Speaker 2: And today we have another very interesting guest from North America this time again. So Brian, as the founder of WaterPolo Strong. maybe some of the attendants or listeners of the podcast are already familiar with the Instagram account. And yeah, welcome Brian to the podcast. Very good to have you here. And maybe at the beginning, as usual, I would hand it over to you for a short introduction of yourself.

Speaker 1: Awesome aid coach. Thank you so much for having me. ⁓ My name is Brian Sipapinka. I am the head strength coach and owner of Water Polar Strong. Previously, I've been the head strength coach and sports scientist for 6-8 sports, working for Olympians Tony Azevedo and Maggie Stephens. I'm a strength condition coach who's doing my masters or honors in strength condition, or sorry, sports science right now at Point Loma Nazarene, where I'm studying and going to publish my thesis on mobility and performance in water polo. I'll be doing a retroactive study on the data set I collected from 6-8 Sports to help show how mobility actually drives performance in water polo. I've training water polo players for about 10 years. I've worked with every level from youth to professional. Currently training a couple athletes around the world and trying to... really, really help educate the sport on better practices, bringing kinesiology to the sport so that we can make better decisions about the way we train.

Speaker 2: Yeah, so and you already mentioned all the data you have maybe then to use or available to use and to do your studies and to do your analysis of the trainings and so on. So regarding water polo, at what time or at what stage in your life do you think comes the water polo in your life ⁓ where you say, okay, at this moment you realize, okay, water polo is ready from now on the very big part of my life. in the future.

Speaker 1: Yeah, it was really in college. So I played water polo in college. And as a water polo player, I felt like I was very underserved. My injury list is really long. I've dislocated both shoulders three times, my left knee seven times, my left ankle twice, broken this hand, broken this collarbone. And I say all that because it was my training that messed me up. It was the six hours a day of playing, right? It was not lifting. was not taking care of my soft tissue, taking care of my body, not foam rolling, not stretching. These things really matter so much. And we're asking our body to do something, as you all know, polo players, is really hard, right? It's one of the hardest sports in the world. We all know this. So to do that without a good proper base really makes it hard to play at a high level. And I like to look at water polo as, know, I'll give you guys a sport that the world would understand, like soccer in the 1800s. Like we're not caught up to the science. Like we don't have sports scientists working in plethora. We have some great PhDs like Botanists ⁓ out of Greece ⁓ who are doing studies, but it's very limited, right? So the information needs to be collected and more succinct and then shared. with the community so that the community can grow and have better practices.

Speaker 2: Yeah, so I think also a very good word you already mentioned is self-care. So self-care and also, not thinking, but listen ⁓ to the own body and ⁓ maybe then be able to adopt this maybe to your ⁓ training schedule. And this is something more people normally during these days already thinking about, so about self care and relaxing and recovery and so on. And these are really then the things you're talking about when you're saying, okay, we need to rethink our body language and thinking also in terms of body self care.

Speaker 1: Absolutely. And I think the thing that is missed is what we think about self care is not the complete picture because most water polo coaches aren't kinesiologists. They're not in the study of human movement. They're not in the science, right? They're coaches and they're the first point of entry for most athletes. So if coaches don't understand what athletes have available to them, it really diminishes the impact that they can have because as a coach myself, because I also coached sport, right? I've been coaching for 15, 20 years. Whatever I see the athletes gravitate towards, right? So if I'm in the knowledge about what is current, I have the ability to really pass down some power to those athletes. So what I'm talking about is A, foam rolling. It's not generally agreed upon. that foam rolling is a good practice for athletes. But here's three reasons why I think it's major for water polo. Number one, the high metabolic load, meaning our muscles really give out. And when we have metabolic exhaustion, it goes to neurological exhaustion, right? And what that means is the nervous system that gets fried and no longer operates at the level that it usually does. So what we need to do is we need to reintegrate it. And that happens through foam rolling. Number two, hydration status affects our fascia, our connective tissue. So if we're not drinking enough water, and as water pool players, you don't realize you're sweating when you're in the pool, right? It's cool. It feels nice. Yeah. See, knew you're like, yeah, that makes sense. Right. So are we drinking enough water during the day? Are we getting enough water to keep up with the needs of our body? So you need about half your body weight in ounces at minimum. imagine I have a two, three hour practice. What do you think I need? on top of that more. Absolutely. And you know, Europe, you guys are way ahead of us. We the American lifestyle is detrimental to a lot of So and we for some reason can't figure that out. But you guys at least you know, are doing more on self care or thinking about these things for yourself. Right. But here's the next level. You brush your teeth every day, right?

Speaker 2: the ⁓

Speaker 1: Right. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. But do you brush your body every day? Do you make sure that you don't get dumped up? Do you make sure that you move well every day? Are you making sure that everything is open to you? And the real case for stretching isn't that I need you to stretch because it's going to elongate you. It's because the more time spent in positions, the more you keep them. You use it or lose it. Does that make sense?

Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: And if you're not using it, then that range of motion is not going to be open to you eventually, which means that your power output and your ability in the pool is going to be diminished.

Speaker 2: Yeah, so this really reminds me what is really the situation in most of the companies, at least in Europe, that you have when you're working from home, in a home office area or something like that, that you have a break on the screen saver, for example, that you have to stand up and have to do some mobility or... I don't know, take a little walk and ⁓ whatever. So this is something which is then the self-care coming in the environment of a home office area. So that you have to think about, I don't need to sit the six or eight hours a day because somebody is telling me, okay, you have to stand up, you have to move, you have to drink, do you drink enough? whatever, yeah, so that is something then which goes also in the same direction, which is not really related to sports, but it goes in the same direction with this. When you say it's in Europe, different. So this is something it reminds me on, yeah.

Speaker 1: Yeah. And, you know, with that, I think the hardest part for coaches is we have very limited water time, right? You don't get forever water time. So coaches don't want to add time to do stretching and take care of your body during practice. So what it becomes is it becomes an athlete responsibility. You have to make sure you're on top of it so that your body keeps moving well. Right. And this happens before practice. So show up an hour early. roll, stretch, do your bands. again, Europe is way better about doing bands, right? But I think there is a whole system that can be put in place pre and post that can completely change your entire athletic game. And this is what I had to learn because I wasn't warming up and I wasn't cooling down. And that's where we leave a lot on the table as athletes is by not taking advantage. We need to get our body ready for the work and then we need to cool down from the work. So water poles played at 80 % of your VO2 max, meaning that there's not really room to relax and recover during practice and during games, right? So we have to bring our nervous system down post. And that's another thing that's not happening. So how does recovery happen? It doesn't happen when you're sympathetic. It happens when you're parasympathetic, meaning relax and recover versus fight or flight, right? And how do we toggle that? Breath. We toggle that with low intensity cardio, getting better circulation. with stretching, these are all ways to wind down our body and really help us feel better, digest our food and, you know, do jumpstart the recovery process.

Speaker 2: Yeah, and yeah, yeah, so also former former coaching perspective so when you say it's also in the future more or less also in responsibility of the athletes to do all these stuff for their own bodies, you know, so From from from the experiences also that I as a coach would like to do that but it's not easy to Bring that across that. This is a reason and this is more or less have the same importance as the practice or the training session itself. So that it's ⁓ mandatory to be, let's say, 15 to 20 minutes before around the pool and do the stretching and the warm up and the shoulder with the band and whatever. And maybe after the training also, at least to do some easy swimming and whatever. So maybe also with the bands. But this is... As you mentioned, also responsibility of the athlete, but for me as a coach, I would like to do that and I would like to offer these space for them, but it's not easy to bring the reason across that it's also a mandatory thing to do, to do the same level maybe also in 10 years.

Speaker 1: Yeah, the only so like, you know, as I mentioned to you before the call, like I'm going to play today. I told you about all those injuries, right? Well, the only reason I'm still playing is because I do these practices because I take care of my body. Now I know what I need to do. I phone roll, I stretch, I warm up really well. I work on my throwing patterns. All of this stuff helps me be the best athlete I can be in. I think what we think about is being water polo players. not being high level athletes. Water pol players are high level athletes. mean, you, the people you, you play with and you coach, they can do some amazing things. Right. So if we change our frame of reference, well, then we need to take care of the athletic body as it get it primed, get it ready, get it open. Right. Before we train or we're leaving a lot on the table. Like, again, this is why I said we're, we're soccer in the 1800s. Like we, don't even know. how good we could be yet. And we have some insane players. We have some insane players.

Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. So, and you already mentioned the thing, what I also experienced during the last couple of years, which is a growing number of people coming to the training or the practice with a water bottle, for example, or something to drink, which was not the case, I don't know, five to 10 years ago from now. So today it's when I understand it correctly and then a good sign that the people are coming to the pool to practice with a water bottle, for example. What do you think how much water they should get during a session round about one, one and a half hour? Say something, some indication of that.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, for one and a half hour, they should at least one to two 16 ounce bottles during that time, right? Because there's going to be a huge attrition of water in that. But furthermore, we actually need to intake some type of carb or sweetness. So this is where it's fine to have like a Gatorade or some type of sports drink because we need the carbs during practice. In fact, there's a doctor of physical therapy named Kelly Sturrett. His daughter's a goalie, right? American doctor, he's a physiotherapist, right? He's working with Cal Women's Water Polo. And during the last NCAA finals, he had them, or two finals ago, he had them take in a carb supplement during the game. And it kept them playing at a high level, right? This is unheard of. Have you heard of somebody taking in a carb supplement while they're playing?

Speaker 2: Not yet.

Speaker 1: Exactly. And this is where the science is. We are losing our cars. We're losing access because of all the sprinting, of all the high jumping, of all the power shooting. again, this becomes a metabolic problem, right? And metabolic conditioning and metabolic training should be the focus of our high level game. What it stops becoming just about who's strong, right? Here in America, we don't lift at all. And I know even in Europe, it's not really huge to lift. Once our athletes get strong though, it becomes a metabolic conditioning problem, no longer just how strong you are. Does that make sense?

