The three water polo body positions every player needs — and the one mistake that undoes all of them
Developing proper water polo body position is the prerequisite for every successful pass, catch, and shot in the pool. It’s the key for quick movement and sudden changes of direction. It’s the key component of perimeter offense and defense. This article explores the three key positions, what they are, how to teach them, and drills to reinforce them.
Key Takeaways: Water Polo Body Position
Most passing and shooting problems aren’t about arm strength. They come from players squaring up in the 3-9 position, which makes them fall backward on every catch. Good water polo body position starts with three positions:
- The 10-4: A split leg stance (lead leg at 10 o’clock, back leg at 4 for right-handers) that opens the hips and gives players a stable base. Lefties use the 2-8.
- The Tripod: The 10-4 plus a sculling arm, upper body high out of the water. Your stable platform for catching, passing, and shooting.
- The Side Spider: Hips up with one hip dropped, so players can see the pool and move, flip, or elevate into a Tripod in an instant. Home base for perimeter offense and defense.
What Goes Wrong
When young athletes struggle with accuracy or distance, the problem is almost never arm strength — it’s poor hip elevation and failing to square up to their target before releasing the ball. The wrong body position versus a correct one means your opponents will always beat you to the punch.
Watch your novice team warm up and pass. I’ll bet they get a partner, go about eight feet apart, and start throwing. Some chowderheads will get thirty feet apart and start launching bombs — but let’s ignore those kids for a moment. Don’t ignore them in practice, though. It can be dangerous.
Now look at their body positions.
I’ll bet ninety percent of your players are squared up. Facing their partner directly. Legs in the 3 and 9 o’clock position. They might have an arm raised for a target. They might call for the ball. Both good habits at every level.
But when the ball arrives they can’t catch it cleanly. It hits their arm and their body falls backward. Or — and I know you’ve seen this — the ball pops up and they juggle it a few times with a big smile on their face like they’ve accomplished something.
This continues for a couple of years until they finally develop enough strength and hand-eye coordination to compensate. But they’re still making the same fundamental error. And by then it’s locked in.
The Number One Water Polo Body Position Error
The problem is the three-nine position. When players square up to their partner they are vertical in the water with legs directly beneath them. Even if the ball hits their hand perfectly, they fall backward and lose balance. The ball drops or gets juggled.
I worked with a U14 coach whose entire team passed this way. The root cause wasn’t their hands or their strength. It was their water polo body position.
Because they practiced in the three-nine position for warm-ups, shooting drills, and most of their practice time, it became completely ingrained. Fixing it required going back to basics and staying there.
The 10-4 Leg Position
The three positions are 10-4, Tripod, and Side Spider. 10-4 is the position of the legs, and both Tripod and Side Spider depend on it. So we’ll cover it first.
Some coaches call this a “split stance,” and that’s very appropriate. I prefer 10-4 because it gives kids a better reference for where to put their legs. To get a reference point, imagine a clock around a player facing north. Head and chest face north. For a right-handed player, the left leg will be at about 10 o’clock. The right leg will be at about 4 o’clock. These positions aren’t stagnant — players will constantly be adjusting their leg and foot positions depending on the circumstances. Yet they’re very good descriptions for entry level players to understand and master.
I prefer 10 o’clock for the lead leg because it opens up the hips more. I found that if I taught 11 or 12 o’clock, players tended to turn sideways — their left shoulder would turn toward the target. The 10 o’clock position opens up the hips and allows them to square up and face their target.
The lead leg is the propeller of a helicopter. It kicks down and provides much of the thrust to keep the body elevated in the water. It also helps aim and target where the ball will go.
The back leg is at about 4 o’clock. It’s the power leg. It provides some support for staying elevated but does most of the work driving the hips forward.
When learning the 10-4, have the players be vertical. I let them use a ball for support so they can concentrate on where their legs are and on doing eggbeater correctly.
The 2-8
The reverse of the 10-4, this is the position lefties will use. I think all players should become familiar with both positions, though. The best players can catch and throw with either hand, and they need to be comfortable with either leg forward. The perimeter positions also require them to adjust frequently.
The Arms and Hands
When learning and practicing these positions, the arms and hands should be sculling. They’ll be at about a 3-9 position, though again it depends on the circumstances. Sculling is good practice for learning to feel and control the water. It’s also good for improving swimming skills.
