| abstract | - One of the earliest recorded antecedents of the modern game of Water Polo was a game of water ‘hand-ball’ played at Bournemouth on 13 July 1876. This was a game between 12 members of the Premier Rowing Club, with goals being marked by four flags placed in the water near to the midpoint of Bournemouth Pier. The game started at 6.00pm in the evening and lasted for 15 minutes (when the ball burst) watched by a large crowd; with plans being made for play on a larger scale the following week. The rules of water polo were originally developed in the late nineteenth century in Great Britain by William Wilson. Wilson is believed to have been the First Baths Master of the Arlington Baths Club in Glasgow. The first games of 'aquatic football' were played at the Arlington in the late 1800s (the Club was founded in 1870), with a ball constructed of India rubber. This "water rugby" came to be called "water polo" based on the English pronunciation of the Balti word for ball, pulu. Early play allowed brute strength, wrestling and holding opposing players underwater to recover the ball; the goalie stood outside the playing area and defended the goal by jumping in on any opponent attempting to score by placing the ball on the deck.
- Waterpolo was introduced with the Swimming Zones in the 2007 Christmas Update, however only after the 2008 Summer Update was it actually possible to obtain a Waterball. As the name implies, this game is played in water. It resembles the playing of Tibian Football in many ways. In Tibia, one Water Polo field exists, namely north of the Silverhand Manor in Liberty Bay, here.
- Waterpolo has be introduced in the Christmas update 2007, however after summer update 2008 was the first time you could obtain a waterball. The game is played on water, as there are new facilities to swim and play water polo, the waters of tibia are being expanded in their uses. The playing of water Polo is much like the playing of Football in Tibia
- Water Polo--It's hockey...minus GRAVITY! Water polo is the coolest sport imaginable. Really. Take everything boring away from competitive swimming (like, say, the 500 yard/400 meter freestyle), everything interesting about hockey (minus Canadians), everything awesome about wrestling (minus the Ho Yay), and put everyone in a pool. It's a fast, violent sport that could only be made cooler by adding sharks. Like most sports, there are several (five) major tiers (but no tears) in the sport: summer, age-group, high school, collegiate, and international. Most, if not all, competitive water polo players start from swim team, and most begin actually playing the game in middle school. Often, summer swim teams will have a water polo team, usually after summer league is over, but summer water polo is less about the actual game than it is about "hey, let's toss some ten-year-olds in a pool and watch them beat each other up!" So most players begin true water polo play in middle school. Unless you live in California, Florida, or Europe, whatever middle school team you play on will probably end up going to the Junior Olympics, which sounds much cooler if you leave off the "Nationals" part. If you do live in California, you'll be schooled by Commerce, whose 14-year-old ("grommet") team regularly beat out Washington, Oregon, and Canada's 18-and-under teams. High school is typically divided up between junior varsity and varsity, like most sports. However, unlike most sports, JV may have slightly different rules than varsity. Most teams can field a varsity and JV team, although JV2 teams are vastly more commonly seen in California, where people play water polo like crazy. In college, at least in AMERICA, collegiate water polo comes down to four schools: Stanford, USC, UC, and UCLA, in that order. They make water polo. Seriously--we do drills called "the Stanford drill" and stuff like that. Internationally, water polo comes down to a bitch fight between Hungary, Italy, and the US. The basic game changes slightly between men, women, and youth teams. All water polo is played in four quarters, with shot clocks, a yellow (though now yellow-and-some-other-color) ball, two goals, six field players, and a goalie. The players wear those weird wrestling looking caps to protect our ears, and we can't wear goggles. And we play in a pool. A deep one.
* Youth
* Youth teams (twelve-and-under) play with a very small ball that is always colored green. There are no definitive sizes for these players. In most tournements, youth teams play with women's balls (that's what she said). They play five-minute quarters, making a twenty minute game that goes by faster than your summer vacation did.
* High School
* Men's High School teams (listed first because they traditionally play in the fall) play with a dude's sized ball (that's what she said) that is 28" in diameter. It is yellow-and-black striped, though that's a new addition. (There was a big rule change about five years ago to make the sport more watchable.) Women's teams play with a ball that's 26.5" in diameter, and yellow-and-pink striped. JV teams play six-minute quarters, and varsity teams play seven achingly long minute quarters.
* Collegiate
* Collegiate teams follow the same rules as high school, except club teams play seven minute quarts and varsity teams play eight (!!!) minute ones. That is thirty-two minutes of actual game time, but as will be explaned below, this often stretches out to almost forty-five minutes at least.
