Water Polo Positions - Part 3

The third feature on different types of defensive plays is when playing a "Man Down".

Being a man down or as sometimes referred to as a power play, is inevitable during a game. It is something that needs to be practiced and constantly perfected because as statistics show, the teams with the better man up conversion rates usually win the match. This means that if you manage to keep the conversion rate down, you will have a good chance of winning the game.


For the sake of practicality, we shall be concentrating on man down situations which only involve the exclusion of one person, even though it can be that two players are sent out at the same time. During a man down situation, you will have to defend for 20 seconds with a man less and there are a number of different plays you can use.

These vary from the Triangular Defense, Attacking the ball and the 4 on 1 play. The various options will be discussed in a later article and in more detail.

For now, all you need to know is the basic position for each defending player and that is that every defending player must be able to cover two players at a time. It might sound difficult but there is a technique to be able to perform this correctly and efficiently which will be explained later.

Water Polo Positions - Part 2

In part one we discussed the zone defence and how it can be an effective type of play to use during a game.

The next variation we shall discuss is the PRESS.

The press is the simplest form of water polo defending but if it is not done correctly; it can be the cause of exclusions and goals. The press, as the name implies, means that you are as close to the opposing player as possible so they cannot get the ball. If they do, you are close enough to be able to hassle them and prevent them from shooting or passing as they will be put under pressure.

The press can be either a full pitch or half pitch press. With a full pitch press, you mark an opponent wherever they may be in the pool. This type of tactic is generally used towards the end of the game when you need to get the ball back as soon as possible and do not want to give your opponents any space to waste time with the ball. With the half pitch press, it means that once the opposing player crosses the half way line, the press takes effect. This is normally used when you are playing slower teams who have a tendency not to venture too high up the pitch because they would be worried about your counter attack. By retreating back into your half of the pitch, you can help out the central defender while waiting for the opposing players to swim down.