Since players have to catch, throw, and block passes with one hand, have them practice with alternating arms up in the air.
Moving in the 10-4
There are seven directions players can move: forward, backward, left, right, clockwise, counterclockwise, and vertical (getting out of the water). Entry level players need to practice moving in all directions. Typically they only have to go a few yards, but water polo is a game of sudden movement and changes of direction.
Besides the body moving, players need to be able to rotate their upper body and head around while keeping their legs in one spot. The 10-4 provides a very stable base. If they turn to look behind them for a pass and lose that base, they won’t be able to recover and catch the ball.
Players should start moving in all seven directions using their hands for sculling and directional support. As they get better, they should learn to move just by using their legs and feet. To do this well takes a great eggbeater kick and isn’t learned overnight. It can take a few years to master.
At this point, give them a ball and have them practice moving while holding it out of the water. They can put the ball up, in front, behind, or even to the side. They can toss it to themselves and learn to use either hand to catch and toss.
Transitioning to the 10-4
Once players understand and perform the 10-4, they need to be able to transition to and from it. Whenever a player is going to start swimming, have them perform a breaststroke or sidestroke kick as their initial kick. This gives them a powerful thrust to get moving.
Have them do drills where they go from a 10-4 to three or four strokes of heads-up free or backstroke and then recover back into the 10-4.
I think the ability to get back into a 10-4 quickly is a key skill to develop. It takes coordination, balance, and strength. The key is to drive the lead knee high and forward to get it into position. Bringing the knee forward slowly won’t work. This is a neurological skill. Practice it deliberately and focus on getting into the position quickly. Whenever you’re developing neurological or coordination skills, don’t make the mistake of turning it into an endurance skill. Provide rest and recovery and space the repetitions out.
How I Teach the 10-4 Position
When I coach a novice team, I honestly don’t care if they catch the ball cleanly or how accurate their throws are in the first few weeks. I care about their body position. Every throw from the 10-4. Every catch from the 10-4. Every drill, every time.
As a PE teacher for twenty years, I watched kids learn to throw with their opposing leg forward on land. It has to be taught explicitly, and even then many kids never fully get it. If kids struggle with this on land, imagine how hard it is in the water with an eggbeater kick going at the same time. You have to insist on it, and you have to insist on it constantly.
First, start on dryland. For throwing, passing, and catching, the weak leg will be forward in the 10 o’clock position. The strong leg will be back, in the 4 o’clock position. Obviously, lefties will be reversed.
If you’re coaching younger kids, they’ll tend to stand in some crazy positions. You’ll see them turned fully sideways (12-6) and even with the strong leg forward. You’ll see them frequently square up (3-9), especially if they’re catching and throwing.
Always reinforce the 10-4 position. Besides throwing and catching a ball, there are other movements they can do that improve their polo skills and make them more athletic.
Dryland Drills for the 10-4
Starts and stops. Run a few steps and stop. When you stop, always stop at 10-4.
Split jumps. 10-4, jump into a 2-8. Repeat.
Kneeling position. Left leg forward, right knee on the ground, with the right leg rotated so the ankle bone touches the ground. This reinforces good eggbeater kicking. This is a great position to practice throwing with one arm.
Forwards and backs. From either a standing or kneeling position, kids reach forward, bending at the hips, then extend their backs and come up. Besides helping with lower back strength, this teaches them to use the back when coming up for a shot. This drill can be done with a flat back or with a slight twist — the twist puts them into a Side Spider, which we’ll cover next.
Beginning Water Drills for the 10-4
In the water, I start them off holding on to a ball. (I know, sacrilege, right?) The flotation support lets them focus on the skill of the eggbeater and the position of the legs. Have them hold the ball with one arm and scull with the other.
Be sure to switch the ball between left and right arms, since there are benefits to doing it both ways. With the ball in the right arm, the left arm sculls and works on balance. With the ball in the left arm, the right arm can come up and get into a good throwing or catching position.
Next, have them do the 10-4 facing in various directions. They should practice turning clockwise and counterclockwise, and moving forward, back, and laterally with both the 10-4 and the 2-8. Try switching back and forth between the two, and come up with as many combinations as you can.
The Tripod and Side Spider
From the 10-4 there are two basic body positions: the Tripod and the Side Spider. Tripod is the stable platform you use for catching, passing, and shooting. Side Spider is your movement position — it allows you to move quickly forward and back, and it’s the basic position for offensive and defensive perimeter players.
