Strategical Thoughts:

A water polo goalkeeper cannot touch the bottom of the pool. Unlike a soccer goalie who can rely on the ground to push off, a WP goalie must rely entirely on their legs to provide vertical support and explosive motion in any direction. This makes leg positioning and leg movement essential—not just for staying afloat, but for readiness, reaction, and recovery.

The leg motion serves as the foundation for explosive lunges, quick adjustments, and balanced body control. That means two critical things are always mandatory:
- The knees remain slightly wider than shoulder width
- The feet stay always outside of the knees

Preparation:

To start the water-treading motion pull up both knees (slightly wider spread than shoulder width) as high as you can and keep your feet slightly outside of your knees with toes pointing outwards.

Execution:

From that high knee position start pushing down with one knee and finish the leg extension with a powerful whipping or scooping motion with the inside of your foot diagonal outward until the full leg including the foot are fully extended. Now execute that exact motion with knee and foot of the other side and bring the first foot and knee back into the original position. Keep on repeating that motion in a constant rhythm.

The resulting-motion is an alternating breast-kick where you can increase the power of the motion by lifting up the knees higher to increase the range of motion, pushing the legs more powerful downwards to maximize the force, or simply speeding up the motion (time per kick).

Practice Clips:

Eggbeater against the wall *

Eggbeater with changing intensity *

* the description of those clips uses the term eggbeater because of its widespread usage in english speaking countries

Strategical Thoughts: A goalie has multiple motion tasks that need to be executed in defensive situations and can’t be securely predicted when they have to be executed, for example quick lateral movements to adjust the goal-position, explosive lunges for shots, or explosive jumps out of the goal for steals. Therefore, the goalkeeper needs to be aware of three focus points: 1. The eyes have to focus on the ball at all times. 2. The legs have to be in a position that guarantees perfect balance, stability, as well as to work in an intensity that provides maximum explosiveness without tiring them out too much. 3. The hands have to be available and flexible to react at any given time to any given position where the ball needs to get blocked or taken (steal).

Preparation: The legs have to tread water with the knees constantly spread slightly wider than shoulder width apart and in their upper position higher at least on hip level. For a perfect balance and effective support of the legs the upper body is slightly leaned forward so that the shoulders cover half of the thighs (when looking downwards the goalie should be able see the full triangle of the thighs). The elbows are spread diagonal outwards and slightly ahead of the shoulder-line with forearms and hands pointing forward and slightly under the surface (not more than a thumb length).

Execution:The ready-position is a combination of a fast and steady water-treading with the legs so that the elevation of the shoulders is with arm pits touching the surface, and a mirrored arm-support motion with the hands without creating strong waves or even white water. Important for the water-treading is, that the thighs start each kick with the knee kicking downwards from the highest point and the feet always pointing outwards with the inside of the foot creating a powerful push diagonal outside and downwards. The hand motion should be independent from the leg rhythm and a short mirrored inwards and outwards motion with angling the hand slightly upwards in the direction of the motion (like spreading butter on bread).

Practice Clips:

Ready-Position with eyes following the ball

Eggbeater against the wall

Walking the goalie arch

* the description of those clips uses the term eggbeater because of its widespread usage in english speaking countries

Strategical Thoughts:

In contrast to breaststroke swimming, where a streamlined horizontal position of the extended legs is important to minimize water resistance, this is not the case with the vertical Water Polo breastkick. Here, a powerful push-off is required to lift the upper body—and thus the hands—out of the water. After that, however, stability, balance, lateral flexion of the upper body, and either a quick resumption of water treading or an additional short breastkick are essential.

Preparation:

To start the Water Polo breastkick motion pull up both knees (slightly wider spread than shoulder width) as high as you can and keep your feet slightly outside of your knees with toes pointing outwards.

Execution:

From that high knee position start pushing down with both knees and finish the leg extension with a powerful whipping or scooping motion with the inside of your feet diagonal outward until the full leg including the foot are fully extended but still spread diagonally outwards (like a V). Once you reached the highest elevation and the body is sinking back downwards, bring feet and knees back into the original position to be quickly ready for the next leg motion.

