in the water… ha just kidding.
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you could have 2 on one side, they only walk from the goal line to center pool. at the goal line you are obviously responsible for center play, goal confirmation. then on the counter you are responsible for back court shenanigan’s, while the other official turns his attention quickly to inside the 6 meter area rather than having to walk from goal line to goal line. the official on the other side of the pool ( would have the center of the pool and probably be the lead official. now of coarse this does not work if officials only have one side of a pool to work but in most college and fina games they are on both sides. I agree it wont happen in high school, does not need to.
Goal judges. Especially with the new “box” in front of the goal, more eyeballs would be really helpful foroffsides calls, goal/no goal, and goalie tips vs shots out of bounds.
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I agree with @Mepolo, giving more power to goal judges will help officiate the center of the pool. This will help as more and more teams tend to go into a double post and create white water for 20s in front of the cage. Also, this will help keep goalies on the goal line during penalties and they could also be in charge of when a player comes out of the exclusion box.
I here you @GoBears, I have thought about it for years and haven’t been able to come up with an answer that even within my circle, everyone agrees on. I am sorry to hear about reffing by yourself, trying to take officiate 14 players is no small feat and as you mention, would be a disservice to the high schools you mentioned who fill out most our top college teams. My point here is that perhaps with better officiating at a lower level, the talent and popularity of the sport could greatly grow.
I do believe that if the chosen few who control water polo are so trigger-happy and inpatient to implement new rule after new rule, that they should have the half the same enthusiasm to attempt new ideas when it comes to officiating.
Well, we old timers did all give up our flags. 
While we are changing things, how about a uniform other than white? Grey pants, blue shirt? It would be nice to walk out on a break and get a cup of coffee without looking a navy recruit on dress uniform day.
This is so silly. You have programs investing in lane lines and courses and painting lines on walls just to constantly change them. Next up, the goals will be slightly different. Buy new goals everyone.
Oh, they already did that for younger groups.
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I think the thinking is World Aquatics wants to eliminate the stagnant big center based play in favor of a quicker counter attack / driver focused game. So they structure the rules to encourage swimming. The problem is this will further reduce the number of athletes that can play the game.
They don’t like multiple dummy passes that set up a 6x5, they want to get right to the action (goals) so they reduce the clock, I assume this will increase physicality as players have to get more done in less time.
I think the over-arching theme is Refs not calling the rules as written, and then adjustment after adjustment is made to shape and encourage calls from recalcitrant Refs rather than enacting wholesale change or getting rid of the Refs that suck.
Example: interfering with a penalty shot is a game exclusion - too severe a punishment so Refs don’t call it
Solution - move the shooters back to the 6m line
Effect - a blocked penalty now results in a “2nd penalty shot” attempt as the shooter has a 1m head start on the defenders.
Alternate solution - make all penalty shots dead-time. No defense there to interfere, other team has a 6x5 waiting at the other end if you miss.
One thing we haven’t tried is really working with the Refs, film review, class instruction on high level topics on how the game should be called.
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I hate watching good passing on a basketball court. LOL! The new “box” gives us a tool to eliminate the stagnant center playing for an exclusion or penalty. Use it like “the paint” in basktball and allow offensive players to cut into it but not stay there longer than a few seconds. Probably need to extend the box out to 3 or 4 meters. You’d get drivers in front of the goal and shots from moving players instead of two 6’5" guys wresting and clogging up the middle. If the defense sags back into the box to stop the drives, you’d have other offensive players at 5-6 meters with open shots. Dante Dettamanti suggested this years ago.
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I don’t know about other conferences, but CWPA does a lot of that, with video recording, observers, and film review on the deck at many tournaments, as well as virtual classes using selected video clips as training aids.
That is a shock to hear because whenever playing on the East Coast, the game was called extremely differently than it was in California. I used to joke that I would average 4 kickouts a game when playing on the East Coast.
But more of this should be happening. For example, USA Water Polo should have an active Youtube account with common misconceptions about the rules and examples of how similar plays can results in different calls.
