swimming and water polo

Question
i joined the swim team and was wondering what i can do to train for next season also I'm going to join the water polo team and I've never played before I'm pretty nervous if you know anything about water polo I'm hoping you can tell me what to expect.  

Answer
Hi,

Can you tell me your age and if you are new to swimming of have been doing it for a while. Swimming is one of those sports that require a lot of teaching for the correct stroke technique.

Also swimming requires a lot of flexibility and is predominately aerobic, so it is a great sport to keep you fit in both muscle tone and cardiovascular fitness. It is also a very safe sport as minimal wear and tear on your body.

To train for swimming, the only thing I recommend is more aerobic exercises, weight training can tighten up muscles, so I would use light weights with high repetitions, like 3 sets of  20 reps with a medium weight.

Water polo is more like basketball in the water. This is good training as well for swimming; in fact I always did 2 months of water polo at the beginning of the swimming season as it builds up aerobic fitness and some strength. You will be swimming back and forth in a deep pool and cannot touch the bottom of the pool. And you will be using your hands to throw the ball a lot as well.

Don抰 be nervous about polo, it is a good sport, there will be some physical contact. The players are allowed to mark you closely. You are allowed a bit of contact, but not allowed to dunk the other player or grab arms etc..


Here are the rules

http://www.jmuwaterpolo.com/rules/

Thanks.