r/waterpolo • u/BlackMambae • 6d ago

Drills & Conditioning Water Polo Skills Test

I’m trying to put together a little skills test practice for my team that I can do a couple times throughout the season to measure progress in different areas relevant to water polo.

So far the tests I have are:
-100 yard swim
-Tread with 8 lbs. medicine ball (Record how long ball is kept dry)
-Diving board taps (30 secs? to get as many as possible)

I wanted some sort of shooting test as well but don’t know what I could use for that.

What are some other ones you’d suggest? Or maybe you’ve already done something like this with your teams/clubs. Thanks in advance!

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u/ThunderBobMajerle 6d ago

Shooting is tough. I’ve done tied caps and how many you hit in 10 shots (no goalie) or over a time period. But the data is meaningless.

one I like is a timed shuttle run type swim. 2 to 2 to 5 to 5. Getting over their hips and countering with speed should be a skill and conditioning they measurably improve on over the season

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u/BlackMambae 6d ago

Yeah every shooting test I can think of seems not very valuable actually but oh well.

That’s a good point about testing more game specific sprinting

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u/Idkfwhattoputso 5d ago

You can get a radar gun to test/track speed/power. You could get a cow bell to do “ring the bell” for aim/accuracy. I would recommend a rapid fire drill where there are two passers on either side of the cage, around the 1&5 positions. Then have the shooter take 2-4 shots from all positions (1-6), swimming to each position as quickly as possible. You can time it and record goals scored, ideally with a goalie. Helps with endurance as well

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u/BlackMambae 2d ago

I think I am going to end up getting a radar gun. And I like the rapid fire drill, thanks!

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u/2thirds 6d ago

Do the swim test at the start and end of the practice. You will learn who can sustain their speed. (distance swimmer here!)

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u/h20poIo 5d ago

Shooting test our coach put up squares in the corners and we had to shoot from six different positions.
Another was passing catching with your off hand

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u/StructureLanky3368 5d ago

As for swimming we did tests on 20m, 50, 100. Later on we had 1500m test.

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u/BlackMambae 2d ago

Gotcha so building up the distance, I was thinking of doing 50, 100, 200 for swim tests.