Sorry, but this is simply not true. The level of Spanish league is higher. I recall Krikorian talked about it himself on Carrera’s podcast around 2019.
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This wpolo93 is great info, and what I meant by, needing a fresh approach because we’re losing at all levels.
I do not understand the negativitity towards Adam Krikorian. He won three straight gold medals in the Olympics along with being part of 15! National Championships at UCLA. You may not like him as a person, but it is hard to argue his resume.
The United States lost three close games this year, but they also had a very different team than 2020. They lost a lot of talent from their 2020 team and their young players were nowhere near as talented as the young players in the past, especially at a couple of key offensive positions.
The US pipeline is nowhere near where it was 5 or 10 years ago. It ebbs and flows. I personally do not think that it Krikorian’s fault.
Honestly, what were everyone’s thoughts on Krikorian when he had a 10 year! winning steak from 2013 to 2023? Did he really turn from the best coach in the world to a has-been in 12 months?
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Agree this is baffling Swimcoach. In terms of contract extensions, it’s the men’s side that must ask the question; are there qualified US coaches interested in the world’s top salary, with limited requirements during the EURO season? If so, the CEO should take a hard look via an experienced hiring committee.
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So who is responsible then for the decline of development of Women’s sr and jr teams? As well as the emergence of internationals on the NCAA level?
If Adam needs better talent to win, after being at the helm for a long time, how can we help provide him with the talent?
This whole conversation about firing Krikorian is bonkers!
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The women’s team had never won an Olympic Gold before Krikorian got there and then he won three straight. I think that he deserves a little leeway.
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The issue, for both our women’s team finishing fourth at the Olympics and the internationals playing women’s water polo at US colleges, is simply that faced with US domination of the women’s game for so long, other countries have gotten better. Spain, Australia, the Netherlands, Hungary and other countries have more talent and better coaching now. We all knew the US women’s dominance wasn’t going to last forever, and on WPP were discussing the rising competition over the last several years.
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Thread derailed with women coach discussion. Collectively, besides your position on the woman national team coach, what other actions/strategies would you take as the CEO.
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re: original post - #5 Expand Grassroots Participation and Accessibility
Can USA Water Polo help reinvigorate Girls High School Water Polo participation? I’m not sure how other regions were affected, but the launch of Girls Flag Football in Fall 2023 took away existing/potential water polo players in the Sacramento area. Even the loss of 3 girls from a team is a huge impact. It doesn’t help that the NFL is heavily behind Girls Flag Football and High School Administrators have treated Girls Flag Football like a high performing revenue sport from the get go.
which leads to original post #10 Foster Collaborative Relationships with Key Stakeholders
Would go more local with this - (i.e. Recreational Swim teams - their numbers have been going down too locally in Sacramento across the board. Would think they would be receptive to improve on partnering with local water polo clubs to mutually build up numbers… maybe would even help access to pool time).
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Good points. Perhaps expanding programs into “aquatic directors” that focus across Polo and Swimming?
I, like many I know, first saw water polo when there was a game at the break of a swim meet, which was followed up with a clinic the next day for those interested.
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The first thing I would do is meet with CIF and try and align the seasons for boys water polo and girls water polo in all sections. The impact of scheduling girls’ water polo in the fall in Northern California on player development can not be overstated. Without a dedicated preseason for high school girls’ water polo, athletes miss out on the opportunity to participate in high-level tournaments that are crucial for their development.
Additionally, the misalignment impacts age-group water polo significantly. Limited pool availability forces younger players to train later in the evening usually with a lot less pool space. Coaches are often forced to choose between coaching boys’ or girls’ teams, which reduces the availability of experienced coaches who are willing and capable of working with both groups.
You would see an explosion of Fall pre-season tournaments and leagues. You would also be able to have more academy ODP type training with everyone being at the same point in their athletic year.
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I don’t have any answers, but just some things to consider. The competitive landscape for youth sports, particularly girls is tough. Lacrosse is just killing wa po right now. Just about every kid starts with AYSO soccer because it’s so easy to play at an early age. When they look for another sport to try, wa po used to pick up some athletes, but now you have lacrosse, field hockey, and high schools are now starting girls flag football. Wa po is a tough, tough sport to sell, especially to girls, because it requires so many skills to just get started (swimming, throwing) plus you need a pool with a deep end and even if you have that pool you are probably looking at some late practice times. Wa po has to figure out a way to reduce all these pain points and get kids to try it at an early age. Right now in the youth sports world there is some push back on early specialization. I’d like to see USAWP join that movement and sell wa po as something a pre-HS kid can just do for a season or two while playing other sports. If you can get parents to think it’s a bad idea for their kid to play soccer year round at age 7 (which it is), then they’ll be more likely to try water polo and hopefully play year round in HS. I also think this multi-sport approach leads to better polo players – I just see so many year round players in HS that have been playing from a very young age that lack athleticism – maybe if they’d spent five years playing softball every spring or flag football they’d be better at shooting a water polo ball?
