Water polo

Water polo is a team water sport, which can be best described as a combination of swimming, football (soccer), basketball, ice hockey, rugby and wrestling. A team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. The goal of the game resembles that of football/soccer—to score as many goals as possible, each goal being worth one point.

Positions

There are six field player positions, however unlike most common team sports there is no positional play, players often will play several positions throughout the game as situations demand.

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There are standard offensive and defensive positions that act as a guideline for players, the most basic positional set up is known as a 3-3, due to the fact that there are two lines both containing 3 players. Another set up is known as a 'umbrella', or 'mushroom', because the perimeter players form the shape of an umbrella or mushroom around the goal with the 'center forward' as the "handle" or "stalk".

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Key positions offensively include: 1 center forward (a.k.a. hole set or 2-meter offense), 2 wings, 2 drivers (also called "flats"), 1 'point' man, which defends the opposing team's center forward (a.k.a. hole D or 2-meter defense), and 1 goalie. The wings, drivers and point are considered the "perimeter players".

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The Center Forward is the center player for the line closest to the opposing teams goal. This player sets up in front of the opposing team's goalie and usually scores the most individually or contributes most often to initiating plays.

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The five perimeter players often swim the most and interchange their positions several times during a single offensive play. They contribute to the actual execution of plays, and most often cumulatively score the most points for any team.

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The point player's position gives more access for providing better passes to teammates and communication among the offense. The point player is like the point guard in Basketball.

Related Topics:
Point guard - Basketball

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Defensive positions are often the same, but just switched from offense to defense. Defense can be played man-to-man or zone.

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The goalkeeper is the only player given several privileges above that of the other players, but only if he is within the four meter area. These privileges are:

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• The ability to touch the ball with two hands.
• The ability to strike the ball with a clenched fist.
• The ability to touch the bottom of the pool. (only in certain pools)

The goalkeeper also gets one limitation that other players do not have: He cannot cross the half-distance line.

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The offense sometimes "counterattacks" when the goalie blocks a shot, gains control of the ball, and makes a field pass to a teammate at the opposite end of the pool. If a player stays on his offensive end of the pool when the rest of his team is defending, he is said to be "cherry picking."

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