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Good examples @Rational and the blocked penalty dead time is a great idea!
But of course. Out here in the East we get it perfect. Those western guys will let anything go. 
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How about going back to 3 fouls before an exclusion on center defender??? Then we can give out flags to the referee
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For some strange reason, water polo prides itself on being the most difficult sport, we’re like ice hockey (above average swimmer/skater), peak physical conditioning, specialized facilities but without the light at the end of the tunnel that is the miillions of $$ via the NHL.
We also have rules that frankly require a masters level water polo education to grasp. A good Ref has to understand intent, strategy, and probability and integrate that all with good timing while always being just 3 missed calls away from a brutality. What if that’s too much? What if the Water polo IQ requirements to competently call the game are a 150 and the average person at 100 IQ is simply incapable? At some point, if the test is so hard that the average score is 60%, maybe we need to make the test easier (simpler rules) instead of demanding the Refs get better.
I think a majority of Refs fall into this 100 water polo IQ category, they max out at about good 14u girls / high level 12u boys. Anything beyond that is too fast with too much nuance for them to keep up.
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@Rational totally agree that the rules require a higher than average understanding of the game, something that most refs below the college level (and even there too) don’t and quite frankly, cannot grasp.
Back to your hockey example, most hockey refs are younger than the players and also need to be in incredble shape to keep up with the players (hockey refs don’t get to sub 
). I think hockey is difficult to officiate as well but the difference is that the sport demands a ref of high quality. Explaning the calls to the fans, talking with the players, and diffusing situtions instead of escalating them are some of my favorite traits of hockey refs.
I wonder if USA Water Polo has ever held a seat or acted as a consultant to the World Aquatics board? I feel like it might be perfect timing to take a leadership role on the global stage of water polo with LA 2028 coming up.
Are you expecting the part time referees who pick up some games on weekends and evenings to be as professional as NHL referees? Even US referees who have offiiciated at the Olympics and other major tournaments are part-timers who support themselves with day jobs. Per Google, NHL referees make $1500-$3000 per game. I don’t know about other leagues, but CWPA pays $70-90 for varsity games at tournaments; $200 per day for post-season games. If you are comparing to NCAA hockey officials, they make $200-$500/game. If you want a professional referee corps supported by robust training and evaluation, be prepared to pay for it. It would also help if we did not have constant rule changes that require re-learning th e game every 2 years. For those of use who go back to the 2 fouls and switch days with flags, the current game is almost unrecognizable. (But, hey, at least we got rid of the stupid 2 point shot rule!)
How much more would this cost? Like we won’t have Refs making $75k/year where Reffing pays the bills but what if our target was sizeable enough to attract top talent and losing their spot would be enough of a financial hit to be painful - would $50k be enough?
Games are generally played on the weekends and if we expected 25 weekends/year of work from our “Professional Ref Corps”, that’s $2,000/weekend. If an official can work 4 hi-level games a day without drop off that’s $250/game.
In a club setting where all games are tournament style, this could be done, but college and HS where you have a lot of single games it gets a lot harder.
Oh, it’s doable. But if your numbers $250/game; $2000 per weekend is the target, you are triple or quadrupling what is paid now for D1 NCAA officials. And on top of the higher game fees, you’ll need to add costs for the evaluators, for training, etc. None of that is cheap. But it’s what is needed if you want to make them as professional as NCAA hockey referees–about whom I hear all kinds of rants from my UMaine hockey fan friends (Go Black Bears!) just like I do about WP officials. And as you note, costs go up a lot for officials doing single games rather than multi-team tournaments.
Let’s start with some clarity of who is reffing each game. In a tournament setting, it’s out of anyone’s control. But for individual games, the ref needs to be unaffiliated. We’ve all been places and thought to ourselves, didn’t that ref (coach, play, parent) this (team, school, kid)? Publish all referee assignments.
Here they are for CWPA. Don’t know if other leagues do this. Site is open to the public. 2024 Fall Varsity Officiating Assignments - Collegiate Water Polo Association
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