Water Polo Life in New Zealand

"Hi Team Drenched

 

Thank you for reaching out. I hope all is going well your side in these crazy and weird times. Things are good my side, although in South Africa for lockdown.

 

Being in New Zealand for over a year now has been a pretty good journey so far where I have grown and learned heaps. I was in Dunedin and moved to Auckland as the new head Coach of Mountfort Park Water Polo Club and head of water polo and 1st team coach at St. Kentigern’s College.

 

Water Polo in New Zealand also has the struggle with numbers and competing against bigger sports such as rugby and netball but have the advantage of a club system where athletes can train in the evenings to pursue their sport further. Although, it is one of the fastest growing sports in New Zealand. Especially with their Flippa Ball program that has so many kids under 10 playing and learning the game which sets a good grounding which increases the numbers in the older age groups.

 

Since being in New Zealand I have come to enjoy the club system and believe their is lots of value in that. Their are competitions for both school teams and club teams that run at various times throughout the year. Athletes then train at their various schools and then come together in the evenings to train as a club which means your athletes are learning from various coaches.

 

The National League has 8 men’s and women’s teams. The competition runs from February until the last weekend in June when the finals are hosted. Teams travel to Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington and Christchurch on various weekends to play fixtures. Sadly, the league came to an end due to Covid - 19. This has been awesome to retain the older players who have left school as well as to offer a tougher competition that would prepare players for international competitions. There is even a competitive Division 2 National League which is still competition which is held in the first half of the year. This has been used as a platform for older players and up and coming players to play the game at  competitive level.

 

In South Africa we definitely take the pool space we have for granted! Not every school or club has their own pool and therefore rely on various community pools around the city to train. This sometimes means we have teams training until 10pm as it is the only time you can get pool space. The awesome thing is, everyone still attends!

 

As the head coach of Mountfort Park, I am currently coaching both the men’s and women’s national league sides as well as various age group teams through the club. The club consists of around 200 members from U12  all the way to seniors. Coaching both men and women’s teams has taught me quite a bit over the last year and juggling the management between the two.

 

Yes, I am currently involved in the New Zealand setup and am part of the coaching staff for the NZL U18 Women’s side that has been preparing for World Champs that has now unfortunately been canceled. This was a pity as the squad had been together for two years attending numerous training camps over the the years in preparation to have it canceled months before. We were hoping for this team to do real well! The virus brought a bit of a challenge to training and through the help of Zoom we were able to run conditioning sessions as well as do the ‘chalk talk’.

 

New Zealand has put a lot of energy and focus into their water polo over the last few years, and like South Africa face not playing enough water polo at an international level. Through a successful high performance program New Zealand has become a lot more competitive on the international stage and this is clear to see in their women’s teams success. New Zealand has to compete against Australia for the spot at the Olympics and New Zealand will be working hard to close the gap between Australia and hope to successfully be able to one day compete in the games.

 

There is quite a bit of a South African influence in New Zealand with quite a few players in New Zealand teams and squad originally from South Africa. As well as quite a few coaches at club and school level and special mention to be made to Lionel Randall who was New Zealand’s 2019 coach of the year as well as the U20 New Zealand head coach.

 

Have I enjoyed the move? Yeah, for sure. Change is as good as a holiday! You have your moments when you miss home, friends and family but the decision to take the leap to further my career has been awesome and look forward to what the sport has for me in the future while here in Auckland.

 

Luke Manthe"

 

If there are any questions for Luke, please feel free to ask in the comments below and we will get Luke to reply as soon as possible.

2 comments

  • Hi Team

    Great questions, thank you.

    1) It is pretty similar to be honest. In all of those, but where New Zealand takes the leap further and gets the advantage is in their campaign and preparation towards an international event. New Zealand squads meet on a regular basis in Auckland and spend a good amount of time abroad having training camps and fixtures with numerous teams. The move took me out of my comfort zone which was exciting and as a result I was tested in various parts of the game and what I knew and how I do things. Through this my methods are always adapting.

    2) Unfortunately the use of tracking is not used – however there has been talk around the coaches about bringing it in. Game & video analysis has become an important tool in my coaching and would do a video analysis on trainings as well as games. We make the best of our resources and many of the coaches are happy to share with each other which helps advance the game in New Zealand, closing the gap.

    I hope this answers your questions?

    Luke
  • Hi Luke,

    Awesome write up – Thanks so much.
    From our side, we would like to pose 2 questions which we would love your feedback to:

    1) Do you see a difference in style of play between New Zealand and South Africa? Whether it is speed, power, awareness or skills based and has it tested/advanced your coaching methods and idea of play?

    2) Is there a strong technological influence such as player workload tracking, game analysis, etc as you see in many of our main sports these days?

    Thanks once again. Have a great day

    #TeamDrenched

    Drenched

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