Drill with Intention (+10 Essential Water Polo Drills)

How to get better, way faster.

There are no two ways about it. Being a coach in any sport involves repeating yourself.

A LOT.

Much of coaching comes down to enforcing standards, which could be a whole book in it of itself.

I must admit, writing this missive has me anxious, because it is hard to refrain from using common tropes that coaches repeat ad nauseum to their players.

“Pay attention to the details.”

“Don’t waste your or your teammates time at practice.”

“Hustle!”

“Focus!”

The reality of the situation, however, is pretty obvious when you think about it clear eyed.

If I asked you to stand up from your computer or set down your phone and do a burpee right now, how would you execute it? Would you execute it at maximum intensity and perfect technique? For the vast majority of the population, the answer is no way.

Most people will choose to just get through the exercise as painlessly as possible. They’d flop through it.

The difference between most of the population and elite athletes can be found in the difference between how a simple exercise like a burpee is executed. The best athletes in sport are a combination of God given talent and extreme attention to detail. They know inherently that they are building athleticism, new neural pathways, and more efficient ways to move if they exercise correctly.

“Compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe.” -Attributed to Albert Einstein

While there is plenty of doubt surrounding one of history’s greatest minds ever actually said that, the lesson is profound for the age group athlete hoping to make the jump to collegiate water polo, or the collegiate player looking to go pro or make a national team selection.

Consistency and intensity of focus must be their centerpieces when it comes to their preparation. Using our burpee example. If an athlete says they want to play at the next level, but every rep they take in practice is as serious as a clown in a circus, they are not training to play at the next level. They are training to be a clown at a circus.

But if a player does every rep like it’s the last rep they will ever do, day after day, year after year, you’re going to have a real badass on your hands. Sometimes in much shorter timelines than you could even expect.

The effort and intensity compounds, and its not by addition, its by square roots.

Coaching becomes valuable since every human has unique movement patterns that they have developed over time that become second nature. Sometimes as an athlete, you don’t even know you are moving in a way that is not accretive to your success in the sport. Inefficient movement patterns must be addressed, until new habits of movement take the place of the less beneficial movements.

We’re all human, we’re all imperfect, and we all have momentary lapse of judgement and focus. We’re surrounded with the constant distraction of technology and other things to be spending our time on.

Though I harp constantly at focusing on the task at hand, I remember back to a time when focus was not a strong suit. It came with maturity.

We blame focus issues on social media, though I attribute some of the ADHD and “tik-tok brain” we observe in children today to just being kids still in search for a mission.

Once your goals become crystal clear, your actions that align with those goals tend to follow suit.

My favorite quote, by Ralph Waldo Emerson is:

“Your actions speak so loudly I can’t hear what you say.”

Make sure your actions are telling the people around you who you want to be. Remember, most communication is non-verbal.

Go be great.

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