Inter-regional water polo player Izzy Haslock admits her aspiration is to make the GB squad and believes the sport is on the rise.
Haslock, 17, got involved with the sport after she played it for fun on a family holiday. She said: “I first got into the sport when I went on holiday to Italy in 2017. At the kids club they had water polo as an activity that you can do.
“My Mum then decided to see if there were any local clubs which I could get involved in. From there she found Croydon Amphibians which I joined.
“On my first session, I got out and cried because I found it so hard, but my Mum told me if I stuck at it that I would be good at it. So, I stuck at it and now I am quite good at it!”
Water polo is a team sport which consists of seven players in the water. They are not allowed to touch the bottom of the pool so you have to tread water whilst passing a ball to each other. The aim is to get the most points by scoring a goal.
Haslock explained the water sport by using a combination of dry-land sports: “How I explain water polo to people is as if it’s a combination of netball, football and rugby- but in the water. So, the goals look like football goals, you have people playing different positions, passing the ball and it is very physical.
She plays for Croydon Amphibians at local level and in the London league: “This the largest local league in the whole world which is so cool,” she said.
“Croydon also enter a competition called NAGS which is the national age groups, and you travel all over the country for it.
“I’ve also played against Cheltenham as they enter a team into the NAGS competition.
“Otter is my other club, and it is much more of a well-known, prestigious club which has the name and the people behind it. This is a bit of a step up as they do the British Water Polo League, yet they can still enter a team into NAGS.”
When asked about how she feels about the rise of water polo, she said: “When I was little, I had no clue what water polo was… I didn’t even know it was a sport.
“I feel like it used to be quite elitest, and you could only really play the sport if you had a lot of money because it stems from places like private schools. But now I think it is becoming more and more inclusive as a lot of swimming clubs are now linked with water polo clubs, so it is good that more people are getting involved- especially being a girl as it was always mostly focused on the boy’s side of things.
“It is so nice to be involved in something that people are now starting to recognise.”
Haslock even had the opportunity to train in Serbia with their national team: “These training camps were so good, we learnt so many new skills and the level out there is completely insane- their 12-year-olds are better than some of our 16-year-olds which was mental.”
She went on to mention how water polo is one of the most demanding sports out there and how it takes up almost all her spare time: “There is a lot that goes into it. You obviously must be able to swim and have continuous swim training, at least four times a week and play water polo four times a week. Then you also need to attend some sort of strength and conditioning training too.
“It’s really quite physically demanding as you need the strength, especially as you go higher up the ranks.”
The London player aspires to make the GB wider squad one day where she explained: “When I was little, I remember thinking ‘one day I can maybe do it’ and now because I am so close I just want to get seen and hopefully they will choose me.”
Haslock is attending the Junior Conference League this weekend and gave her thoughts ahead of the competition: “Going into it I’m not feeling particularly nervous as I have had a lot exposure now to water polo competitions, but we do have some difficult teams to play against. We are playing Penguins which are sort of Otter’s rivals on Saturday and on Sunday we are playing Worthing which I think we can beat.
“It is all just about mindset, if you go into it after having a good warm up, a good team talk and good preparations… I think we are all quite well bonded as we have played with each other for years and obviously we know how each other play. As long as we play like we have been training, I think that we should have a good shot at winning our matches.”
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