Water Polo Offensive Strategy

When the offense takes possession of the ball, the strategy is to advance the ball down the field of play and to score a goal. The key to the offence is to accurately pass the ball into the “Hole Set.” The Hole Set (better known as \'Center Forward\') is the position that sets up directly in front of the goal.

The offense can attempt to pass the ball into the Hole Set, which is called \"setting\" the ball. The offensive players can not legally use their arms to push away a defending player. If an offensive player pushes a defender away with an arm, the offensive player will commit a turnover and the defense will take possession of the ball.

The Hole Set attempts to take possession of the ball, to shoot at the goal, or to draw a foul from the defensive player. A foul is called if the defensive player attempts to knock the ball away from the Hole Set once the offensive player has taken possession of the ball.

A foul is indicated by one short whistle blow by the referee at which point the referee also indicates that the offensive team keeps possession of the ball, by pointing one hand to the spot of the foul, and the other hand in the direction of the attack. At that time, the hole man is given three seconds to make a free pass to one of the other players. The defensive team cannot pressure the hole man directly after the foul and the offensive player cannot shoot a goal once the foul has been awarded. However, if the offensive player has \'advantage\', the play will continue until the defensive player illegally takes away that advantage.

If the Hole Set attempts a goal after the foul has been committed, the goal is not counted and the defense takes possession of the ball.

If the defense player pressures the Hole Set after the foul has been committed, the defensive player is kicked out of the game for twenty seconds. If the offense scores in less than twenty seconds, the defensive player is allowed to return to play before the twenty second have expired. If the defense recovers the ball off a turnover before the twenty seconds transpires, the defensive player can return to the field of play.

When the Hole Set has a free pass, the other players on the field of play will attempt to drive away from the defense. Typically, the driver positions will swim or drive towards the hole man to get away from the defense. The players at the flat position will attempt to set a screen for the driver. When the driver is free from the defense, the player will call for the ball and attempt a shot at the goal.

The Hole Set will attempt to pass the ball to the driving player. If the shot is successful, the offense will score a goal. If the shot is not successful, the offense and defense players will attempt to rebound the ball to take possession. The shot clock is reset after a shot is taken at the goal.

A shot is successful if the ball passes the vertical plane defined by the goal posts in its entirety.

If a shot bounces off a goal post back into the field of play, then the shot is unsuccessful and the ball is rebounded by the players and the shot clock is reset.

If the shot goes outside the goal and on to the deck (outside the field of play) then the ball is automatically recovered by the defense.

If the ball, however, has been last touched by a defender before landing on the deck, it is recovered by the offending team at the corner and the shot clock is reset, like a corner kick in Soccer.
An offender is ruled off-side if the player has advanced inside the 2-meter line without ball possession or the ball already inside the 2-meter area. This is often overlooked if the offender is well to the side of the pool.

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