The correct answer is “the sooner the better”!

However, many times Water Polo Athletes are not introduced to the sport until they are freshman in high school. In many respects this is a good because once your child decides to put on a suit and try out at the local high school, they will be at an even pace with the rest of the other boys and girls. However, as of recent, more and more water polo players are playing club polo before the age of 12.

If your child is younger, there are many Club Teams available in Southern California that offer great quality instruction for a cost. Most club teams will charge you between $350 – $600 per session (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter). Unfortunately, this only covers the practices at the home pool and you still have to pay for tournaments and depending on the tournament and the club, it can cost you an additional $10 – $50 per weekend.

Most Clubs try and to participate in a tournament once or twice per month and most tournaments require the participating teams to play between 2 and 6 games in one weekend. This is level of play is actually where your athlete will learn the most. Just think about the following, High School seasons only allow each team to play between 10 – 20 games in a high school season. This means that  in one (1) club season your athlete will play more than a full year worth of games and more experience than you can imagine as your athlete faces tougher opponents than in high school. If you do the math, it means that your player will have about 40 – 60 games in the off-season and will be ready for High School by the time their respective season comes around (Boys in the Fall, Girls in the Winter).

Swimming at the High School level is done in the Spring and if you want your child to play competitively in Water Polo, then you will want him/her enrolled in your Local High School Swim team or local Swim Club, but we will offer swim lessons as well at IEWP.

The Club Teams are broken down by age and sex (boys vs boys and girls vs girls) in the following age groups:

• 12 and Under (12U)
• 14 and Under (14U)
• 16 and Under (16U)
• 18 and Under (18U)
• Master’s Level Play (19 and Over)

High School Teams are broken down into Frosh/Soph, Junior Varsity, and Varsity teams and College Teams are all comprised of High School Graduates.

There is of coarse both Men’s and Women’s Junior Olympic National Teams and the covident US National Teams (www.usawaterpolo.com) which play around the world all year round, and in Europe there is actually professional teams who pay good money for top talent.

I hope this gives some of you a better idea about Water Polo.

Carlos Mendez
Club Director of IEWP

By the 1880s, the game evolved to include fast-paced team play with a soccer-sized ball that emphasized swimming, passing, and scoring by shooting into a goal net; players could only be tackled when holding the ball and could not be taken under water. To deal with variations in regional rules, in 1888, the London Water Polo League was founded and approved a set of rules to allow team competition, forming the basis of the present game. The first English championships were played in 1888. In 1890, the first international water polo game was played; Scotland defeated England, 4-0.[5]

Water polo final at the 1908 Summer OlympicsBetween 1890 and 1900, the game developed in Europe, with teams competing in Germany, Austria, France, Belgium, Hungary and Italy, using British rules. A different game was being played in the United States, characterized by rough play, holding, diving underwater, and soft, semi-inflated ball that could be gripped tightly and carried underwater. As a result, European teams did not compete in the 1904 Olympic championships in St. Louis. By 1914, most US teams agreed to conform to international rules.[6] An international water polo committee was formed in 1929, consisting of representatives from Great Britain and the International Amateur Swimming Federation (FINA). Rules were developed for international matches and put into effect in 1930; FINA has been the international governing body for the sport since that time.

Over the years, both technical and rule changes affected the character of the game. In 1928, Hungarian water polo coach Béla Komjádi invented the “air pass,” or “dry pass”, a technique in which a player directly passes the ball through the air to another player, who receives it without the ball hitting the water. Previously, players would let the ball drop in the water first and then reach out for it, but the dry pass made the offensive game more dynamic, and contributed to Hungarian dominance of water polo for 60 years.[7] In 1936, James R. (“Jimmy”) Smith, California water polo coach and author of several books on water polo mechanics, developed a water polo ball made with an inflatable bladder and a rubber fabric cover, which improved performance. The previous leather ball absorbed water and became heavier during the game. In 1949, rule changes allowed play to continue uninterrupted after a referee whistled an ordinary foul, speeding up play. In the 1970s, the exclusion foul replaced a point system for major fouls; players guilty of this foul were excluded for a 1 minute penalty and their team forced to play with fewer players. Possession of the ball was limited to 45 seconds before a scoring attempt. Time of penalties and possession have been reduced since then. The direct shot on goal from the seven (7) meter line after a free throw was allowed in 1994, and changed to a five meter throw in 2005.

History of Water Polo
There is very little documentation about the origins of water polo. It is known, however, that the sport originated in the rivers and lakes of mid-19th century England as an aquatic version of rugby.

Early games used an inflated rubber ball that came from India known as a “pulu” (the single Indian word for all “balls”). Pronounced “polo” by the English, both the game and the ball became known as “water polo.”

To attract more spectators to swimming exhibitions, the London Swimming Association designed a set of water polo rules for indoor swimming pools in 1870.

At first, players scored by planting the ball on the end of the pool with both hands. A favorite trick of the players was to place the five-to-nine inch rubber ball inside their swimming suit and dive under the murky water, they would then appear again as close to the goal as possible.

The introduction of the “Trudgeon stroke” by Scottish players changed the nature of water polo. It became a game that emphasized swimming, speed and passing. Scottish rules moved from a rugby variant to a soccer style of play. Goals became a cage of l0 x 3 feet and a goal could be scored by being thrown. Players could only be tackled when they “held” the ball and the ball could no longer be taken under water. The small rubber ball was replaced by a leather soccer ball.

If the player came up too near the goal, he was promptly jumped on by the goalie, who was permitted to stand on the pool deck. Games were often nothing more than gang fights in the water as players ignored the ball, preferring underwater wrestling matches that usually ended with one man floating to the surface unconscious.

Water polo was first played in the USA in 1888. The game featured the old rugby style of play which resembled American football in the water. “American style” water polo became very popular and by the late 1890′s was played in such venues as Madison Square Garden and Boston’s Mechanics Hall, attracting 14,000 spectators to national championship games.

The game of the day featured plays like the “flying salmon,” where the player with the ball leapt through the air from the backs of his teammates to score a goal. Violence was the game’s main attraction.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world adopted the Scottish rules: Hungary in 1889, Belgium in 1900, Austria and Germany in 1894 and France in 1895. By 1900, water polo was so popular it became the first team sport added to the Olympic program.

At the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, only U.S. club teams were willing to compete under American rules and in horrid conditions. The New York Herald newspaper reported several athletes were stricken with typhoid fever after competing in an artificial, contaminated pond. “The water was green and slimy, like stagnant putrid pools found in swamps. After the first day’s competition, seven of twelve NYAC men were compelled to take to bed, sick from the effects of the water in which they swam,” reported the Herald. The New York Athletic Club defeated the Chicago Athletic Association for the gold medal.

In 1911, the Federation International de Natation Amateur (FINA), the international governing body for all amateur aquatic sports, adopted the Scottish rules for all international events.

Internationally, European teams have dominated the sport. The United States is the only non-European team to win Olympic medals. In addition to the gold won by the NYAC in 1904, the U.S. won silver medals in 1984 and 1988 and bronze medals in 1924, 1932 and 1972.