Local rule variations

United States

The NFHS 2006-2007 swimming/diving and water polo rulebook (USWP and NCAA rules still vary) was revised in 2006.

• The four and seven metre lines were merged to a five metre line.
• According to the revised rule a goalkeeper can use his both hands and stand at the bottom of the pool (if shallow) until the 5 metre line, and go beyond the 5 metre line according to the field rules (one hand on the ball no standing), but still not pass the half line.
• The goalie can hit the ball with a clenchedfist, even this act is not required.
• New cap rules were also enacted.
• A goalie cap must now be in quarters alternating red/dark for home and red/white for away.
• The goalie must be number 1, 1a, or 1b.
• For women, a red swim cap must be worn under the goalie cap.
• A team's dark swim cap is no longer acceptable as it is hard to distinguish a goalie from field players if official cap is off.

The Water Polo tournament at the 2012 Olympics in London is scheduled to be held at the London 2012 Water Polo Arena in the Olympic Park from 29 July to 12 August. The venue will hold 5,000 spectators during water polo matches. Twelve teams will compete in the men's tournament and eight teams in the women's tournament. Olympic Water Polo Tickets are available at Sport Ticket Exchange at reasonable prices. SportTicketExchange.com is an excellent place for Olympic fans to buy or sell Olympic Tickets especially Water Polo Tickets.

Olympic Water Polo Tickets

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Water Polo History -Olympic Competition

Men's water polo at the Olympics was firstly included in the sports category in 1900 sports. For Women’s water polo a protest in Australia was done and as a result, Women’s water polo for the first time in 2000 Sydney olympics Games was included. Such protests were rewarded when Australia won the gold medal match against the United States with a "buzzer-beater" last-minute goal, taken from outside the seven meter line.

Manuel Estiarte from Spain, played six Olympics and led scoring for four of them, which is a record. Another Dezso Gyarmati of Hungary won water polo medals at five successive Olympic Games (gold 1952, 1956, 1964; silver 1948; bronze 1960), a record in water polo.

The other great player,

Tamas Farago of Hungry led the team to Olympic Medals in 1972, 1976 and 1980. And in 1984, 1988, an American Terry Schroeder led the US to its first Olympic silver medals

1956 Summer Olympics is famous, forever match ever been played so for, it was a semi-final between Hungary and the Soviet Union. As the athletes left for the games, the Hungarian revolution began, and the Soviet army crushed the uprising. Many of the Hungarian athletes vowed never to return home, and felt their only means of fighting back was by victory in the pool.

The confrontation was the most bloody and violent water polo game in history, in which the pool reputedly turned red from blood. The Hungarians defeated the Soviets 4-0 before the game was called off in the final minute to prevent angry Hungarians in the crowd reacting to Valentin Prokopov punching Ervin Zador's eye open.Finally The Hungrians won the victory in semi final and, in final with Yugoslavia 2-1, and got the Olympic gold medal.

The Water Polo tournament at the 2012 Olympics in London is scheduled to be held at the London 2012 Water Polo Arena in the Olympic Park from 29 July to 12 August. The venue will hold 5,000 spectators during water polo matches. Twelve teams will compete in the men's tournament and eight teams in the women's tournament. Olympic Water Polo Tickets are available at Sport Ticket Exchange at reasonable prices. SportTicketExchange.com is an excellent place for Olympic fans to buy or sell Olympic Tickets especially Water Polo Tickets.

Olympic Water Polo Tickets

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Water Polo History: (1930-2005)

By the time, the game was much affected by the new rules and regulations and in 1928 Hungarian water polo coach Bela Komjadi invented the "air pass," or "dry pass". In this new technique the ball was directly passes by one player to another by the using air medium and the other player receives it without the ball hitting the water. Formerly, players would let the ball drop in the water first and then reach out for it, but the dry pass made the offensive game more dynamic, and contributed to Hungarian dominance of water polo for 60 years.

In 1936, James R. ("Jimmy") Smith, California water polo coach and author of several books on water polo mechanics, developed a water polo ball made with an inflatable bladder and a rubber fabric cover, which improved performance. The former ball which was used in playing, absorbed water and became heavier during the game. In 1949, rule changes allowed play to continue uninterrupted after a referee whistled an ordinary foul, speeding up play. In the 1970s, the exclusion foul replaced a point system for major fouls; players guilty of this foul were excluded for a 1 minute penalty and their team forced to play with fewer players.

A player could posses the ball with a limited moment of 45 seconds before scoring attempt. Also penalities and keeping ball in hands time was then reduced. A direct hit to the goal was allowed from the seven (7) meter line after a free throw was allowed in 1994, and changed to a five meter throw in 2005.

The Water Polo tournament at the 2012 Olympics in London is scheduled to be held at the London 2012 Water Polo Arena in the Olympic Park from 29 July to 12 August. The venue will hold 5,000 spectators during water polo matches. Twelve teams will compete in the men's tournament and eight teams in the women's tournament. Olympic Water Polo Tickets are available at Sport Ticket Exchange at reasonable prices. SportTicketExchange.com is an excellent place for Olympic fans to buy or sell Olympic Tickets especially Water PoloTickets.

Olympic Water Polo Tickets

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Water Polo History: (Beginning To 1930)

Britsh citizen, William Wilson developed the rules for playing the water polo in late 19th century. Water polo is generally originated from rugby footabll which the British were playing for many years at the lakes and rivers of England and Scotland. They used a ball made up of indian rubber. Soon the water rugby were to be called “water polo”. A solid power was required in an early play, and players had to wrestle and hold the opposite players underwater to get the ball. The goalie is now outside the playing area and defended the goal by jumping in on any opponent attempting to score by placing the ball on the deck.

By the 1880s, the game evolved that stressed swimming, passing, and scoring by shooting into a goal net; players could only be tackled when holding the ball and could not be taken under water. To deal with constant changes in rules,

The 1880s era, the London Water Polo league came into being and defined some emerging rules to play which became the foundation of the game later. In 1888, The

first English Championship was played and in 1890, the first international water polo game was played in which Scotland got victory against England by 4-0.

From 1890 to 1900, water polo developed and played in Europe and the other countries like France, Australia, Germany, Hungry, Italy and Belgium were following the British rules to play. Another game in the USA were played as called the rough play, it was holding, diving underwater, and soft, semi-inflated ball that could be gripped tightly and carried underwater. As a result, European teams did not compete in the 1904 Olympic championships in St. Louis. By 1914, most US teams agreed to conform to international rules. An international water polo committee was formed in 1929, consisting of representatives from Great Britain and the International Amateur Swimming Federation (FINA). Rules were developed for international matches and put into effect in 1930, FINA has been the international governing body for the sport since that time.