Simulating Offensives and Exclusions During Water Polo Drills

Players using poor fundamentals during drills can be a source of frustration for a coach attempting to teach or reinforce a concept during practice sessions. During many drills or practice scenarios coaches are trying to teach a skill or drill and are not looking to call offensives or exclusions even though players may do something that would warrant the call in a game. However, fixing lazy play without interrupting the drill is essential to all players having a fun and effective practice. Rarely does saying, "That would have been an offensive" fix a lazy technical problem during a training session. Setting a parameter, such as "Don't grab the driver", needs to be acknowledged by players to properly run a drill and teach strong game skills.

Some common instances of poor or lazy player fundamentals during drills are:

• grabbing an opponent with inside water
• pulling back on a center when a pass is entered
• shooting from a poor angle or before a drill parameter has been accomplished
• hand-checking a driver
• not driving ball-side when required for the drill

*some may include missing the cage on a shot but technical deficiencies should be corrected by individual coaching. Push-ups for missing the cage does not teach correct shooting form. That is essentially lazy coaching.

The best way to alleviate these problems are:

1. When conducting drills, issue push-ups or up-and-outs for breaking drill rules.
2. When practicing half-court, issue head-up sprints to the other side of the pool, sub in another player to continue the training.
3. In small group scrimmages, send the whole group off on a sprint and sub a new group. (ex. 3x3, 4x4 drills). 
4. On an exclusion-like penalty, have all the defensive players play with 2 hands straight up, no swimming, for a possession. This allows the offense to move and drive easier and penalizes the defense without reverting to a 5-on-6.

Try to have a couple substitution players ready when conducting small-unit or front court drills.

Remember, bad technique should be corrected by coaching. Lazy technique needs to be eliminated by reinforcing the correct technique or movement. You will know where your players are in the development cycle and if they understand how to do something correctly and are choosing not to.