Water Polo

Post #1 » by **Celtics_Champs** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 3:57 am

That looks like a lot of fun. I see these olympic games and I wish they were made available to where I live. Sports like handball, water polo etc...

Anybody have a water polo league near them? Is it hard?

El Turco · Post #2 » by **El Turco** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 4:30 am

my cousin played it since he was 10 (9 years) and he looks like a beast. i heard it is one of the most challenging sports in the world considering difficulty of rapid movement in water and considering they have to free their arms and depend on strength of their legs lot of the time.

hermes · Post #3 » by **hermes** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 4:38 pm

it looks like a lot of work, treading water for that long

i couldn't do it

Blame Rasho · Post #4 » by **Blame Rasho** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:01 pm

It is damn hard to be able to tread water for that long and not only that but to be active and moving. I saw the China/US game... It was more interesting that I thought it would be.

Andris · Post #5 » by **Andris** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 3:24 am

The Hungarians are the defending champs. Their opening tie vs. Montenegro shocked me.

Post #6 » by **TNBT** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 3:39 am

I must be the only one here who found water polo to be boring. I mean I know it would be hard to play, but the game itself just doesn't interest me.

El Turco · Post #7 » by **El Turco** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 4:13 am

in olympic standards, i would actually consider it entertaining.

Post #8 » by **Celtics_Champs** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 4:53 am

^^Yeah, I found it entertaining. Probably more fun to do, but you could say that for just about every event.

Andris · Post #9 » by **Andris** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 10:22 pm

Water polo is boring if you don't know the game....
Baseball used to be boring for me before I learned the rules of the game.

Rasho Brezec · Post #10 » by **Rasho Brezec** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 10:33 pm

Andris wrote:The Hungarians are the defending champs. Their opening tie vs. Montenegro shocked me.

Well, the Montenegro team won the European championship in their international debut last month.

And, yes, water polo is extremely difficult sport and all the players look like beasts. They all have broad shoulders like swimmers, but are even stronger than them. Sort of like handball players.

I would even dare to say that water polo players and handball players are probably the toughest athletes if you look at team sports.

Andris · Post #11 » by **Andris** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 4:20 am

My wife just told me about Montenegro's Euro championship. I had no clue.
Sorry, but Hungary is still the defending Olympic champ, so I was expecting a win from them anyway.
How was the Serbia-Croatia match? Blood in the pool?

El Turco · Post #12 » by **El Turco** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 5:44 am

Andris wrote:The Hungarians are the defending champs. Their opening tie vs. Montenegro shocked me.

is Hungary similar to Brazil in football in terms of dominance? because almost all my cousin's coaches are Hungarian and they travel to Hungary several times a year to compete in tournaments.

Rasho Brezec · Post #13 » by **Rasho Brezec** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 9:29 am

ElTurco wrote:
Andris wrote:The Hungarians are the defending champs. Their opening tie vs. Montenegro shocked me.

is Hungary similar to Brazil in football in terms of dominance? because almost all my cousin's coaches are Hungarian and they travel to Hungary several times a year to compete in tournaments.

Croatia, Hungary, Serbia and Spain have been the top waterpolo teams in the past years. Montenegro will now offer them serious competition.

hermes · Post #14 » by **hermes** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 4:26 pm

Andris wrote:Water polo is boring if you don't know the game....
Baseball used to be boring for me before I learned the rules of the game.

i've watched about 4 games now, still barely know the rules and its pretty interesting

WEFFPIM · Post #15 » by **WEFFPIM** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 4:28 pm

I've really enjoyed Water Polo, really my first time watching it. The USA Women's team is ranked #1 I guess, but almost lost to China and tied with Italy.

Handball, however, is a completely different story. What an absurd game that is.

Rasho Brezec · Post #16 » by **Rasho Brezec** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 4:34 pm

WEFFPIM wrote:I've really enjoyed Water Polo, really my first time watching it. The USA Women's team is ranked #1 I guess, but almost lost to China and tied with Italy.

Handball, however, is a completely different story. What an absurd game that is.

May I ask why? I never really understood how come there is basically no interest in handball in USA, while it is so popular in Europe. Physically, it is a very demanding sport and believe me, the players are as though as american football players, if not more. Can you give me your opinion so I can have a better picture of this?

Andris · Post #17 » by **Andris** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 5:16 pm

Team handball is a great team sport, I played it myself in Hungary.
As a teenager we followed our favorite club team all over Eastern Europe.
Going back to water polo.
Hungary has a tradition in this sport, that's for sure.
I live in California now and recently met a former water polo player, who was the member of
the Hungarian team, which won gold at the BERLIN Olympics in 1936. He's about 90 years old now...
in 1956 there was blood in the pool, when Hungary won the gold against the Soviets in 1956
at the Melbourne olympics. Russian tanks crushed the Hungarian revolution at the same time
in Budapest.
I remember our team was very dominating in Montreal also in 1976.
The last time Hungary won a major water polo tournament was 4 years ago in Athens.
Currently the Hungarians got 0 gold medals in China.
So, the pressure is really on the water polo team now....

uweblab · Post #18 » by **uweblab** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 5:55 pm

By the way Team USA is not bad in water polo....

WEFFPIM · Post #19 » by **WEFFPIM** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 9:53 pm

Rasho Brezec wrote:
WEFFPIM wrote:I've really enjoyed Water Polo, really my first time watching it. The USA Women's team is ranked #1 I guess, but almost lost to China and tied with Italy.

Handball, however, is a completely different story. What an absurd game that is.

May I ask why? I never really understood how come there is basically no interest in handball in USA, while it is so popular in Europe. Physically, it is a very demanding sport and believe me, the players are as though as american football players, if not more. Can you give me your opinion so I can have a better picture of this?

To me it's just a mish mash of basketball and hockey with an absurd amount of scoring that just gets boring. It's weird that such a high scoring game can be so boring to me, but it's pretty much the antithesis of soccer/football. There's just so much scoring going on that you can turn it off for a few minutes, turn it back on, and not feel like you've missed anything.

Just my two cents.

Al n' Perk No Layups! · Post #20 » by **Al n' Perk No Layups!** » Fri Aug 15, 2008 8:12 am

Rasho Brezec wrote:Physically, it is a very demanding sport and believe me, the players are as though as american football players

No they're not. Blood in the pool doesn't come close to broken bones (including spines) and even on field deaths. Two players running as fast as they can in opposing directions and then colliding is a lot more painful than getting punched in the face or hit with a ball. For maybe four punches in a very violent water polo game there are 80 collisions per football game with 12-22 big ones and 3-4 being the kind that makes every one stand up and gasp.

There are football players that are physically crippled not from a major injury but just the constant beating that they take (Earl Campbell to name one, a monster of a man who used to run over linebackers who now sometimes needs a wheelchair because somedays he just can't walk).