Prince William played it at school and the players are required to wear silly hats. Equipped with these two facts (and a pair of garish swimming shorts) I turned up at Abu Dhabi Country Club (formerly Abu Dhabi Health and Fitness Club) to experience the rigours of water polo for myself. It didn’t take long for me to realise that my ignorance of the sport was matched only by my own physical shortcomings. I was met at reception by a group of very affable, yet frighteningly fit-looking individuals – broad smiles and even broader shoulders – I had thrown myself in at the deep end (pun wholly intended).
It was in the changing rooms where I caught my first whiff of chlorine, triggering a series of previously suppressed childhood memories – lung-fulls of chemically treated water, noses streaming with snot, and cool-kid Craig Menzies finding my swimming cap and gleefully parading it in front of my classmates. I forgot how much I hate swimming. Why was I here? Sensing my apprehension, a fellow newcomer assured me he hadn’t played water polo ‘for ages’. I nodded and replied with a weak smile. It was somehow difficult to take heart in the words of a man built like Schwarzenegger, wearing nothing but Speedos.
I calmed myself – my schooldays were long behind me, Craig Menzies was no longer on hand to humiliate me for my headwear and, not only did I live by the sea, I lived in a city overflowing with swimming pools. Surely being in close proximity to so much water had improved my swimming by default? The warm-up soon suggested otherwise. ‘Swimming’ is not a couple of leisurely lengths in the apartment complex pool or wallowing in the sea every Friday; ‘swimming’ is getting from A to B as quickly and efficiently as possible. And things hadn’t yet been complicated by the introduction of a ball and goalposts. I was in trouble.
Happily, Lila, the athletic lady who barked instructions from the poolside, was sympathetic to the needs of us novices and we were allowed to cough and splutter along at our own pace. Once she was happy that we floated, she began to introduce some basic water polo techniques. Both Lila and founder of Abu Dhabi Water Polo Club, Andy Babbayan, appreciate that the sport isn’t the most prevalent of pastimes and that most people in attendance were beginners.
Since water polo is played in a pool too deep for players to stand on the bottom, ball skills were confined to the deep end. Here we treaded water while attempting to toss the ball in the vague direction of our partners. This most of basic drills helped me appreciate why water polo players are in such good shape: even when players are in a stationery position, they’re still active.
Exhausted as I was, I was nonetheless surprised by just how much I was enjoying myself. Aside from the water polo’s obvious physical benefits, the sport has an addictive quality, which I think has much to do with the mental agility required of players. Essentially it’s a game of multitasking: keeping afloat (obviously), concentrating on where the ball is, receiving passes, making passes, and all the while being aware of what’s going on around you – both above and below the water. I’m told that water polo has a vicious side to it, with all manner of submerged shenanigans take place out of sight of the referee. Happily, Lila spared us the more confrontational aspects of the sport (saving them, presumably, for when we’re able to endure a kick to the groin without drowning) and instead had us swimming to and fro, exchanging a series of passes before lobbing the ball goalward – a surprisingly difficult feat even in the absence of a goalie. Drills were followed by a friendly game and concluded with us crawling from the pool – giddy grins and grasping at lungfuls of sweet air.
Abu Dhabi Water Polo Club is still in its formative stages (the session I attended was the club’s first), though one day Andy hopes to assemble a competitive team. But until that day comes, he’s quite content preaching the gospel of water polo to everyone willing to listen – from snotty nosed converts to Speedo-clad Schwarzeneggers.
Water polo at Abu Dhabi Country Club costs Dhs25 per session, with the first two sessions free. Wednesday, 8.30pm. Call Andy Babbayan (056 126 7276) for further details.
