Water Polo Rules Explained. Useful Information about This Exciting Water and Team Kind of Sport

Water polo is a team game, in which players compete in a pool. The main task of the given sport is to send the ball into the opponents’ goal and prevent the opposing team from making the same simultaneously. A victory is given to a team that manages to score more goals. Although the necessity to deliver the ball into a goal with the hands makes this kind of sport similar to handball, water polo is a unique discipline because of its playing “field”. That is why the given article is going to present the main peculiarities of water polo to understand this game completely.

Water polo is an ancient and very exciting kind of sport. To float, water polo players utilize a special technique of legs movements. This is an energy-consuming activity. That is why water polo players are said to be the athletes with the best bodies.

General Rules

Water polo matches take place in a rectangular pool. For men, its dimensions are as follows:

• 30 meters long;
• 20 meters wide;
• 2.2 meters deep;
• the goals are 3 meters wide and 0.9 meters high.

For women, the following dimensions are applied:

• 25 meters long;
• 17 meters wide;
• 1.8 meters deep;
• the goals are 3 meters wide and 0.9 meters high.

The water playing field has its own marking performed with the help of floating lines. They denote the centerline, goal lines, as well as 2-, 4-, and 7-meter spots that are marked with the red, yellow, and green colors, correspondingly. There is also corresponding marking to denote the area for penalized players to return to a match, as well as for substitutions to be performed. The goals consist of two vertical posts and a horizontal crossbar; they should be colored in white.

A water polo match is played between two teams with 13 players in each. Among them, 6 are substitutes. Every team has 1 goalkeeper and 6 pool players in the pool simultaneously. It is allowed to make substitutions when it is suitable for teams.

A match consists of four 7-minute periods with 2-minute intervals between the periods when the opponents need to switch the ends of the pool. The time starts counting shortly after a player touches the ball. If it is impossible to determine a winner after the regulation time is over, two 3-minute extra periods are added with a minute interval between them. When it happens that these extra periods also fail to identify a winner, one more extra period is awarded. However, it ends with the first throw on target. If no goals are scored, a draw or five-meter throws occur.

Any team may use two 2-minute timeouts. However, they can be initiated only when the team has the ball in their possession.

Officials

Every water polo match is served by a rather huge team of referees that consists of the following representatives:

• two referees who make signals to start and continue a match as well as record fouls; they make signals by blowing the whistles and showing corresponding flags;
• timekeeper watches the regulation and extra time, timeouts, and intervals between periods;
• assistant is responsible for recording the course of a match.

The Course of a Match

As soon as a period starts, the teams should play up the ball. For this, all the players in the pool take positions close to their goals, and the ball is placed in the center of the pool. By a signal, two opposing players start swimming as fast as possible towards the ball in order to get it in his possession. The player that manages to cope with the task starts attacking. A team has only 35 seconds to perform an attack. After that, the ball is given to their opponents.

A goal is said to be scored after the ball has crossed the goal line between the posts and beneath the cross-bar according to the rules.

If the scored ball leaves the goal, a defensive team makes a throw-in to continue a match. When the goal is scored by a defensive player (similar to own goal in football), and attacking team gets the right to perform a corner throw from a 2-meter spot. All the other players a goalkeeper excluding should leave the space in front of the 2-meter spot.

In water polo, it is forbidden to attack or create some obstacles for a player who does not have the ball in his possession. In addition, it is prohibited to plunge an opponent in the water with his head as well as to sink the ball.

A player who has committed a serious foul should be sent off for 15-35 seconds; after this period of time, he can return in the pool again. A player who gets three warnings should take place on the substitute bench; his partner should appear in the pool instead of him.

When two opposing teams violate the rules, the referee should announce a forced interruption followed by the referee’s ball. For this, two opponents swim closer to each other, and the referee throws the ball up so that two of them will have equal chances of touching the supplement.

Fouls and Punishments

Generally speaking, all the water polo fouls can be of two types: ordinary fouls and serious fouls.

The full list of ordinary fouls looks as follows:

• sinking the ball underwater;
• touching the ball with two hands;
• hitting the ball with the fist;
• pushing away from the goals, walls or pool floor;
• creating obstacles for an opponent who does not have the ball in his possession;
• holding the ball in possession for over 35 seconds;
• failing to correctly perform a penalty throw;
• expending time.

If a goal is scored with any of the fouls above, it is canceled. With this, an opposing team gets a right to perform a free throw.

Serious fouls are the following:

• grappling, blocking, pushing or sinking an opponent who does not have the ball in his possession;
• an attempt to prevent an opponent from performing a free, corner or penalty throw;
• leaving the pool without the permission;
• kicking an opponent or splashing water in the opponent’s face.

Any of the serious fouls mentioned above will result in a 20-second penalty for a guilty player. With this, he may not be substituted by his partner. When two opponents violate the rules simultaneously, they can be correspondingly penalized.

Fouls resulting in a penalty throw are those cases when a player protects his goals from opponents without meeting the rules or when a dismissed player enters the pool before his penalty period is over to prevent opponents from scoring a goal. The same penalty occurs when a coach appears in a match.

Any player except for a goalkeeper performs a penalty throw. With this, all the other players leave the 4-meter area, and it is forbidden for them to come to the player who performs the penalty throw closer than 2 meters.

Personal fouls are given to those players who performed a serious foul or a foul resulting in a penalty throw. Three personal fouls will send off a player up to the end of a match. With this, it is not allowed to substitute him for another player.

Equipment

All the player should wear swimming suits. Before a match begins and during the intervals, they may wear a bathrobe or warm-up, as well as to put sporting sliders on.

Swimming caps are obligatory pieces of water polo equipment. They should be tied under the chin. These caps also serve as a primary way to distinguish representatives of opposing teams. The fact is that one team should wear white caps, the other – a different color (but not red and that of the ball), usually they are blue. All the caps should be numbered from 2 to 13. As for international tournaments, the swimming cups are equipped with earplugs. Goalkeepers always wear red caps bearing number 1.

No water polo match can happen without the red and blue flags for the referees to make corresponding signals with their help.

The water polo ball is of a round shape, and it has a bladder inside. It can be 350-450-g; the actual weight depends on whether it is used by women or men, correspondingly. Laced balls may not be used; leather balls are traditional ones. They should be covered with oil to prevent absorbing moisture. Fortunately, it was in 1967 when plastic balls for water polo were created and adopted. Their main advantage is that they do not need any additional care.

History

The given kind of sport was based on a Japanese kind of entertainment that made players float on barrels and use special sticks to pass the balls to their partners. A similar game existed in Great Britain but the barrels were absent; players just reached a boat and placed the ball in it. In a while, the boats were substituted by goals. At first, however, they were placed on the shore. In the USA, the goals were simply drawn on the pool walls.

Wills Wilson created unified water polo rules in 1876. 9 years after, the British Swimming Federation established water polo as a separate discipline with its own rules. The first international tournament took place in 1890 in Great Britain.

Soon, the given kind of sport became popular and requested in Germany, Sweden, Austria, the USA, and others. In the early 20th century, it appeared at the Olympic Games. To be more exact, it happened in 1908 for the first time.

In 1920, under the auspices of the International Amateur Swimming Federation, there was created the International Water Polo Committee in London. 1973 witnessed the first Water Polo World Championships.

It happened for the first time at the 2000 Olympic Games when women’s teams participated in international water polo competitions.