near side, etc.
- adding a field blocker
- adding a passer from each side so that the shooter is catching passes from different directions during their turn
5 Alive
Every player’s favorite shooting game. This game/drill is great for practicing 5 meter penalty shots, especially when there’s no goalie at practice.
How to Play 5 Alive
Players form a line on the 5 meter line. Each player starts the game with 5 lives, except for the player in goal, who starts with an extra life.
Players take turns shooting a 5 meter penalty shot. If the shooter scores, they then go to the end of the line and the player in goal loses a life. If the shooter is blocked, they become the goalie. The goalie then goes to the end of the line to eventually take their turn shooting.
Players are out of the game when they have lost all of their lives by getting scored on. The winning player is the last player remaining.
A fun variation of the game adds a bit of hustle to the game by not waiting for players to be set in position before the next shooter takes their shot. Here’s how it works. The first player shoots the ball and is blocked by the field player in goal. The ball remains ‘live’ and can be shot once the current goalie passes it to the next shooter in line. This forces the shooter that was blocked to hustle to the goal and get into position to block the next shot.
Drills with Equipment
Hanging Caps
Take 2 water polo caps and hang them in the top corners of the goal. This drill is sometimes referred to as ‘ring the bell’, as the focus is to have the shooter aim at the caps and try to hit them, ringing the bell.
This is a great drill for both new and experienced players to focus on hitting the top corner of the goal.
You can incorporate passes, movement, fakes, and different types of shots into your drills when shooting at the targets or hanging caps.
Don’t want to use caps? Antiwave.com offers targets that can be attached to the goal for players to shoot at.
Sniper Net
S&R Sport offers a sniper net that can be attached to water polo goals.
This sieve forces shooters to aim their shots at the corners or the top center of the goal where a ‘donut’ shot would go in. This is a great piece of equipment for any team to have. With a sniper net, a team can have one goal running a shooting drill with a goalie, and another goal running drills without a goalie.
