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Industry newsOwn water polo body?Aug/ Sept 2009Will water polo participation and performance get a boost if it is administered by a dedicated sporting federation, seperate from Swimming SA? NELLE DU TOIT looks at best practices around the world
Since its inception in 1908, FINA, the world’s governing body of aquatics, has provided a standard to the rules and regulations of aquatic sports such as swimming, diving, synchronised swimming, water polo and open water swimming under one federation. As a result, many countries govern all aquatic-related sports under one federation. South Africa, the Netherlands, Montenegro and Germany, to name a few, are examples of countries who run water polo and swimming under the same governing body. But, it is also not unusual to find that swimming and water polo are administered by different bodies. In fact, the water polo teams that performed the best at the 13th FINA World Aquatics Championships in Rome this year, are from countries with a strong independent water polo organisation. The most prominent independent water polo associations are US Water Polo, Water Polo Canada, Australian Water Polo, Russia Water Polo, Water Polo Federation of Serbia, Croatian Water Polo Federation, Water Polo Federation of Serbia,Water Polo (Greece), Hungarian Water Polo Federation, New Zealand Water Polo, and Turkish Water Polo Federation. In addition, Italy, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and Israel have their own separate water polo associations. The top four teams at the 2009 FINA World Championship were. Women:
» Canada (Silver) » Russia (Bronze) » Greece (4th)
» Spain (Silver) » Croatia (Bronze) » US (4th) The US was the 2008 Beijing Olympic Silver Medalist for both the women’s and men’s water polo teams. As teams from Europe traditionally dominate the men’s side of the sport, America is the only non-European country to win medals at the Olympic games. The US women’s team are the reigning World Champions for the second consecutive time and the third time this decade. Not only is America one of the strongest water polo countries, they cultivated some of the world’s greatest swimmers as well - think Micheal Phelps – and have been dominating the swimming medals tables. At this year’s FINA Aquatic Championships in Rome, the US again topped the medal table. Could this dominance in both sports be attributed to the fact that they have two separate governing bodies. The US Water Polo association provides it’s members with training, educational resources, opportunities to compete and insurance. This association allows its members to benefit from membership at a local club, certified coaches and officials, Olympic training, water polo clinics, regional and national tournaments and cutting edge developments in sport science. The Canadian women’s team this year came an extremely close second place at the July/August World Championships this year. Their men’s team came 8th . The Canadian Water Polo Association Inc (WPC) is a separate governing body from swimming in Canada with their own by-laws, code of conduct, apeals process, dispute resolution and discipline, anti-doping program and anti-discrimination and harrassment” policy. The Montenegro and Croatian teams participated under the Yugoslavian flag till 1991, and Serbia participated under the Yugoslavian flag untill February 2003. These Eastern-European countries, as well as Hungary and Romania, have traditionally always been the dominating teams in men’s water polo. In 2000 Yugoslavia won the Bronze medal in the Olympic games and in 2004 Serbia and Montenegro won the Silver medal and in 2008 Serbia won the Bronze medal again. Croatia formed the Croatian Water Polo Federation as soon as they gained their independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. The Croatian national swimming team has always been a strong contender as well and is organised by the Croatian Swimming Federation. Having an independent governing body for water polo is, however, not a guarantee of success. The Netherlands women’s water polo team, Gold medal winner at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is an example: one organisation is in control of both swimming and water polo. This year the Netherlands women’s water polo team achieved 5th place in the 13th FINA World Chapmionship. The Netherlands has always had a strong women’s water polo team and during the 1980’s and 1990’s they were considered one of the leading teams in the world. The tradition of women’s water polo in the Netherlands stems as far back as the early 1900’s. They have also produced strong swimmers. Germany, which have also actively participated in water polo since the 1900’s, is also governed by a single organisation in charge of swimming and water polo. The German women’s water polo team this year came 10th and the German men’s team 6th. Traditionally, the Germans have also been quite strong in swimming, with Britta Steffen currently breaking records for them. But, why would it make a difference if water polo is administered by an organisation separate from swimming? It does not take a sports scientist to realise that swimming and water polo are two vastly different sports. For one, water polo is a team sport and requires good ball handling skills. The pool in which water polo events should be held does not have the same dimensions as a competitive swimming pool - it must, for example, be a minimum of 1.8m deep to ensure that no player touches the bottom of the pool during play. Using the sides of the pool during water polo constitutes a foul, whereas the starting kick-off in swimming is a determining factor in eventual success. It is necessary for water polo players to be fit and able swimmers - but swimmers ned not be fit and able water polo players. The style of swimming used during water polo is also vastly different to the style swimmers would use – water polo players keep their heads out of water at all times to observe the field, the arm stroke used is also a lot shorter and quicker and is used to protect the ball at all times. Water polo backstroke (used by defending field players to track advancing attackers and by the goalie to track the ball after passing) differs from swimming backstroke as the player sits almost upright in the water. The cap used by water polo players is different to that used by swimmers – and their swimwear also differs. In fact, the only thing water polo and swimming have in common is that they are both played in a pool. To quote Steve Douglas from a 2008 Sports Trader article on water polo “… Just because rugby and soccer are both played on grass and with a ball, should we do away with SAFA and allow SARU to run soccer as well? Of course not.” Swimming and water polo both have a very long heritage. Swimming has been an Olympic sport since 1896 and in 1900 water polo became the first team sport admitted to the Olympic Games. The problem with having one federation arises in countries where swimming has a stronger tradition than water polo - often leading to the latter recieving less promotional and developmental attention than the other - and vice versa. In SA, swimming is the undisputed leading