Practice Clips:

Vertical Breastkicks

Strategical Thoughts:

A goalie must always react to the shooter’s decision. The exact direction of the ball remains unknown until it leaves the shooter’s hand, but the intention of the shot can be anticipated by closely tracking the ball and with this arm motion and body language of the attacker.

A successful block is not just about reacting fast—it’s about being in the right position, at the right height, with the right energy. And at the foundation of all this is a quick and powerful breastkick.

The breastkick is the starting point of nearly every explosive goalie movement. It doesn’t compromise hand flexibility or visual processing—in fact, it enhances both by lifting the body and the hands out of the water at the precise moment a block is needed. This elevation allows the body to bend and shift toward the shot direction, giving the goalie’s hands a reaction without water resistance, greater reach, and a stronger blocking presence.

Additionally, the breastkick creates a delay window: it gives the hands time to wait for visual confirmation before reacting. And when the eyes send the signal, the hands—if trusted—will always beat the ball to the spot, even from close range.

Preparation:

The goalie begins from a strong ready-position with high knees, feet outside the knees, and toes angled out. As the shot builds, the goalie executes a powerful breastkick:
- The legs push outward and downward from the high position
- The body rises vertically while maintaining balance
- The arms stay neutral and reactive—ready to follow the eyes

Unlike a swimmer’s breaststroke, the water polo breastkick does not finish in a streamlined position. Instead, it ends with the legs fully extended, knees still wider than shoulders, and feet outside the knees. This maintains balance, prevents legs and hip slipping away, and allows immediate follow-up with:
- Another breastkick (if needed to support or extend the block)
- A quick recovery with ready-position for the next action
- Sustained elevation with immediate water-treading in case of an off-speed or deflected shot

This structure contradicts the idea that a breastkick limits follow-up movement. In reality, it provides the exact platform needed for continuous goalie performance.

Execution:

As the shooter commits, the goalie uses the explosive push of the breastkick to lift the body into the blocking position. The torso slightly bends toward the shot, and the hands extend only once the ball’s direction is visually confirmed. The hands lead the block, but it’s the breastkick that makes the reach and timing possible.

A correct breastkick ensures that:
- The body is lifted and balanced
- The goalie can block in any direction
- The hands remain reactive, not pre-committed
- Additional leg motion is possible immediately after the kick

Every block starts with the legs. And the breastkick—done right—is the key to controlled, explosive, and confident shot-stopping.

Practice Clips:

Headkicking to goalie caps

Head-kicking goalie caps 2

Touch the cross bar

Strategical Thoughts: The challenge of a lob shot is, that it needs a completely different way to block the ball compared to a hard shot, and the shot itself is often very difficult to anticipate for a goalkeeper. The ball turns out to come in an high trajectory out of reach for the goalie and drops down diagonal or straight behind into the goal. Therefore, the spot to block the ball must be close to the goal - slightly ahead or even on the goal-line.

Preparation: Since players usually try to hide their intention of shooting a lob with extreme fakes or a powerful elevation, the goalie should start in a regular ready-position (see above) as if expecting a hard shot. Additional to that the mental awareness of the actual goal-position and the likelihood of a lob shot option is important.

Execution: “JUMP - TURN - KICK (- KICK - KICK)” - Although the blocking motion for a lob block eventually needs to be diagonal or straight backwards in direction where the ball drops down, reality in games proves that it is difficult to identify the lob in the moment of the shot. Therefore, a leg reaction to shoot the body out (JUMP) allows the goalie either to block a hard shot or to get into the specific lob motion (TURN). This TURN happens in the moment when the goalie realizes that the ball is coming in an arch, and gets started by swinging the ball sided hand as far backwards as possible in direction of the block spot, and at the same time reaching over with the opposite hand in the same direction to block the dropping ball. To make more distance backwards if the lob is longer then the goalie can reach, quick breast-kicks need to get added (KICK) in direction to the blocking spot.

Practice Clips:

Quick Lob Jumps

Lob Blocking

Lob Breastkicks Siedwards