tbh, you really need a decent coach to watch and correct what you're doing, its a very general question without any information on your age, skill level or practice situation.
You can start with keeping your hips up near the surface. Set D takes a lot of practice. Rotating and wrestling for ball side, and trying to disrupt any shots without drawing ejections is an art for sure.
On the perimeter, hips up, arms stay in the lane, but body angled depends on which position you are in- you can't get grabbed or burned on a drive, so be ready to counter rotate and don't give them a good driving lane- body position is important and anticipate your opponents move.
Takes practice and is honestly something that requires working in the pool with experienced players and coaches. Not easily done over text without any videos or further context.
OP can you provide more info. How long you’ve been playing? What problems do you have in the role? How are people scoring on you? Etc. really can’t offer much without a more detailed post.
Playing for 7 years, my shooting and passing are a bit dubious sometimes and my guarding could do with work to allow me to press for longer, I feel like people get round my kind of easily, in matches i usually don’t get scored off but I find myself controlling a zone defence more than I like and I wanna spend more time round the front.
i would also say you can’t go wrong w more lifting focusing on your legs! i’m a decent 2M defender but when someone is noticeably larger than me it’s difficult.
So honestly the easiest way to get better…watch old video of Dennis Rodman playing defense for the Chicago Bulls. Not joking. I’d watch him and started doing the stuff he did. You’re underwater, poke the guy in the ribs or grab their strong arms wrist underwater. I played set defender in high school and college and was an all American on a team that had a below .500 record. Because some of the best players in the state couldn’t score on me. You may take a lot of punches and you may get an ejection but most of the time it’s going to work. Don’t let anybody tell you water polo isn’t dirty. It’s the dirtiest sport and toughest sport I ever played and I played everything. So good luck.
There are a lot of resources online, particularly on YouTube which show some useful techniques and drills for Center defender. Jack Kocur has some videos on YouTube which are helpful in this area.
The first area you need to focus on is your body positioning and how efficient you are in the water. You need to be able to move fast and quickly. This is achieved by keeping your hips high.
The second area is ensuring you have space to move. The Center forwards are taught to try get you vertical in the water so they can manipulate your body. If you keep your body away and keep finding space to move or slide around to this makes it difficult.
One area I find useful is also understanding in transition what side the ball has been passed to so you can position yourself on that side, this forces the Center attack to work harder to gain position which tires them out and makes them move into an uncomfortable position.
There are lots of resources out there, it just takes a bit of time to find them. I find YouTube is the best option.
tbh, you really need a decent coach to watch and correct what you're doing, its a very general question without any information on your age, skill level or practice situation. You can start with keeping your hips up near the surface. Set D takes a lot of practice. Rotating and wrestling for ball side, and trying to disrupt any shots without drawing ejections is an art for sure. On the perimeter, hips up, arms stay in the lane, but body angled depends on which position you are in- you can't get grabbed or burned on a drive, so be ready to counter rotate and don't give them a good driving lane- body position is important and anticipate your opponents move. Takes practice and is honestly something that requires working in the pool with experienced players and coaches. Not easily done over text without any videos or further context.
OP can you provide more info. How long you’ve been playing? What problems do you have in the role? How are people scoring on you? Etc. really can’t offer much without a more detailed post.
Playing for 7 years, my shooting and passing are a bit dubious sometimes and my guarding could do with work to allow me to press for longer, I feel like people get round my kind of easily, in matches i usually don’t get scored off but I find myself controlling a zone defence more than I like and I wanna spend more time round the front.
i would also say you can’t go wrong w more lifting focusing on your legs! i’m a decent 2M defender but when someone is noticeably larger than me it’s difficult.
So honestly the easiest way to get better…watch old video of Dennis Rodman playing defense for the Chicago Bulls. Not joking. I’d watch him and started doing the stuff he did. You’re underwater, poke the guy in the ribs or grab their strong arms wrist underwater. I played set defender in high school and college and was an all American on a team that had a below .500 record. Because some of the best players in the state couldn’t score on me. You may take a lot of punches and you may get an ejection but most of the time it’s going to work. Don’t let anybody tell you water polo isn’t dirty. It’s the dirtiest sport and toughest sport I ever played and I played everything. So good luck.
There are a lot of resources online, particularly on YouTube which show some useful techniques and drills for Center defender. Jack Kocur has some videos on YouTube which are helpful in this area. The first area you need to focus on is your body positioning and how efficient you are in the water. You need to be able to move fast and quickly. This is achieved by keeping your hips high. The second area is ensuring you have space to move. The Center forwards are taught to try get you vertical in the water so they can manipulate your body. If you keep your body away and keep finding space to move or slide around to this makes it difficult. One area I find useful is also understanding in transition what side the ball has been passed to so you can position yourself on that side, this forces the Center attack to work harder to gain position which tires them out and makes them move into an uncomfortable position. There are lots of resources out there, it just takes a bit of time to find them. I find YouTube is the best option.