Coach Huelsman on Water Polo's Quiet Turning Points
A water polo match rarely changes only when someone scores. Sometimes the important moment is a missed pass that forces a defender to rotate. Sometimes it is a player who comes across open water half a second before anyone else. Conversely, a team gives up possession but immediately makes the right defensive adjustment. Those moments do not appear in a box score. Yet they can decide the direction of a match. For Coach Huelsman, this is one of the most interesting parts of coaching water polo: learning to gauge what happens before the obvious result. The Moment Before the Mistake A turnover is easy to identify. The decision that caused it is harder. A player may force a pass because the team has become impatient. A driver may enter too early and close the space for a teammate. A defender may react to the ball while missing movement happening behind them. Good coaching means going back one step. David Huelsman has built much of his coaching career around developing athletes who can acce...
