Water Polo: a Sport Like Any Other

Picture seven players in a pool of water all wearing a special cap with hard ear covers, never being able to touch the bottom of the pool. Sprinting to one end of the pool, treading water in a form called “egg-beater” while tossing the yellow ball around and around. Don’t forget the repeated kicking that creates so much splash your vision becomes clouded while an opponent is climbing on top of you trying to steal the ball, and getting away with it. When a player is ready to shoot, they kick their legs as if they are jumping up onto an imaginary step and hold the ball up high above the water. Under pressure, the clock is ticking and they either need to pass the ball or shoot. No one is open so they push off of their defender, pull up above the water with the ball in their hand. They look at the goalie, and fake that they are going to throw the ball with a few quick flicks of their wrists and their poker faces on, finally, they extend their arm back like a boomerang, within a blink of an eye, they hurl the ball with all their force and THUD! That’s the sound of the ball hitting the back of the goal at approximately fifty miles per hour.
Football, Basketball, and Baseball are the most popular sports in America. Water polo is a combination of swimming, basketball, and football; but played in water, yet water polo is not among the most respected. In fact, people forget about it all together. Land sports are considered the toughest and most physically demanding sports, but why not water polo? Water polo is just as grueling and aggressive maybe even more, so why is it the most underrated sport? It has all of the added elements in most popular land sports, with an x factor because you also have to be able to keep yourself afloat all while navigating yourself and the ball through the water.Anyone who thinks this is inferior to land sports is clearly fooling themselves.
From afar, the players seem to drift effortlessly through the water, and this could be why people