Get good at treading water and swimming. It's intense as fuck.

luckily my dad used to be a swimmer until college he quit. so if i have any problems with that i can go to him, but are there any fundamentals i should know besides that.

have you tried asking your coach or your friends or perhaps a forum for water polo players or basically anywhere other than team fortress 2 forum (?????)

6v6 is basically water polo, so I understand why he asked us.

TFTV has a little bit of everything and theres nothing wrong with him asking an off-topic question in the off-topic forum section.

This is their first year so they dont know much more then me, but i'd figure someone here would know some things about the game

it's not saying it's wrong or bad forum manners or whatever i'm just sayin logically you are more likely to find water polo players in basically any place other than here

is it not weird that someone with access to the entire internet lookin for water polo expertise would make their first stop teamfortress.tv? personally i would go to google and type in perhaps somethin along the lines of "water polo basics" or "water polo beginner advice" you got a lot of options you could go with there

It's the most violent sport I have ever played. I played it a bit when I was 13, I was thinking about quitting from day one because of all the intensity and violence. In my first(and only) actual match, one of the opponents literally tried to drown me by holding me under water, and nobody did anything about it. Quit after that. If you are into that, have fun, if not, just be prepared for it.

in high school i remember everybody wore two sets of speedos in case one pair got ripped off in matches

greatest water polo player in tf2 speaking

I used to play it, started when I was 8, quit when I was 15 or 16. It's right, it is quite violent but there are enough methods to punish the guy for being violent (at least if the referee is somewhat good). You do indeed wear two sets of speedos, I'd suggest you invest money in at least one of the brand "Turbo", they are worth their money. Very durable, comfortable etc. You should also consider wearing some sort of protection for you man parts. I don't want to write a wall of text to cover the rules, you can google them, but feel free to ask if you have any more questions :)

lobby for the personal problems section with me! it's a just cause!

Do a lot of DM/MGE and you'll be fine.

best way to improve is to go to every practice and make sure you dont half ass workouts

We are a community, we help each other in every way we can

He is implying that everyone who plays Team Fortress 2 is a generic nerd.

- Play no sports
- Have no friends
- Come home do homework and play Team Fortress 2

I think that is just outrageous.

its very hard.

Swimming would probably be something you want to practice. I'm willing to bet you'll get hit around the head a lot too, so don't be skimpy on the safety gear. Might want to work on your cardio too. Even if you aren't the biggest or the fastest, being able to keep up is a good thing.

kinda off topic but I remember there being a water polo thread a few years ago when I was a freshman/sophomore, i don't remember, and listening to all the advice everyone gave. I'm now a senior.

Kinda crazy to think about then and now and how stuff has changed

Anyways, if you really want to play, just know that no matter where you play you're gonna get fucked up. Doesn't matter if its a game or practice but at the end of the day something is going to hurt, whether its from getting hit, pulling something, or just getting worked really hard. The worst injury I've ever seen actually came during a practice. The same can be said about every sport yeah, but being in the water is different, because if you aren't used to it, it'll wear you out a lot faster. The best thing you can do is literally just swimming. Don't go to the slower lanes, find the middle ground and try to stay caught up with them. After a few weeks you can start pushing yourself and moving to faster lanes.

Its a really intense sport and be prepared to get grabbed a lot and thrown under the water

I've gotten scratched by people's nails a ton and someone bit my shoulder one time. I gurantee you'll get scratched a lot unless you play like a complete pussy

water polo should be cake if you played marco polo as a kid, OG swimming pool games

oh god i just remembered a story

I was playing defense and they opposing teams main offense was insanely pimply on the back, like just covered in zits and pimples no skin to be found, he was also fat as fuck. that was not a fun match

-you can play pretty dirty you just have to do it properly
-join your high school/club swim team it helps a ton(if your on JV being fast is all you really need to do well)
-before the season starts just go to a pool and play pass with your friends to help your ball handling skills
-conserve your energy in game so you don't die in the first 5 minutes
-talking to your team mates in game is one of the most important things you can do in game (who your gonna pass to and the guy your covering ect)

First trim your nails (please)
Position yourself well and ask where you should be positioned on both offense and defense
Righties are on the left side of the court offensively and lefties are the on right side
pressure is always better than playing back on both offense and defense
When you start playing offensively, do not pick up the ball on top since you'll make it slip more often, PICK UP THE BALL FROM THE BOTTOM UNTIL YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING
Always keep the ball behind your head and and your arm straight out of the water away from the defender
When someone gets on you when you have the ball put your hand on their shoulder under the water so they can't steal it from you as easily
You can make two types of passes wet on the water or dry on the hand
If you can't dry pass to a teammate you can wet pass to the water next to them away from the defender
Defensively, KEEP YOUR HIPS UP (THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING)
If you don't keep your hips up you will not succeed as a defender in any truly competitive level
Shooting: there are a lots of different ways to score but every good shooter gets high out of the fucking water (unless you play whole set, center) also google "how to shoot water polo"
Tips to get better over time aside from the obvious play a lot and be a good swimmer:
Wall ball - you get a water polo ball, distance yourself from the wall then hit and catch (this shit is awful at first but once you get good its amazing, im ambidextrous in the water because of this)
Know your personnel - just like any team sport know limitations of your teammates (and yourself) and learn who the best players on the other team are
Did I mention positioning and spacing? Those are pretty damn important learn that and things get really easy, especially at the jv level where you can score goals on goals (by counter attacking, cherry picking)

This is a general wall of text but there are a lot more detailed mannerisms within the game I'd be willing to go over to improve your game just add me on steam. I'm a guy who couldn't swim the pool freshman year to team captain senior year and none of the above matters unless you genuinely care about improving and care for the game on some level.

so apparently water polo is less niche than i thought

prior to this thread i have never encountered a human being who played water polo and thought it was some shit that pretty much only existed in prep schools in the 1950s

sorry for my transgressions OP you were right all along

I play goalie but I used to play field
its really not the hardest sport after playing for a while, all u need is to be really fit

make sure your speedo is on tight

it's okay to destroy each others crotches

Haha I think that was my thread. I was a freshman when I posted that, now I'm in year 11/junior. stultus water polo help