aquatic sport that has traditionally been one of the main medal winning codes at the Olympics. Women only started playing water polo in SA in the late nineties, and apart from this year’s 16th place at the FINA World Aquatics, their previous international exposure was in the Commonwealth Games (in 2006), where they came 4th. SA men’s water polo team has only qualified to participate in the 1952 and 1960 Olympics. At the World Aquatics Championships, which FINA founded in 1973, SA’s men came 15th in 1994 and 2005 and 2009; and 14th in 1998 and 2007. This means that they are ranked among the best in the world – and are the undisputed African champions. During the African qualifying leg for the FINA World Championships they clocked the second highest score ever to be recorded in water polo when they beat Libya 60-0. Since international matches last 32 minutes SA had to score a goal every 32 seconds. They compounded this massive success with victories over Morrocco (22-3 and 32-6), Libya (42-0) and Algeria (25-6 and 34-2). Not bad, when compared to a sport like soccer! Yet, these victories are overshadowed by performances by swimmers. The importance of having an association dedicated solely to the advancement water polo, would be that the association then takes full responsibility for the promotion and marketing of the sport, for the legislation and regulation of the sport and competitions, training and national representation, development of proper facilities and the staging of national water polo championships. Also, that association will be held accountable for financial and organisational management of water polo. WHILE SA celebrated the four medals and two world records by our swimmers at the recent 13th FINA World Championships in Rome, the fact that two SA water polo teams had qualified to compete in the World Championships was hardly noticed. Nor was there much comment about the fact that at the time of going to press, two SA junior water polo teams were competing in the FINA world junior championships in Croatia (men) and Russia (women). But then, water polo players would tell you that being ignored is nothing new. There are currently 2 000 registered senior and 5 000 school water polo players. The number of league-level participants are growing steadily, especially at school level, says Guy Pinker, an international referee and the water polo representative at Swimming SA. It is estimated that about 20 000–25 000 unregistered people play water polo. It is not a massive participation sport, but, compared to the 11 000 swimmers that were last year registered with Swimming SA, the number of 7 000 registered water polo players is quite substantial. One of the major challenges to growing the sport, says Pinker, is “incorporating the youth across all demographics”. A business plan has been submitted to Swimming SA to grow water polo amongst the youth, especially in disadvantaged areas, but it has not yet been adopted. Nothing should make suppliers and retailers of water polo equipment happier than the thought that a vast pool of new participants will be entering the sport through transformation plans. But, instead of growing the number of participants, the thorny transformation issue has caused such dunking in water polo circles during the last few years that the debate about transformation in rugby sounds like friendly banter in comparison. At issue is the Swimming SA rule that every team must have at least one black member — and a black manager. It came to a head when Western Province was barred from competing in the schools water polo championship finals in 2007 because they did not conform to the quota. When Gauteng was declared the winners, they refused to accept their medals as they did not consider the team that was promoted from last place in the round Robin to meet them in the finals, as worthy opponents. Any relatively small sport has difficulty finding a dedicated volunteer willing and able to take on the job of team manager — and often the team coach fulfills both jobs. Water polo teams have, however, been penalized when they arrive at a championship without a black manager. While it certainly does not sound unreasonable to have one black team member amongst 13 — and there are several black water polo players who get selected on merit — the problem arises when there is a shortage of black players at all age group levels in a particular province. Swimming SA has battled to meet their own target of 200 elite black swimmers training at the hpc as part of their athlete development programme, and Thabang Moeketsane has been quoted as saying he is now tired of being the only black swimmer comepting at international level. While talented swimmers can be fast-tracked and relocated to train at the hpc in Pretoria, a team sport like water polo is area-bound. Water polo is a sport requiring specialized skills and temperament — and a pool where you can practice regularly. Most white SA children (used to) grow up with a pool at home, or at a friend’s house, but few black children enjoy this privilege. It is therefore safe to assume that most of the 1.5-m private pools (as estimated by a commercial swimming pool care company) in SA are in predominantly white areas. While most former Model C schools have pools, few in underprivileged areas have. Without a pool to train, young people will take up one of the many other sporting codes vying for their attention, especially with soccer fever growing. The Swimming SA business plan for 2004-2008 made provision for the upgrading of facilities for aquatic sport in previously disadvantaged areas. Provision was made for the upgrading of a total of 55 pools over the five years: 13 in Gauteng, 9 in KwaZulu-Natal, 9 in the Western Cape, 9 in the Eastern Cape, 6 in the Free State, 4 in the Northern Cape, 4 in Mpumalanga, 1 in the Northwest and 1 in Limpopo. In that period, the responsibility for sport facilities was, however, transferred from Sport & Recreation SA to municipalities — and because municipalities have such a long queue of other priorities requiring funding and attention, sport facilities are often bumped to the back. The water polo fraternity is obviously keen to grow their sport and promote it at all levels. Yet, they have to share the (already scarce) resources of Swimming SA with diving, synchronised swimming, open water swimming and, of course, swimming — which includes elite athlete development and Learn to Swim. (See competition allocation budget) No wonder so many in the water polo fraternity agree with the sentiments of Pat Wiltshire (distributor of the official game ball of the Olympic Games, MIKASA): “unfortunately swimming is the main focus of Swimming SA and in our view waterpolo is a distant afterthought. We believe that the sport needs independence and administration by individuals that are passionate about the sport and about it’s future. We feel water polo needs to be governed and run by its own elected officials who have the commitment and vision to grow the sport from grass roots level through the school years and on to provincial and national league level.”
SSA Competition budgetSource: Swimming SA Business Plan 2005-2008
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