Ball-Handling in water polo and relationship to swimming

Water polo is a collective sport and efforts of high intensity are rnade in less duration and the skill that is usedfor the majority of the game is swimming. The obiective of this study is to demonstrate that training for water polo athletes is most effective when done always in the presence of the ball, as the ball-handling does not adversely affect the timing. Eleven well-trained competitive athletes were recruited and asked to swim thetestof the 3ÀAfastest (15 repsof 2ùmeters), one time with baU, and one time without ball. Results can be read in correlation to athletes anamnesis, that incidence of ball-handling is significant only in athletes who have a swimming-oriented athletic history, but there are not significant dffirences in times for athletes who have a water polo-oriented athlaic history. Some water polo athletes realized systematically smaller times when they swim with ball 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 swirnming rhythm during trials, and to incrernent ball-handling in every training condition.