Tips and Reminders for Water Polo Practice

Before Practice

Hydrate 💦

Show up to practice hydrated by drinking water throughout the day.

Nutrition 🍌

Snack smart before practice. Grab something that’ll give you energy without weighing you down. Think bananas, nuts or a granola bar – stay fueled up.

Stretch 💪

Loosen up before diving in with a dynamic stretching routine to increase flexibility, prevent injuries, and prepare your body for practice.

Check out Made Possible Personal Training’s warm up of the week series for routines to get you moving.

Set Goals ✅

Set specific, achievable goals to work on at practice, whether it’s improving your passes, pushing yourself during conditioning drills, or improving game awareness during a scrimmage.

During Warm Ups and Drills

Elbows and Shoulders Out

Make a concerted effort to pass and shoot with the elbow of your throwing arm out of the water. Dropping your elbow beneath the surface of the water will create drag in your throwing motion, causing your passes and shots to be weaker and less accurate.

Similarly, focus on keep your shoulders out of the water while on offense and defense. This way you’ll be playing above the water level, making it easier to catch passes, transition from offense to defense, and guard other players.

Passing Variety

Try out different throwing styles while warming up your passing. This can include wrist, push, or backhanded passes, different release points, throwing with your non-dominant hand, wet and dry passes, or adding fakes.

Practice Like You Play

Bad habits are more likely to show up in a game if you’re forming them at practice. Bring the same energy to practice that you would to a game.

Games and Scrimmaging

Communicate

Talk to your teammates throughout your scrimmages. Get comfortable calling for the ball or directing players to drive through. Good communication is key to building team chemistry.

Upslide

Move with the ball by upsliding forward, backwards, or sideways. This movement will keep the ball in a safe, ready-to-pass position. It’s a great move to get into a better passing or shooting position. Incorporate water polo upsliding into your passing drills at practice.

Fake Passes

Just like shooters fake before taking their shot, practice faking passes to see how the defense reacts. Fake a set pass to see if players drop back or get up big and fake a pass to another perimeter player.

Hips Up

Avoid getting turned by keeping your hips up towards the surface of the water. You’ll be more agile and will be able to react to players movements more quickly if your hips are up close to the surface of the water. This is your water polo ‘ready position’.

Head Up

Swim with your head up so that you’re constantly aware of where the ball is.

Movement

Find new opportunities to drive and create space at practice. Players often get to their positions and sit still, waiting for someone else to make a move. Make a strong drive through to create space for another player, or set up a ballside drive for yourself by working with your teammates.

Shot Block

Help out your goalie by improving your shot blocking technique. Mirror your opponent when they have the ball by putting your arm and hand up. Extra hands shot blocking make it that much harder for shooters to score.

Anticipate Passes and Shots

Begin to anticipate what other players are going to do so that you can take advantage of the moment. This might involve putting yourself in the passing lane of the other players to disrupt their pass. Or, you could foul and drop back on hole set if you anticipate that the offense is looking to set the ball. Be aware of the time remaining on the shot clock so you can set yourself up for a counter attack.