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A high school water polo team’s continuous success should never be taken for granted. It may be true that a team has a large quantity of good players at their disposal. It may also be true that a team has a wide body of athletes to choose from for their starting lineup. However, a team’s success is never that transparent. Teams must always work and prepare for games in order to succeed. This is under the responsibility of the coach. A successful coach will begin to prepare their team days in advance for their upcoming opponents. The key component of a successful water polo team is their game strategy. A coach must scout other teams’ best players and the team’s overall style of play in order to interpret how they must train their team to combat the opponent. Since an effective water polo coach trains his/her team strategically and tactically, it can be concluded that by analyzing opponents' strengths and weaknesses, a water polo coach develops an advantage against opponents. In water polo there are 5 offensive perimeter players lined up in a semicircle about the same distance from the goal and one player directly in front of the goal about 2 meters out from the goal. This is commonly called the “umbrella” setup. The point guard is the player on the perimeter facing directly at the goal. The two flat positions play to either side of the point on an angle from the goal and the wing players line up on the perimeter near the two meter line. All six players work in unison in order to score and be successful. Like the general offensive set up, the defense has 6 players who individually defend the offensive players and line up in front of the offensive player so they do not have a clear route to the goal. The defensive goal is to cause turnovers and steals from the offensive players in order to have scoring opportunities when they swim down the pool for offense. Like sports such as hockey and soccer, there are two goals on either side of the pool with a goalie who is allowed to use both hands to defend the offensive shot. High school water polo teams all play with a unique style. Some teams use their speed as a transitional advantage. Some may ask, what is transition water polo? Transition water polo is the transfer over from defense to offense, or vice versa. This portion of the game is crucial for the success of fast teams. When on defense, the team must anticipate an offensive shot, in the best case scenario, from the perimeter. If the goalie can successfully defend or block the shot, the counter attack will be initiated. With a fast team, the counter attack is not easily defended. Some teams will strategically send their counter players to the center of the pool and then release them to their offensive positions in order to cause confusion for the defensive players. This is commonly called the funnel. Sometimes, if poorly defended or if the counter attacker has good anticipation on the shot, a team will not need to funnel because the counter attacker has open water between themselves and the goal. The key to anticipating the counter attack is being fully aware of the remaining amount of time on the shot clock. As the shot clock begins to wind down, the defense must be closely analyzing the offensive players’ moves. The best case scenario for the defense would be perimeter drives near the end of the shot clock. Monte Nitzkowski, former US Olympic Water Polo Coach, states in an article on Water Polo Planet that “nothing can "feed" your opponent's counterattack more than 11-o'clock, 12-o'clock and 1-o'clock drives in the last five seconds of the shot clock” (Nitzkowski). A water polo drive is when an offensive player begins to swim towards the goal, whether the drive is to the center of the goal or to either posts of the goal. The offensive player’s goal is to gain inside water in order to secure a pass from a teammate for a quick shot. Another goal of the drive is to draw an ejection or major foul. A major foul is when the defensive player pulls back or holds an opposing player to keep them from getting advantage or inside water. An ejection leads to a “man-up” or power play for the offense where they play 6 on 5 for 30 seconds. Near the end of a shot clock, if the offensive team decides to initiate several drives, the defense must play smart and almost anticipate it. One method of combating the late drive is to drop back several meters in order to give you room to successfully defend the offensive drive. Another method, although risky at times, is to allow the offensive player to drive through towards the goal, especially if the shot clock is under five seconds. You may ask, why would the defense allow an uncontested offensive player to swim towards goal with a good chance of scoring? The answer is simple: The drop. The drop is a very effective way of shutting down an offense’s two meter game, or in other words, attempts to score 2 meters from the goal. In a drop scenario, the defense is beginning to anticipate the counter attack. What they may choose to do is allow one of the perimeter players to drive past their defender, creating