How to improve waterpolo spreading and quality in countries like UK and US - Part 1

A virtual travel between UK and US waterpolo: what to do to improve it's quality and spreading at national level? Ideas and suggestions from Viviana Castagna, italian female waterpolo player.

"And even if there is still a gap between the two national teams, UK and USA share very similar problems  in terms of waterpolo played at national level. "
"So, did I give you a better idea of what there is out of Italy, and why many foreign players dream to come to play for an italian club team? :)"

SWP - Viviana, could you introduce yourself?

Viviana Castagna - I started playing waterpolo at 13 in the third division in south of italy, and the year after I moved to play with Orizzonte in Catania. Since then, I have been playing in Catania, with Mediterraneo and Orizzonte teams, for 5 years, then a couple of years in second division and again in first division with Fontalba for another couple of years, until I got my degree in 2009.

Then, because of my PhD, I had to move to London, where I have found a team in the british first division which is called "Otter".
Now that I am in Atlanta I have found a team here as well, which is the one of the college, which is called "GeorgiaTech".

SWP - Could you tell us about your UK and US waterpolo experience?

Unfortunately (for me) waterpolo in UK and in the States is very different from Italy.

And even if there is still a gap between the two national teams, UK and USA share very similar problems  in terms of waterpolo played at national level. 

First problem: the budget - The first of these problems is for sure the budget: in UK, as in USA, teams of club level can very very hardly find a sponsor and don't have enough money to pay for more pool time (in both the countries the average pool time of a first division team is 4-6 hours a week), to pay for travels to go to the matches, or for hotel if it's the case, or even for a swim suit or a cap.

Same problem, different effect - The effect of this problem, however, is quite different in the 2 countries:

• in UK  there are still national championships, from the first to the 3rd division, for both man and women. However, the fact that the level struggles to get higher is directly due to the economic problems: with such few hours a week of pool time you can't work as hard, and the fact that players have to pay, not only the montlhy fee to the club, but also for travels, food, hotel, swim suit, caps, ecc ecc makes impossible for them to be dedicated 100% to waterpolo (as in Italy most of first division teams) because they need to have a proper job and salary to be able then to afford these expeses for playing waterpolo. And that's whythen they can't dedicate that much time for practices.
• in the States the situation is quite different: the club teams are actually few, and they are moslty made by a mix of boys and girls, or some of them are gay teams... There isn't a proper championship, but these teams get to play matches during some tournaments, again, completely sponsored by themselves. And then what brings good quality players in the States are some college teams; a 90% of USA national team players come from colleges in the state of California, which is the only good quality source of waterpolo here; the rest of college teams have a pretty decent/low level of waterpolo, but at least they can play in a proper national championship.

UK - The Otter Team

National team level versus clubs level - However, seen the level of the national teams from these 2 countries (GB is getting better and better every year, cause there has been a huge investment in the team for the Olympics 2012) you can easily wondering how it can be possible that with such many problems at the national level, players of the national teams can be as good. Maybe the fact that there isn't a very good national championship allows the players to focus just on the national team, but for players that can't reach the high level of the national, is quite hard to enjoy a proper championship like in italy, without the need to spend half of your montlhy salary to do that....

So, did I give you a better idea of what there is out of Italy, and why many foreign players dream to come to play for an italian club team? :)

Click here to read the PART II