* Olympics and FINA World Cup
* Eight minute quarters, 30 second shot clock. There is one big difference here, though--men play in 30 meter pools instead of the traditional 25. This is sometimes observed in high school and collegiate levels, but because most pools are only twenty-five meters, the rule gets fudged a bit. This is also one of the reasons why the Beijing pool was called "the cube." Like other sports, water polo has a 30 second shot clock, which means that each team can only hold onto the ball for 30 seconds. On national and collegiate teams, this means at each possession you'll have about 22 seconds to run an offense and shoot. On high school teams, this means you'll have about 18 seconds to run an offense and shoot. I have seen this (rarely) be set at 35 for JV and 14-and-unders, because unless you can get from the two to the two (more on that later) in under 12 seconds, you're screwed. The shot clock--and game clock--is stopped during fouls, and starts again once the pass is made. You'd think this wouldn't affect the game time, but because water polo relies heavily on fouls, it can stretch most games out to forty minutes. The shot clock is reset--giving the offensive team 30 more seconds--when a player is ejected, the ball goes out of bounds (and goes to the other team), or the people controlling the clock are retarded. If one team gets eight or so points up (and I don't know if this is a legit rule or if it's just something high schools do) it's called "running clock," because the ref takes pity and just keeps the clock running through fouls, shortening the game. It is a lifesaver, running clock. Especially when you have games on spring tolo. There are three types of fouls: regular, exclusion, and dude-what-the-fuck. Regular fouls happen all the time. This really messes with people, especially that fat guy with a handlebar mustache up in the stands yelling at the ref, because they don't understand that, when the ref calls a foul, nine times out of ten if was the offensive person "drawing a foul," which means pretending to be unable to break away. Exclusion fouls are when the player is physically being held from doing something. Like regular fouls, these can be faked (you just pretend you are drowning). They result in an ejection for twenty seconds, and the team moves into "man-up" or "power-play" situations. Dude-what-the-fuck fouls (sometimes called "brutality fouls") are rarely faked, because it's hard to give yourself a bloody nose and make the ref think it was the other player's fault. These are fouls with the intent to injure, like when the Canadian player punched the US player in the US. vs. Canada in the FINA World Champ Gold Medal round. The player is kicked out of the rest of the game, and the other team has to play for four unbearable minutes man-down. Every time the ball goes in the net and nothing stupid happened, you get a point. Yay! Water polo is a low scoring game; the best games will end 2-3 or something like that. In water polo, players set up in an umbrella/rainbow (for the girls, you know) shape. Twelve players are in the field at a time, six on each team, and two goalies. Each position has a number and a name, but typically I've never heard the drivers be called anything but their numbers. Here is a picture: In water polo, the sides are refered to by their number--the 21 side and the 45 side. The 21 Side Drivers are always right handed, fast, and shooters. They run drives from the 2 down to the 1, with the two either receiving the pass and making a straight shot, or the one wrapping up around the back and taking a more traditional shot. The 21 side runs more drives--and faster drives--than the 45 side, unless a team has two really good left handers and two really terrible right handers, in which it would be switched. Rarely do players only go to one spot (say, 1), instead they will just play a side, because drives will always switch things up. If a coach is lucky, the 45 side drivers will be left handed, but they typically aren't. The four spot is sometimes the quarterback of water polo, and most big drives (as in, opposed to just the 21 or 45 players switching) start from the four. The four spot is where a coach sticks his best passer. The five spot is where he sticks his worst player, unless they are doing something funky like posting up (putting two people in center), in which this person would be a good player. The hole player is the closest to the goal and has the best shooting range. These players are typically the best on the team--they are fast, strong, and big. Most ejection fouls come from hole-set because the hole-guard (coming up next) will guard heavily. It is the most brutal spot in water polo. The good thing is, though, that hole set is rarely involved in drives, so if you've got a really good but really stupid player, stick her in here. This position is so vital that often the defenders at the two and four will "drop off" and help guard set. The point player, despite having the best angle to do so, rarely shoots. She is a passer--a pressure passer. She needs to be able to hold onto the ball while her defender is doing everything in her power to slow point down. Unlike all the other positions, however, point has a specific defense spot--she is, nine times out of ten, guard. Defensive-wise, she guards set. Comparison-wise, she comes home with the coolest bruises. This player usually has long arms, like set, but doesn't have to be the fastest on the team. The goalie blocks the ball. She also yells out "yellow!" when the shot clock gets under ten seconds, and "RED!!!!!!!" when