the illusion that they will be wide open for a shot. A smart hole-set will see this drive coming and swim away from the two meter area to allow the driver more room to catch the ball and score. In this situation, the ball will usually be controlled by one of the other perimeter players. That player’s defender will at this point begin to drop, or crash, onto the driving player at this point, the offense is in a very difficult situation. Sometimes, the offense will not realize the drop and pass the ball to the driving perimeter player that will most likely be stolen by the crashing defender. Another situation that may occur would be an easily defended perimeter shot. At this point, the crash has been initiated and the shot clock is nearly at 0. The offensive player only has one possible play. They must shoot from the perimeter at a goalie that has been set on a possible shot since the drive occurred. This counter attack play is very commonly used by LaSalle College High School’s water polo team. LaSalle is notorious for being one of the fastest teams in the state, and has many All-American swimmers. They use this speed to their advantage in water polo games. LaSalle has at their disposal one of the fastest swimmers in the country. He wears cap #12 in water polo. He will usually be the player who allows the perimeter player to easily drive through near the end of a shot clock. When the crash occurs, the player with the ball will usually take a shot because they are left open after their defender crashes on the driver. LaSalle uses this as a trap to start their counter attack. LaSalle not only has very fast swimmers, but they also have one of the best goalies in the state. Good goalies usually have very little difficulty blocking “set” shots. A set shot is when the goalie has total focus and preparation to stop a perimeter shot and does not need to move very much to block it. LaSalle’s goalie specializes in blocking perimeter shots. LaSalle’s trap works so well because the ball handler’s immediate reaction when left open at the end of the shot is to shoot. Because they have little time to shoot, the ball handler has virtually no time to place their shots in an effective manner because they need to worry about the possible turnover if the shot clock runs out. If the goalie blocks the shot, a counter attack will usually ensue. If the counter attacking team plans their counter effectively, the transitional defense will have trouble stopping it. However, there are different strategies or techniques to stop an effective counter play. In the same article as referenced above, Monte Nitzkowski states “All six field players must be "crashing back" on defense. They must be moving back with the same speed and intensity as if they were on offense” (Nitzkowski). If the defense can crash back effectively, they can initiate what is referred to as the “inside out” jam. If performed correctly, this defensive play can work very well. The objective is to crash back very fast and cram the middle of the pool. Once the two meter to four meter area is crammed with defenders, the “out” part of the play can be initiated. The defense will begin to send some of their players to the outside to stop any chances of a perimeter shot around the five or six meter area. In the same article, Nitzkowski states “When the "inside out" jam is effectively exe­cuted, any free countering player will be isolated to the outside” (Nitzkowski). Over the past decade, hole-set players have become larger, quicker, and much more skilled than in previous years. In respect to that, hole-set defenders have also become much larger and skilled than before. Because of this, both the offense and defense began to run into problems at the 2-meter position. Both the offensive and defensive 2-meter players often would tire themselves out fighting back and forth. The defender would often be ejected by the highly-skilled hole-set, or in contrast, the defender would be very quick and steal the ball from the offensive player repeatedly. Defenses finally designed a simple and very effective way to stop offensive production at the 2-meter position: the drop back defense. This style of defense is very simple. The defenders take turns “dropping back” on the hole-set player. This means they would crash from their perimeter defending job and leave the perimeter offensive player open while they double teamed the hole-set. When the ball is passed to the open perimeter player, the dropped defender sprints back to defend the ball handler and the player (usually the flat) on the other side would drop on the hole-set player. Some teams also began to run the drop from the point as well, and each of the perimeter defenders would take turns dropping on the hole-set. One would expect that the offense would find a way to combat the drop back defense. For years, many teams continued to use the umbrella setup against the drop back. The offense would pass around the perimeter for the entire shot clock and hope for a good shot from one of the flats or the point guard. However, this strategy proved very ineffective and led to many ill-advised shots near the end of