Feature Team of the Week: Waterpolo

Team Hallam Strength and Conditioning

Feature Team of the Week

Waterpolo

S&C Coach: Nick Daly

Water polo has hit the ground running this season, with big numbers in the gym and even bigger numbers in the pool. Both teams set the competitive season off to a flying start: the women’s team beat top dogs Durham, and the men showed they have something to prove, beating Liverpool.

The team have two strength and conditioning sessions a week, one of which provides the additional challenge of getting out of bed early on a Monday morning. Nevertheless, players have shown great commitment and dedication to the S&C programme and don’t look like they’re slowing down any time soon.

The main training challenge is the varied ability of players, so the first 4 week training block is focusing on building an athletic base to accommodate experienced and inexperienced players in the gym. The aim over the next 2 months is to continue to build an athletic base and develop everyone’s movement competencies while still providing a stimulus and motivation for the experienced players among the teams by increasing the training volume and incorporating more complex movement patterns.

This year we welcomed a large cohort of GB athletes, who are showing great promise for the future of the club’s success and progress in the coming years. Two years ago ex Hallam stars Brooke Tafazolli, Tom Grieve, Elliot Kelly and GB goalkeeper Peter Pickford who is still with us played in the world student games in Taipei. This season we aim to send a similar number of our young hopefuls to the next set of games in Napoli in summer 2019.