Edward H. Newland, Head Coach, UC Irvine Men's Water Polo, Newport Water Polo Foundation

Northern California All Sports Clinic

January 16, 2004

Introduction

When I first started coaching swimming in 1955 I coached at Newport Harbor High School. I started coaching water polo in 1959 and I never thought much about it but all the players had naturally great balance in the water. All of my players had spent 1000's of hours body surfing and playing little games in the bay and had developed natural feel for the water with their feet and hands. When I transferred to UCI, players were not all coming from the beach area and not many of them body surfed all the time. Now, almost no one body surfs, they all board surf which does nothing for one's balance and finding water in a 100 different positions. Over the years I have had to spend a lot of time teaching players to find the water so they can move quickly in any direction in the water.

Over the years I have had some great body surfers play for me. My assistant coach Marc Hunt is one. During the summer he takes players down to Newport to some of the best body surfing beaches on the coast. This really helps; we are always trying to use things we have learned body surfing to help players get better mobility in the water.

Therefore much of what I write here will be on body balance and fundamentals I think are important.

Things that I teach player when they come in to my program

1. Learn to scissor kick

Must be able to find the water with the bottom part of the foot on the leg going forward and on the top part of the foot on the leg going out behind. Must be able to do this kick with either leg out in front or out behind. Learning this kick is important because it allows the player to move quickly with his hips much higher than with an eggbeater or frog kick.

2. Learn to back up in the water using only your feet

Must be able to find the water with the bottom part of the foot. Almost like running backwards. After you can go backward quickly with just your feet you can add hands and go back faster which players must when guarding a driver.

3. Going over your hips with a scissor kick rather than an eggbeater kick

Push with both hands and pull your legs up as you get past the high point when your are moving over your hips; you want to have your bottom leg go forward and your top leg out behind you. To get around quickly you should teach the player to throw the arm that they are leading with from the elbow and snap the arm in the direction they are going, it helps speed up their move and allow them to move farther. They should land on their hand. When they get good at this get them to go over their hips and draw themselves around 360 degrees two times so they are covering more water and learning to land on their hand. This is a big move for body surfing if you want to jump out in front off a wave or a great way to draw your self in front of an opponent and not foul him.

You also have them go back and forth, as if gapping between 2 -3 or 3-4. Do this by blowing a whistle every time you want them to reverse and go back the other way. If you want to make the move farther they can go over their hips and take on or two strokes and reverse.

4. Scull across the pool going feet forward on your back and on your stomach so you can find the water with your hands. You need to be able to find water with your hand when you want better mobility in the water.

5. All the best passers I have coached pass the ball off their wrist. They do not use the entire arm. Get the arm up high and bring the pass off the wrist with very little arm movement. This is not something that comes naturally to most young player.

6. Teach 2-meter men to take the ball dry as much as possible

If you can catch a ball dry when passing or shooting why put the ball wet into set. 2 meter men should be able to catch and shoot the ball dry both right and left handed. All it takes is time and practice to develop this skill. Neither Gill, Bailey, Power, Barry nor Noon could do it when they came to UCI but they all could do it after a couple of months of practice. I know this is hard for young players in high school to learn but if they work at it they will learn how to do it.

7. If you want a good 2-meter man you must force him to shoot in front of a cage at least a 1/2-hour a day; 2 hour would even be better. A feeder is needed so he can learn to catch the ball dry and shot it dry. Sometimes they can just do it by themselves.

8. Teach players to swim backstroke eggbeater kick

Right arm left leg left arm right leg. Knee should come out of water at least 4 inches 6 would be even better. Easier to sit up in the water and keep the head higher and look around. Plus it gives players more mobility on the counter attack to move from side to side or jump in any direction

9. 5 man passing

Start with two balls and go to 3 balls. Force players to communicate and to really turn their heads to see where to pass and who is open to receive the ball.

10. Teach players how to jump in front of an opponent to draw an ejection and teach the defender to get his arm up and turn side way so he won't get ejected.

Start even up, one player on O and one on D, blow the whistle and they both go about 3 or 4 strokes, then the player on O either draws himself in front or jumps in front with a strong scissor kick. Go 25 yards, should be able to get 3 or 4 moves in front in that much water.

11. First teach players to turn 180 degrees with the hips up and their leg under them.

Blow the whistle and the players turn 180 degrees right then left. They must learn this so when on defense they can take an extra stroke or two and get in front of the driver when he stops.

After they have learned to take the extra stroke and turn and face the offense man, then put them with a partner. One on O and one on D, start them off a whistle. Get the defender to go backward with very fast arm stroke, backing up with his feet when the driver stops, make the defender take a couple of extra strokes and get in a front position. The offensive player should try to get in front of the defender; if he can't, he can stop and rear up or stop and go. Whatever he can do to get free, so they are both learning to play and deal with a driver.

12. I think players should almost never shoot strong side low except off a cross pass.

If you can stop your players from doing this you can prevent a lot of counterattacks.

13. Teaching shot blocking

Make players practice shot blocking, 3 players at 2-3-4 and a player at set with defender at 2x -3x-4x.

You can put a defender behind the set on not, trying to shot block.

I think the defense players should take strong side and the goalie should take middle and weak side. If you are at 3 x take to the goals left side.