the shot clock. When coaches realized this was not working, they began to devise different strategies to attack the drop back defense. Driving through became a very popular method that also proved to be unsuccessful. The point of driving through was to create movement in the offense to confuse the defenders and release the hole-set player. This method was unsuccessful because well-trained and highly skilled defenses learned to call switches on their offensive assignments to eliminate confusion from the drives. This led to a waste of shot clock for the offense, and not many opportunities to score. In a different article, Nitzkowski states that “it takes approximately 7 seconds for the offensive player to swim his/her player off the 2-meter player” (Nitzkowski). Finally, coaches found a way to attack the drop back defense: the 3-3 setup. This setup is very similar to the umbrella set up, but works much more effectively. The 3-3 setup positions the offense several meters back. The wing players usually position themselves 4 meters back from the goal line, in order to create a possible opportunity for a shot because of the improved shooting angle. However, the wing players are not utilized as much as the flats and point in a 3-3 setup. The flats position themselves on each post about 6 meters from the goal. The point guard positions themselves 7 meters from the goal at center cage. This creates a triangular formation between the flats and point, which makes passing much easier and fluent. The hole set’s positioning is very important in order for the 3-3 setup to work. As always, they position themselves 2 meters from the goal at center cage (lined up perfectly with point guard). This blocks the goalie’s view of the point and allows the point to take high-percentage shots to either side of the goal. In the same article, Nitzkowski says “all the outside shooting specialists need to be good-sized players, with the trained ability, when shooting lanes open, to catch and quick release shoot the ball” (Nitzkowski). At the 2009 PIAA Water Polo State Championships, Governor Mifflin used this method very successfully throughout the tournament. Mifflin uses outside shooting to their advantage. All three perimeter players are well trained and have good shots. At their disposal is the second best player in the state, #12. He has an incredibly quick release and a powerful shot. For the first two games in the tournament, this strategy worked very well for Governor Mifflin. #12 was able to score many times against LaSalle and Souderton from the flat position. However, North Penn was able to stop his production. North Penn is notorious for being as strong on defense as they are on offense. The past decade, they have distinguished themselves as a perennial powerhouse in Pennsylvania High School Water Polo, producing countless amounts of All-American players. This year, Mifflin and North Penn matched up very evenly, taking both of their regular season games into overtime. In the playoff game against Governor Mifflin, they did a very effective job at shutting down Governor Mifflin’s #12 with their defensive specialist, #13. Instead of running the common drop back defense, North Penn kept #13 pressed against #12 on the perimeter. However, after half time, Governor Mifflin was able to create an attack to combat the drop back that effectively released #12 for open shots. This play was first popularized by the head Coach of the University of Wyoming, Dave Maynard. It is commonly called the “Enigma Attack”. In his article titled “Who Needs the Hole”, Maynard states “by the time it plays itself out, the Hole-Set is gone, and there are two drivers right in the goalie’s kitchen. This attack is very potent and creates movement and confusion for the defense. Mifflin set up in the usual 3-3 setup. However, instead of placing #12 on the right-handed flat (left side of the pool), their coach positioned him at the point guard position instead. The play begins at the point. #12 passed the ball to the left-handed wing (right side of the pool). While the wing controlled the ball, #12 quickly swam towards the left-handed flat and created a pick. A pick is when an offensive player swims into their teammate’s defender, ultimately releasing their teammate from their defender. When the pick was initiated, both #12 and his teammate swam away from the confused defenders and began to swim towards both posts of the goal, with inside water in front of them. When #12 got close enough to the goal, the wing player who was handling the ball gave him a quick pass and #12 was finally able to score. The play was then run on the other side of the pool, and worked just as successfully as before. Once North Penn realized the Mifflin strategy, the Mifflin coach went back to the normal 3-3 formation which threw off the North Penn defenders and gave #12 more opportunities to shoot from the outside. Although Mifflin was able to find a scoring method against North Penn, North Penn was also able to do the same against Mifflin on the offensive side. Because North Penn has so many talented players, the Mifflin defense needed to respect their