Let’s look at the Tripod first.
The Tripod Position
Once they are familiar with the 10-4 position we teach the Tripod. The Tripod is a vertical position, upper body out of the water. This is the fundamental position for learning how to catch, throw, and shoot the ball.
While the ball can be thrown or caught in just about any position, I believe that the Tripod is the best position for consistent success. It forms a very stable position and allows you to shoot or pass the ball with the correct body mechanics, resulting in a more accurate throw.
What Does the Tripod Look Like
In the 10-4 leg position, the body is vertical, with shoulders, chest, and head facing forward. The athletes should be working to be elevated with good posture. We don’t want slumped shoulders.
The left hand is out to the side at between 9 and 10 o’clock, performing a scull. The leg position plus the sculling arm creates three points of stability — a tripod. It’s a stable platform for throwing, catching, and shooting, and allows players to move forward, laterally, and even backward without losing balance.
Players will want to work on elevating and getting higher in the Tripod. This is the key for a powerful shot. If you can’t elevate and get high in the water, you’ll never have a powerful shot.
Upper Body, Throwing Arm, and Catching Arm
When entry level players are first learning, using support is entirely appropriate. Holding on to a ball or even a pool noodle lets them concentrate on body and leg positions. As they improve, they’ll need to work on conditioning to elevate on their own. This is the same as when they were learning the 10-4.
Upper Body
The upper body (waist to shoulders) faces straight ahead. This isn’t natural for a lot of kids. They want to turn sideways as if they were on land and were going to rotate their shoulders to throw. This is not what we want. The chest and shoulders are square to where they want the ball to go if they were going to shoot.
Frequently, a player will want to pass to the right. For instance, they are in the 2 position and want to pass to the 4. They do not adjust their leg position, only turn their shoulders and chest to the receiver. This is one big advantage of the Tripod: you are always in a threat position to shoot.
Throwing Arm
The shooting arm is held up high, almost straight. For throwing, have them hold the elbow above the ear and behind the shoulder. They should feel a stretch in the pectoralis muscle. This stretch acts as a rubber band and helps propel a ball to over 40 mph.
The hand of the throwing arm is bent back, as if they are holding a pizza pie, and the wrist faces the target. This should be practiced first without a ball and then with a ball. The positions of the hand and wrist are fine points, but they have a huge impact on accuracy.
Catching Arm
To catch a ball in the Tripod, the arm extends out toward the ball. As the ball comes into the hand, the arm gives and goes back to the throwing position.
Here are two very important points about this.
We typically have players face each other to learn how to catch and throw. But when in a game do they ever face each other? Usually, the passes are lateral, from side to side. A more accurate game passing drill is to have them face in opposite directions and throw side to side.
If a right-handed player is receiving the ball from her left, she does not want to change her 10-4 leg position or lose the Tripod. What she does is lean forward at the waist and reach her right arm across her face toward the passer. The hand is the target.
When the ball comes into her hand, she rotates her shoulders back into the Tripod and is ready to shoot. This requires accurate passing as well as catching skill.
Conditioning Drills for the Tripod
I like two drills to work on leg strength and elevation in the Tripod. Both can be done with both hands sculling, one hand sculling, or — for high-level players — no hands at all.
Drill #1: Low, Medium, and High. Players start in the low position and switch every five seconds on the whistle. Low position: easy kicking and easy sculling, shoulders at water surface level. On the whistle, they elevate into the medium position — armpits or chest out of the water. Finally, on the whistle, they get up as high as they can and hold it until the final whistle, where they get to relax and float. In the high position, they’re trying to get their belly buttons out of the water.
Drill #2: Horizontal to Vertical. Players start in the 10-4 with their backs horizontal in the water. On the whistle they explode up and get as vertical and as high as they can, hold it for five seconds, then come back down. There are many variations — switching leg positions while vertical, or when coming back down.
These drills are demanding and challenging. Coaches often think “if a little is good, a lot more is better.” My philosophy is that most of this learning is neurological, and players do best with adequate rest. Repeating these drills twenty times in a row doesn’t mimic game situations — it just results in fatigue, injury, and boredom. You’re better off doing a few of them, spaced at random times during practice. And never use them as punishment.
