Sport-Specific Contexts
Most people watching a water polo game see the passes, the shots, the saves.
They don’t see what is happening below the surface: the eggbeater kick that keeps every player elevated and mobile, the physical battles happening beneath the waterline between players the referee can’t always see, the constant expenditure of energy just to maintain position against an opponent who is trying to push you off it.
Water polo is two games simultaneously: the visible one above the waterline and the invisible one below it.
Read this passage slowly.
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:9 — NIVLet that sit for a second before you move.
Do not grow weary. The constant treading that water polo requires is the sport’s version of the sustained effort that shows up in every genuinely demanding competitive context: the work that nobody applauds, that produces no immediate visible result, that is simply the condition for being able to do anything else in the game. The player who is not treading effectively is the player who is slowly losing position, losing elevation, losing the ability to participate fully in the play developing above the waterline.
The eggbeater kick is the foundation of everything in water polo. The player who has developed it to the point of automaticity has bought themselves the ability to use their arms and upper body freely for passing, shooting, and defending. The player who is thinking about their kick is a player who is behind on every other decision the game requires.
The invisible work is always the foundation. In water polo it is unusually literal: the visible game rests on what is happening below the surface, and the quality of what happens below the surface is the product of training investment that never produces a highlight. Do that work. Don’t grow weary of it. The harvest is the ability to play the game above the waterline.
The visible game rests on what is happening below the surface. The quality of the invisible work is the product of training that never produces a highlight. Do it anyway.
What is the below-the-surface work in your game that requires the most attention right now? Is it getting the practice time it actually needs?
Specific and practical. The gap between the need and the practice time is the training target.
Don’t grow weary of the invisible work. The harvest is the game above the waterline.
This devotional addresses the unique physical demands of water polo that are invisible to most observers. It will land most specifically for players who experience the eggbeater demands from the inside.