outside shooting ability. In the beginning of the game, North Penn’s #3 was able to score several goals from the flat position as a result of the drop defense. #3 has a very fast shot and a quick release off the pass, making it very hard to get back out to the perimeter to guard him. Eventually, the Governor Mifflin coach must have realized that his team would not be able to stop #3’s perimeter shot, because he switched up his defensive strategy. Very much like the North Penn coach did, Governor Mifflin’s coach used his defensive specialist, #7, to press on #3 at the perimeter position. Because the North Penn outside shooters are very talented players, Mifflin’s coach needed to respect this and run a different formation of the drop defense. Mifflin began to drop off of the left-handed wing position to double team the very powerful and talented North Penn hole set, #11. As a result of this drop, North Penn’s offensive production began to diminish. The North Penn coach decided that he would run a new offensive set up: the 1-2 pick. The 2-1 pick is a very simple and common play; however, it can potentially be very effective. Rick Rowland, the Head Coach of California Baptist, discusses the 2-1 pick in his article titled “East to West some of the Best”. In the article, he states “the #2 position swims down and sets a screen for the #1 player. The #1 player may just loop around pushing off the #2 players back and throwing up a shot directly behind #2” (Rowland). Often, the right-handed wing player is referred to as the #1 player and the right-handed flat player is referred to as the #2 player. In North Penn’s case, to increase offensive production from the perimeter, the coach placed #3 at the wing position to start the play instead of starting at the flat. The play was initiated when the new flat player swam down to set the pick on #3’s defender. At this point, #3 swam the back of his teammate setting the pick to create a wide open scoring opportunity in the middle of the pool. Just as the play was designed to do, the flat on the opposite side of the set up passed the ball quickly to #3 who scored easily. North Penn ran this play several different times on either side of the set up. After the pick play was executed successfully several times, North Penn continued to show its dominance over Governor Mifflin. North Penn is a very versatile team with different offensive weapons. When Mifflin began to panic about stopping the outside shot, in desperation, they abandoned the drop defense and began to press out every perimeter player. However, this proved to be a crucial mistake for the Governor Mifflin coach. He knew that North Penn’s #11 was the best hole set in the state and arguably the best all around player in the state, yet he trusted his hole-defender to stop #11’s offensive production. This proved to be crucial for North Penn. All year, #11 was double teamed in hole and still found ways to score or draw an ejection. He took total advantage of the new defensive strategy. #11 is very talented at drawing ejections and was able to draw many in hole-set against the one-on-one defense. After an ejection is drawn, as stated previously, the offensive team is granted a 30 second man-up situation. During this time, North Penn had 6 players on offense and Mifflin only had 5 players. There are different man-up plays that work for different types of teams. For instance, an even strength team with fast paced passing would usually run the 4-2 setup. The 4-2 is when the offense has two outside shooters lined up at both goal posts, two wing players at the 2-meter line, and 2 players play at the 2-meter line lined up at both goal posts. The goal of a 4-2 setup is to pass around in order to make the goalie work and then look for a potential shot from one of the players on either post. However, unlike most teams, North Penn plays in a different formation because of their strong outside shooting and perimeter passing: the 3-3 setup. The 3-3 man-up is identical to the 3-3 regular setup discussed previously. Usually the defense will use two of their defenders to play zone defense against the 3 perimeter players. Zone defense is when the two defensive players have to switch from player to player depending on where the ball is on the perimeter. However, this means that because of the lack of defenders, a player will always be open on the outside. Coach Maynard discusses the 3-3 man-up in his article entitled “Take Advantage of the Man Advantage: The 3-3 Attack”. In this article, Maynard states “When the time and ball location is right, that’s when you strike. What do you strike with? A drive, of all things, while the defense is in motion” (Maynard). This is exactly what North Penn initiated in their man-up situations. For the first half of the 30 second man-up, the three perimeter players passed the ball quickly between each other causing the goalie and the two perimeter defenders to continuously move laterally, ultimately making the defense tired. At this point, the weak-side flat passed the ball to the weak side wing player who held the ball. The point guard, #3, began to drive towards the right goal