it gets under five. She is vital in a counter-attack. Water polo players don't get to wear goggles (they could break and cut our eyes). Instead, we get ear goggles. I am dead serious. Girls wear suits that are four sizes too small, zip up either the back or the front, and chafe like crazy. Guys wear speedos. Most players--men and women--wear two suits. Outside of the caps, there is no padding. The game starts with six players lining up--three on each side of the goalie--and a sprint for the ball, though sometimes the sprint comes from inside the cage. If you haven't figured out by now, water polo involves a lot of swimming and treading ("egg-beater"). However, unlike competitive swim team, water polo is not at all based around a specific time. There is no magic number for how fast a swimmer must be, though I've heard most coaches say they would be wary about putting in a player who couldn't break 30 seconds in the fifty free. Why does speed not matter so much? Because water polo is a game of quickness and understanding. There is a reason why the USA Water Polo Men's team doesn't just grab Michael Phelps and stick him in the game--he'd suck. Case in point (and I know this will turn into a sort-of troper tales like thing but it's the best example I have): My fastest fifty freestyle time is 30.12 seconds--that's pretty damn slow. I also happen to be five feet tall and weigh probably half of what a typical hole set would weigh. These all put me at a disadvantage compared to the typical six-foot-tall-26-second-fifty-players out there. In warm up, I trail behind our other starters, in fact, I trail behind JV players. However, the moment we switch to doing whistle drills (switching directions on a whistle) and counter-attacks, I beat out the fastest players. This is solely because my turn-around times are faster and my first three strokes are faster. I have a better understanding of the game than the JV players who are faster than me do and I have better reactions than most of the other varsity players, which is why I'm able to keep up despite being the slowest varsity starter.
- Water polo is a water team sport that was originally developed on Earth in the 19th century. Water polo involved two teams of seven players along with up to six substitutes trying to score as many goals as possible by throwing a ball into the other team's net. Jonathan Archer played water polo as a young man and also followed teams religiously during his time on Enterprise, often receiving recordings of water polo matches. (ENT episode: "Vox Sola")
- Water polo is a team water game played between two sides. Each team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. The winner of the game is the team that scores the most goals.
- The object of the sport was to score as many goals as possible, with each goal being worth one point. It was played in a swimming pool that was deep enough at all points "so that no one can touch the bottom". This naturally forced all players to be in constant motion throughout the match. Players could be temporarily ejected for committing rules violations, or "fouls", thereby giving the opposing team a strategic advantage. Captain Jonathan Archer called water polo "the best sport in the world". He avidly followed seasonal progress in the game, especially as practiced by university men's teams. He was himself a practitioner of the sport, having competed in the 2134 North American Water Polo Regionals against Princeton. Consequent to a last-minute victory in that match, he also participated in the 2134 finals. He was a particular fan of the Stanford team, favoring them in the 2151 finals over the University of Texas. (ENT: "Vox Sola") He was sent irregular information about current scores through official channels, being updated by both Starfleet Command and their allies, the Vulcan High Command. Sometimes, he would receive recordings of entire matches, like the match he watched on a PADD while forced to stay at the catwalk. (ENT: "The Catwalk") He tried to improve awareness of the sport with his crew members, and was especially driven to inculcate Trip Tucker with an appreciation of its strategies. He seemed to warm to the game, but neverless maintained a preference for American football. Archer briefly considered putting a swimming pool on Enterprise NX-01, but dismissed the thought when Tucker reminded him of the consequences of gravity plating failure on water. Instead, Archer's main tangible connection to the sport was a water polo ball kept in his quarters aboard Enterprise. He would often throw it against the walls of his quarters when trying to think through a problem. He also used it on occasion as a minor test of his crew's reflexes, unexpectedly throwing it at them in his quarters. (ENT: "Strange New World", "Vox Sola", "A Night in Sickbay", "The Seventh") While forced by Krem to load a Ferengi starship, Archer faked a pulled back muscle, which he claimed he got in an old water polo injury and that flared up every now and then, in an attempt to distract and delay the Ferengi from successfully raiding his ship. (ENT: "Acquisition") Captain Archer owned a bag with the logo of the "2134 North American Water Polo Regionals". Whenever he left the ship for more than a day, he would take the bag with him. (ENT: "Desert Crossing", "Two Days and Two Nights", "The Catwalk", "Cogenitor") The match had a particular relevance to leadership, as it had taught him the value of believing he would succeed, even when defeat seemed the more likely outcome. (ENT: "Vox Sola")
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