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I encourage everyone to listen to this podcast. Lots of great thoughts about youth sports in general and the hosts’ daughter is a club water polo player so they have lived it. One of the ways to grow water polo is simply for coaches to do a better job making sure kids have a good experience.
I think that partnering with swim is key, especially at the younger age group. Most kids in polo probably started with a neighborhood summer swim team. The kids that had some early success probably joined a year round swim club. Most of those summer swim kids don’t do club, so why not introduce them to splashball in the fall or spring?
Half of the club swimmers aren’t fast enough to compete, but their clubs will continue to dangle the carrot to keep them engaged because they need the numbers to justify the pool cost.
We’ve seen competitive club swimmers who took on polo for the first time in HS actually break through plateaus because of the extra leg work they were getting from polo…and their club coaches reluctantly admitted this. Majority of the fast swimmers in HS are actually polo players.
If USAWP and USA Swim could formally establish a grass roots partnership at the summer age group level, I think both sides would benefit. Water polo doesn’t have to be the antithesis of swim, they actually are more complimentary than the swim community likes to admit. Our kids are/were still actively involved with their neighborhood summer swim team through HS.
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If I were in the CEO’s chair, I’d start with growing the sport at the splashball/8u to 10u level. The game is fast and fun to watch. It is 4 five minute quarters, and then the game is done. Parents get onboard quickly after they watch their first game. I believe that getting a kid to that first game should be focus #1.
The first thing I’d do is to make a major push to state and local government for the subsidization of youth sports at the 8-year to 12-year age level. Europe does a lot of that and the game is huge there. Frame it as a both fight against obesity and a fight against addictive mobile electronic devices via genuine face-to-face social interaction. A subsidy at that age level can be sold as a physical health initiative and a mental health initiative. Even if the subsidy is nothing more than donated public pool time, that would be great! It allows politicians to cite it as an example of actions taken to combat the ills of social media use in teens and pre-teens.
If it were up to me to grow the sport, I’d start by building the pipeline at the beginning.
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Another important point that can be used for aquatics specifically is increasing water safety for young kids. Accidental drowning is a major cause of death and a lot of municipalities support swim lessons in their community to increase water safety and decrease accidental drowning deaths.
To that end, I think it would be a great idea for USAWP to both design their own version of a learn to swim program (swim lessons) that emphasizes water polo as well as working with local organizations to include water polo skills (like treading) in their programming and help steer young athletes to water polo. To me, splashball should be the second step for a kid from swim lessons but we as a sport haven’t developed that pipeline the way swim programs have.
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Love the concept of partnering with swimming at younger ages (10U and younger).
I’d add that the schedules of the sports would need to be synchronized so that kids can have access to larger events of both. Currently, the larger events of the summer season tend to run into each other and athletes are forced to choose which one to focus on over the summer.
My concern is there is too much money involved with both organizations to “sacrifice” having events all year long to help some other organization.
I’ve also said this for a while but the reality of sport specialization at young ages would be a tough mindset to change. The path to college and beyond is currently to be playing water polo every weekend from age 6-18 (I.e. Ryder Dodd).
Maybe. It can also be used as something to promote retention. It is not rare for young swimming phenoms to be nationally ranked only to burn out and give up the sport entirely as they hit 13 years old.
It isn’t shocking that kids could get bored with following the same black line at the bottom of the pool, going to swim meets where they wait all day for their 90 seconds of competition, and spending so much time in their own heads during long training sessions. Water polo is the perfect way to make something new and different that utilizes all the work they’ve already put in.
As for Ryder Dodd competing at water polo every weekend, that isn’t true. He has swimcloud times going all the way back to 2015.
It is an admitted challenge to do both water polo and swim team. I get it. I have a kid who plays 12u water polo all year with a high level program, and he also does club swim team (sorta). In the past 4 months, we’ve made it to 2 swim meets.
Yes Ryder also squeezed in swimming, but he had some form of polo every weekend. With a son who is a year older I started watching Ryder when he was just a little guy. While incredibly talented, his dedication to competing in games every weekend available was amazing even as a 8-9-10 year old often playing up an age group as well.
Dual confirmation with my own 2 eyes it was most definitely every single weekend playing water polo from at least age 8-18.