The Side Spider Position
The last position is the Side Spider. This comes from the spider position, which is hips up high in the water and back flat and horizontal to the surface of the water. This is a good position, but it’s difficult to maintain, to see the pool from, and to move out of in different directions.
The Side Spider allows players to see the pool, move quickly in many directions, and transition to a Tripod quickly. And while it’s not the most physically demanding position, it’s fairly easy to maintain.
Teaching the Side Spider
First, I start off teaching the spider with the players holding on to the wall doing eggbeater. Then, they drop one hip, usually the left one. This puts the left leg into the 10 o’clock and the right leg into the 4 o’clock position.
Then, of course, we switch hips and legs so they learn to do it on either side.
The next step is to do it with only one hand holding on to the wall. Typically, this is the left arm with the left leg in front. The right arm can be raised as if they are going to block a shot.
This is the position you want your perimeter offensive and defensive players in. They should learn the Side Spider with the left leg forward and the right leg back. From the Side Spider, they have several options:
They can swim forward.
They can switch from left side to right side.
They can elevate and go into a Tripod.
They can perform a 180-degree turn over their legs and sprint in the opposite direction.
Besides speed in movement and change of direction, the Side Spider lets players see most of the pool. And while it’s not as easy on the body as vertically treading water, it’s a fairly relaxing position — certainly easier on the neck than a straight spider position, which is very taxing.
Players should learn how to move and transition through all these possibilities. For most movements and changes of direction, they’ll perform a breaststroke kick or sidestroke kick to get started. The sidestroke kick is more advanced — it might be more powerful and efficient, I don’t know for certain, but feel free to experiment. And if you find out, be sure to let me know.
Drills for the Side Spider
Drill #1: Whistle Reactions. Spread the players out, all in the Side Spider with the left leg forward and facing the same direction. On each whistle, call out a movement. “Go” means three or four strokes of heads-up free, then recover back into the Side Spider. “Flip” means switch from the left side to the right side. “Up” means elevate into a Tripod and hold it for a two count. “Turn” means a 180-degree turn over the legs and three or four strokes in the opposite direction. Once they know the commands, stop talking and use hand signals instead. Now they have to keep their heads up and watch you, which is exactly what the Side Spider is supposed to let them do in a game. Keep the sets short and give them rest between rounds. This is a reaction skill, not a conditioning drill.
Drill #2: Spider to Tripod Catch. Put players in pairs, about six to eight feet apart. The receiver starts in the Side Spider. When the passer raises the ball, the receiver elevates into a Tripod, gets a hand up as a target, catches, passes back, and drops back into the Side Spider. Once they have that down, move the passer off to the side so the receiver has to catch from the left or right without changing leg position. That’s the same lateral pass they’ll see in a game. For more advanced players, put the passer slightly behind them so they have to check over their shoulder before they elevate. Switch sides every few reps so they get comfortable with either leg forward.
The Side Spider is a natural extension of the 10-4, and it’s very similar to the Forwards and Backs dryland drill with the twist that we covered earlier.
Last Five Seconds
Three things before the whistle.
First — insist on the 10-4 position for every passing and shooting drill from day one. Not sometimes. Every time. It takes months to become automatic, and it only becomes automatic if you demand it consistently.
Second — don’t accept the six-nine position as a warm-up habit. Warm-up is where bad habits get reinforced. If they warm up wrong, they’ll play wrong.
Third — the U14 team I worked with got significantly better in just a few days. Passes became accurate. Shots stopped sailing over the cage. Then the coach came back and stopped insisting on the position. The kids got lazy, reverted to the six-nine, and the improvement disappeared within a week.
Not all stories end happily. But yours doesn’t have to end that way. Insist on the position. Every drill. Every time.
P.S. Take another look at the AI image. Not the two kids catching the ball, the ones in the background. Every one of them is in the 3-9 with their hips down, just hanging there watching the play like they’re waiting for a bus.
If that ball comes their way, they won’t be able to catch it or even move to it. If the shot is blocked, they won’t able to turn and counter.
Where should they be? Side Spider. Hips up, lead leg forward, eyes on the action, ready to swim, flip, or elevate into a Tripod the moment something happens. Even players who aren’t in the play need to be ready for it. Next time you’re on deck, look past the ball and check what everyone else is doing. 90% of team play is without the ball. Teach them to always be ready.
Ready to master the rest of the game? Head back to the main Water Polo Skills and Drills guide to explore positions, shooting, and team tactics.