The concept of treading water is HUGE in water polo, because of the rules of the sport; you are not allowed to touch the bottom of the pool or the walls, so you are required to tread water throughout the whole game. Treading water, like every other skill, takes lots of practice. Water Polo players practice treading on a regular basis to improve their abilities and be ready for game situations. For example if they are defending, they need to be able to tread up high to try and block a pass, or intercept one. Also, if they are attacking, they need to tread up high to be able to incorporate their whole body into the shot, making themselves a larger goal threat.
Goalies need to be treading at all times and their treading skill needs to be far superior to the other players in the water. They need to be able to tread up for prolonged periods of time and block the opposing team’s shot at his/her goal. Since the goalkeeper is one of the key players, their treading practices most of the times will be a lot more difficult. Incorporating various weights while they are treading to be able to become stronger, allowing them to jump up higher. They will do sets of quick jumps while treading so they can improve their agility and be quicker in game situations.
I used to play Water Polo when I was younger along with my swimming, and last year I decided to take it up again. It was defenetly not as easy as I thought it would be. Clearly, you know about it probobly more than I ever will, so props for that, and nice picture I could never do those damn circles.
ReplyDeleteWow!! That's pretty cool. I din't even know that players weren't allowed to touch the bottom of the pool. This is really intereseting. I definetely find this information very useful because I would like to play Water Polo, but in order for me to dot that I must first get an insight on the sport and see what it's like to actually be one of the players. Isn't treading exhausting? I think it must be, I mean you have to be treading for the entire game. You must have a lot of stamina and be in a great physical state, to be able to play this sport. I hope to keep on learning more about this sport.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I always thought water polo players just wiggled their legs in the water to keep themselves up, I never realized there was a technique to it. I would love to try this next time in the water so it'll be helpful if you update the blog with the proper technique. I don't want to be in a public pool looking like I'm humping the water.
ReplyDeleteWow! This is pretty amazing! I heard a lot about water polo and how hard of a sport it is. But I come to forget that the athletes in the pool have to be treading water the entire time, without touching the bottom. Now that sounds extremely difficult. However, on the upside, it must be a great lower body workout. You must really love the water to play such a difficult sport like this and have to devote a majority of your time to it. I myself would love to try and see how long I could tread water for; and I guarantee it would be a lot less of a duration than you or your team mates could. The other crazy thing is that, not only when you are treading water, do you have to keep your head up, but also, you have to manage to keep almost the whole portion of you upper body out of the water, to ensure the best of accuracy in the sport. Great Blog! Hope that you stick with water polo. It sounds like a great sport.
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