post and was given a quick pass. #3 then took a shot on the other side of the goal and scored. There are several reasons this play worked so effectively for North Penn. Because they were very patient and started the play by passing around the perimeter, the Mifflin goalie became very tired and lateral movement became a difficult transition for him. When #3 drove towards the right goal post, the hole-set player began to move towards the right post as well to give #3 shooting room on the other side of the cage for an easy goal. The 3-3 man-up play is very exhausting for the defense because the quick passing makes lateral defending difficult. Later in his article, Maynard states “doing all of these quickly will catch the defense having to swim farther to keep up with the play, and likely catch them out of position” (Maynard). Because of North Penn’s offensive ingenuity and success against Governor Mifflin, they were able to advance to the championship game against Wilson Area High School. Throughout the season, Wilson was the only team who was able to stop North Penn’s offensive production. In the two regular season games the teams played against each other in, Wilson was able to hold North Penn to six goals both games. Wilson’s excellent defense and incredibly talented goalie created many problems for North Penn’s offensive development in the championship game. North Penn’s coach was very frustrated by the timid disposition his players displayed throughout the championship game. Wilson’s defense intimidated the offensively startled North Penn players. Wilson was able to produce goals very easily from their two All-Americans: #5 and #12. These two players set the foundation for the game and North Penn never returned to their usual offensive dominance. Wilson won the game 19-7. There were several key mistakes the North Penn players made throughout the game. One mistake which proved to be very beneficial to the Wilson defense was the timidity of the perimeter players to take shots after a minor foul from outside 5-meters. Water polo rules state that if a player is fouled outside 5-meters, that player is entitled to take a shot instead of passing the ball. North Penn used this strategy many times in the previous playoff games leading to the championship. However, throughout the game, the perimeter players were only looking to set the ball to #11 instead of creating their own outside shots. Dante Dettamanti, former coach of Stanford University, discussed this topic in his article entitled “Questionable Tactics in Today’s Water Polo Game”. In the article, he states “You are not going to get a better shot than a free shot on goal from five meters from the goal. You only have to beat one arm up and the goalie” (Dettamanti). The North Penn players were most likely intimidated by the dominance of the Wilson goalie and did not shoot outside 5-meters for most of the game. The most surprising statistic was that North Penn scored 2 goals from the three 5-meter shots they took throughout the game. This means that their coach must have had a mental lapse. After realizing the statistic displayed above, the coach should have urged his players to continue outside shooting; however, he never did. Dettamanti later stated in his article that “players should be coached to take a shot when a good opportunity presents itself” (Dettamanti). In conclusion, as thoroughly discussed above, it is clear that a coach’s strategy and his in-game decisions prove to be crucial and are the foundation of a successful water polo team. North Penn can be used as an example of success and failure. In the game against Governor Mifflin, North Penn adjusted to the defensive and offensive strategies used by the Mifflin coach throughout the game in order to stop the other team’s offensive production and to create their own offensive production. Their coach successfully communicated new strategies to his players throughout the game. However, this communication was absent in the championship game, and North Penn played very stagnantly and timidly, which ultimately led to the Wilson victory. Without an effective game plan from the coach, water polo teams will lack in offensive production and play in an ineffective defensive setup.
 * __Senior Seminar Paper__**

**Works Cited**

1. Nitzkowski, Monte. "Defending the Counterattack." //Water Polo Planet//. N.p., 15 Aug. 2006. Web. 29 Nov. 2009. http://www.waterpoloplanet.com/ HTML_Monte_pages/mn06_Defending_the_Counterattack.html.

2. Nitzkowski, Monte. "The Three-Three Offense." //Water Polo Planet//. N.p., 15 Jan. 2008. Web. 29 Nov. 2009. .

3. Dave, Maynard. "Who Needs the Hole?" //Water Polo Planet//. N.p., 1 July 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2009.  Rick, Rowland. "East to West Some of the Best." //Water Polo Planet//. N.p., 15 July 2006. Web. 29 Nov. 2009. .

5. Maynard, Dave. "The 3-3 Attack." //Water Polo Planet//. N.p., 1 Sept. 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2009.  Dettamanti, Dante. "Questionable Tactics in Today's Water Polo Game." //Water Polo// //Planet//. N.p., 1 Apr. 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2009. .