Water Polo

Wednesday was a momentous occasion for me here at James Cook University. I had my first club water polo practice. Now, for those of you who don't know, I have never played real water polo...I guess opposed to the fake water polo (not played with horses ironically). The water polo I am familiar with is the kind we used to play after swim practice; mixed scrimmages where the only rule was to survive. It was not out of the ordinary to have the swim coach have to step in and tell a mob of people, most always girls, to let somebody up so they could breathe: intense. Well last night was different. If Pinocchio was a water sport, last night he became a real boy (I apologize, it is the heat of the afternoon and I think I am losing some brain cells).

The practice consisted of us swimming widths, doing drills, passing/catching, spins and shooting. I had to get a little help to understand the "egg-beater" kick, which when explained by a bunch of Aussies can be very confusing even though I was attempting to do the same thing but just calling it something different. Whatever. I actually held my own, catching on rather quickly, especially to the catching and throwing which all has to be done with one hand. The swimming came naturally, for some obvious reasons, but some of the stroke techniques are majorly different than I am used to. Like swimming with your head out of the water at all times and taking short, short strokes rather than long strokes. Practices are every Wednesday and scrimmages are on Mondays. Doing this will hopefully get me in shape, but the real reason I really want to continue doing it is I have always wanted to play. As for today, I am sore but not dead; I am actually going to play some basketball here in half an hour. Maybe there will be a story to post about that when I get back. Until then, cheers!