Evaluation of incidence of ball-handing on swimming intensity in female water polo

The purpose of the present study is to verify the incidence of ball handling in swimming intensity in water polo, in order to obtain useful indication in coaching. The research method is integrated and consists of action research for coach contribution by training and evaluation, and theoretical-argumentative to deduce a framework in which define the data processing. Eleven well-trained competitive athletes were recruited and asked to swim 5 x 20-m, one time with ball, and one time without ball. This test was repeated three times. For each swimmer was calculated the mean and standard error of times per test, both with and without the ball. Analysis was conducted individually for each athlete, and in total for each test. The results, trough confrontation of means of times, reveals a high variability, and indicate a non mechanical incidence of ball handling on swimming intensity. Reading this results in correlation to athletes anamnesis reveals that incidence of ball-handling is significant only in athletes who have a swimming-oriented athletic history, but there are not significant differences in times for athletes who have a water polo oriented athletic history. The results show as this study can help the coach to train the team for improving the analyzed skills in different mode, creating a methodological system training to enhance the performance. Coaches are suggested to carefully monitor swimming rhythm during trials, and to increment ball-handling in every training condition.