Water Polo & Swimming: Sharing More Than Just Pool Space

For years, swimming and water polo have been two sports that shared a pool but little else. Yet for a growing number of athletes, the lines between these disciplines are beginning to blur.

Historically, Duke Kahanamoku, Johnny Weissmuller, and Brad Schumacher were perhaps the most prominent US Olympians who both swam and played water polo at the highest levels. Matt Biondi was another example. After competing in both swimming and water polo in his youth, Biondi accepted a scholarship at the University of California, Berkeley, to swim under head coach Nort Thornton and play water polo for legendary head coach Pete Cutino. As a swimmer, Biondi earned 11 Olympic medals and set world records in five events. As a water polo player, Biondi helped Berkeley win three NCAA Championships, was named All-America four times, and voted the team’s Most Valuable Player in 1985.

Even so, for a long time, it was often believed that participation in one sport might negatively impact the other.

“There’s an antiquated notion that water polo takes away from swimming…but being open to trying and showing the benefits of doing something different as a means of improving your primary thing has been huge for us,” said Michael Koziol, the head coach of water polo at Germantown Academy in Pennsylvania.

In Texas, Pennsylvania, and beyond, a new generation is embracing the synergy between swimming and water polo and finding ways for the two sports to build upon one another to create more complete athletes and stronger teams. As a result, dual-sport athletes like Biondi are becoming less of an exception.

“I think [swimming and water polo] really do go hand in hand,” said Brandon Dion, the head coach of both swimming and water polo at Marcus High School in Flower Mound, Texas. “Whether you’re using swim season as your conditioning to make you a better water polo player or you’re using water polo as a break from staring at the black line year round, there is definitely room for both,” he said.

Dion grew up swimming in Texas because the state did not yet offer high school water polo. At Fullerton College in California, however, he competed in freestyle sprints, breaststroke, and water polo.

Another Texan, Scott Slay, participated in both sports growing up but admits the swim season was much longer since water polo was not officially sanctioned. As the Texas High School Coaches Association 2024-25 Girls Water Polo Coach of the Year, the Boerne Champion coach now insists that his water polo players swim in the offseason because it improves their conditioning.

“We are doing a lot of sprint training in swimming practice,” Slay said, “but water polo [also] helps build endurance as well as the quick-twitch muscle fibers you need for sprint swimming.”

Koziol, at Germantown Academy, emphasizes that a team-sport mindset can also reinvigorate even the most dedicated swimmers.

One of the biggest advantages is the carryover of camaraderie. Athletes tend to build trust and chemistry in the high-octane world of water polo and bring that energy into the more individual setting of swimming.

Dion said that water polo establishes “the feeling of team and family…so when we roll into swim season, it makes it a little easier to focus on the group as a whole. With the relays, [athletes] know they are [performing] for somebody else – just like they do in water polo – as opposed to just them versus the clock.”

Koziol, in Pennsylvania, sees a similar crossover. “The inherent teamwork in water polo makes it more attractive to kids who are more collaborative,” he said, and when they shift to swimming, the “swimmers then take lessons learned in water polo and focus more on relay[s] or on finding time [to] connect with their teammates between swim sets.”

Slay agreed. “Kids are very close after water polo heading into swimming,” he said. “We’re more like a family than just a team.”

“Water polo is in the fall and swimming is in the winter, so it’s a nice lead-in,” Koziol said.  “Some coaches look at [water polo] as an extended pre-season for swimming, [but] being more of a water polo guy, I view it as two sides of [the same] coin.”

To train athletes effectively in both sports, sprint sets are essential. Dion emphasizes Ultra-Short Race-Pace Training (USRPT), a method of swim training focused on short intervals at race pace or faster. This helps both sports because athletes often sprint between two-meter lines in water polo, and high school swimming primarily focuses on short distances.

Koziol, meanwhile, tends to blend traditional and modern training methods. For example, he will have his water polo players swim with goggles several times a week for conditioning.

All three coaches agree that blending swimming and water polo not only makes athletes faster and fitter – it also keeps them more motivated.

“It’s really hard to do something uninterrupted for eleven-and-a-half months of the year,” Koziol said. “It’s great to break things up so swimmers get their mind off the black line for a few months while increasing their aerobic capacity.”

Dion has also seen his swimmers thrive by adding water polo.

“Maybe they weren’t successful in other team sports,” Dion said, “but they always wanted to be part of a team. It’s an easy transition because they crave that camaraderie. We’ve had success with kids who crave that switch.”

Ultimately, the goal is to showcase the benefits of both sports and “showing them they can be successful in both,” Dion said. “You can apply your swim background to a team sport with a water polo ball, and you can take all this sprint work you’ve done in water polo, put it on a block, and be successful there too.”

Combining swimming and water polo offers more than just a two-season routine; it offers a complete athletic experience.

As Slay put it, “[I think] they do well for each other.”

Even if “water polo players who swim kinda grin and bear it,” Koziol surmised, “[when it’s] time to get the ball back in their hands, they realize the payoff.”

In the pool, as in life, sometimes the best way forward is to look at things from both sides.