Defender should match arms.

The key on Defense is moving toward the shooter to cut down the angle,

On Offense the shooter wants to attack their defender on a 30 -45 degree angle. The offensive player should only be allowed 3 passes before they have to shoot or pass the ball into set.

14. Another shot blocking drill I like is putting offensive players at 1-2-4 extra man positions and 3-6-5 extra man positions, and a defender at 1x and 3 x extra man positions.

1x is on the 2 man, and 4 passes to 1, and 1x must have his hips pointed on a 45 degree angle toward 1; as the ball is in the air he pushes off 2 going over his hips. He must get his right arm up first to stop the strong side shot from 1, then get his left arm up and move out toward 1, matching hands to stop the cross face shot. Rotate a position after each shot.

On the other side you are doing much the same, 3 x is on 3, hip pointed on a 45 degree angle out toward the 6 man. As 5 passes to 6 3 x must move over his hips and get his left arm up to stop the strong side low shot behind the goalie. If the 6 man is right handed you should make sure your left arm is up all the time. If the 6 man is left handed the first move is left hand up taking the strong arm then switch and match your right arm to his left arm to better stop the cross face shot from 6.

I think all players should spend time shot blocking every day; it is a key fundamental every player must learn to do.

15. Numbering on the extra man

Going from left to right facing the cage, 1 is on the far left side, then 2 on the left post, 3 on the right post and 6 on the far right, 4 up top about 7 meters from the cage on the left of the 2 post and 5 is 7 meter out and on the right of 3 post.

The reason 6 is way down on the right side is way back in the dark ages of water polo every team ran a 3 - 3 and then really got innovative and began to slide 6 down. Over time we left him down more and more but we never changed the numbering.

16. Basic shooting drills for the extra man, teaching key shot and passes players need in an extra man

This is a drill we use all the time. Put players at all the position 1,2,3,4,5,6. Get a lot of balls. First, go 6-3; 4-5 and 5- 4; 1-2 for a shot.

6-3: 3 should play on the 2-meter line and have his right arm out of water, elbow in the water, forearm straight up. 3 wants to stay low in the water and catch the ball and shoot the ball cross face low and skip the ball up in the upper corner of the cage. Keep shoulders square to the cage, pull the arm with the pecs. muscles snap of wrist.

1-2 is usually a backhand shot for most right-handers. I like to have right hand players learn to catch and shoot left handed on a 1- 2 pass.

4-5: pass the ball catch and shoot it quickly.

6-2; 4-3; 5-1; 1-5

6 needs to pass inside to 2 and also both need to slide up to 4 meter for the pass and shot. The 2 man should wait until the ball leaves 6Õs hand before he starts to rise. Much better to be rising than fall when one receives the ball.

4-3: the 4 man should throw the ball pretty hard and straight at the upper corner of the 3 post, all 3 should do is tip the ball and change the direction of the flight of the ball.

1-5: 5 should learn to catch and draw the ball and shoot it quickly strong side. 5 must rise as the ball leaves 1Õs hand.

5-1: 1 should rise as 5 passes the ball, he must catch and shoot the ball down the pipe so the ball goes off the water right in front of the 2 post, This is a key shot for 1 to learn; after he can do this every time he can then work on catching and shooting cross face.

6-4; 4-6; 1-3; 5-2.

6-4 is a key pass and shot on the extra man. 4 must rise as the ball leaves 6Õs hand. 4 must get it off quick, must look and see in advance what lanes are open.

4-6 is much like a 5 -1 shot. 6 must be able to get the ball and shoot it strong side low on the 3 post. That is the hard one to learn after they master that, they can work on shot cross face.

1-3 must be a high drop pass over 2x. 3 must rise up, go right hand backhand.

5-2: 2 must rise as the ball leaves 5Õs hand. 2 must shoot it quickly or read the goal and go where the goalie is moving from.

Last, 6-1, 1-6, 5-3, 4-2.

I am not a big time fan of a 1-6 or a 6-1 pass, not many high school players can make this pass, this is also true in college Vargas likes it a lot. I might too if I had Tony at 1 who can catch a bad pass and do something with it.

5-3 is a high % pass and shot, worthwhile working on. 3 should have time to turn and look or 5 should not make this pass.

4 -2 is a great pass and shot I think 4 needs to move center, get up big make a great fake at the cage. Pass a high pass off your wrist to 2 stepping back in the pocket and rise as the ball leaves 4Õs hand . Getting up big and driving the ball down on the goal line is a good shot or catch and shoot it cross face is also a good shot. It obviously helps if 2 can look and read the goalie and the 1x defender.

17. Developing a good pump fake

Something every player needs to work on to develop a better pump fake. Most players just wave the ball because they don't know what else to do with it. They wave the ball while they are looking to find what they want to do with the ball.

My idea of a good pump fake is getting your arm up high with your hand behind the ball and your off shooting shoulder aimed at the cage. Must have collarbones out of the water. The fake should be with the shoulder and your hand must be behind the ball. If you only move the ball a couple of inches forward the goalie the defense must honor your movement. Watch the goalie as you pump, making the goalie go to his hands. If not, it is really worthless. You almost never see a good pump fake with younger players or even with college players.

Can one really shoot the ball at the cage if the hand is not behind the ball? I don't think so.