Speaker 2: Absolutely. regarding strong, yeah. So we are right now in the, the, on the, let's say right point, maybe to, to, ⁓ focus a little bit more on your, ⁓ or on the, on the name of your Instagram account. So we're just water polo strong and also the, thing you are the founder of the little company, let's say that way is, water polo strong. So maybe you can give us a little bit more insight information about what is. of WaterPolo Strong about and maybe also how do you come to this idea to say, there needs to be something like ⁓ this you build with WaterPolo Strong because it's not there at the moment.

Speaker 1: Yeah, so about 10 years ago, right when I was getting out of college, I was like, there was no strength condition for water pool. There was no anybody sharing this message. There was a guy named Mike Reed for USA Water Pool who had a couple of articles, but there was no true strength coaches dedicated to water pool. So I decided to be that. Well, here in America, I know there are some in Europe, but again, publishing publications. and writing and sharing information, you know, I saw a huge gap. So I decided that I would, I would step in there and try to make a difference. So I became a strength coach and I focused on water polo. I've been training water polo athletes for the better part of 10 years. And mostly in the youth sector though. So from 12 to 18, those are the kids that I'm training because here's the idea. The sooner we start training, the more athletic we're going to be in the end. So if I can get a kid at 12, I can teach them the basics and we can have two years with the basics. Then we can get into some advanced lifting, know, squats, deadlifts, which are advanced lifting, you know, and then by the time they're junior seniors, we're doing Olympic lifting, right, and power work and power intervals and metabolic conditioning, but we can't start there, right? We have to build a good base first. And I think what's happening is everybody wants to do the things that are high level and look hard and you you think you're going to make your performance, but they don't have the correct base. And this is why I created a baseline assessment for water polo. Water polo is strong and came out of this idea that there's a huge need. I'm still even today trying to figure out how to help the community the best. So I've created warmups, cool downs. I've created. programming. I've created a year long strength program. You know, I've created a baseline assessment. I even as a coach have ways to develop egg beater, you know, ways to assess your technical side. So I like to look at the five fundamentals of walk six fundamentals of water polo, is your freestyle swim, your, your shot, your egg beater, vertical breast, you're over the hips and then you're schooling, right? So if we don't have those basics, it's really hard to play the sport. And what's interesting is working for 6'8", the egg beater endurance, we have a 10 pound med ball, you have to hold it for as long as you can. It has the greatest standard deviation. So difference among scores in America, meaning that most kids don't know how to egg beater here. And this is why we get destroyed in Europe, right? This is why when we play European teams, have problems. In fact, many of our Olympians could not aim better. Well, right. And how do you face, you know, a German center or how do you face a, you know, a Croatian shooter who's six, seven? Like it, I mean, how are you going to block Mandic? It's not going to happen. You know what I mean?

Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. So I think to block mandage, yeah, so there that you need at least all the six areas you mentioned before. Yeah, so it's extremely over the hips maybe then. Yes.

Speaker 1: Yes, and I want to thank you for job.

Speaker 2: Absolutely. So did you really expect these kinds of, let's say, feedback or grow from the community then? was it a good feedback at the beginning or was it really then a growing community, growing feedback? Or do you think that's really something you get as a feedback? Okay, we need these kinds of skills and we need these kinds of Yeah, analysis are also of the basics and we need this, what you are doing.

Speaker 1: Actually, so in the beginning, no. Most people scoffed at it and made fun of me and said it was unnecessary because we were still doing old practices. was still the very much just work really hard and you'll be fine. coaches weren't, I do a lot of underwater video. Coaches weren't looking under the water at kids, egg beaters and really understanding. So they're like, the kids are fine. They're still doing it. right? But it, yeah, it didn't go well at first. I think now as of late, it's I've grown it into something a lot bigger, a lot better. And people are understanding and recognizing the brand and seeing that because I'm putting out, you know, my finding Fridays where we're talking about scholarly articles, technique Tuesdays, you know, case of the Mondays. And this little cadence has really helped me gain some traction because people are seeing the value of what I'm trying to show them. But still in practice, I mean, we still have kids who don't warm up. We have still kids that don't care, take care of their tissues. We still have coaches that don't know that hip extension is needed to jump really high. So there's more people now working in the sport, but there's a huge need still. And I think that, you know, the more we can do things like this, you know, hopping on a podcast with you, the more we can share information as coaches, the better the sport's going to get.

Speaker 2: Yeah, so I think also the fact you mentioned before that it's really then needs to work more on the basics, yeah, the first one, two, three years maybe for young ⁓ kids. And it absolutely makes sense that you need these kind of time of period at the beginning just to prepare yourself and your body and all the other things then for everything which comes after that. Yeah, so. I think this absolutely makes sense. Also, think that's then the moment where everybody says, at the very beginning, young kids have to have more or less the best coaches then because it's really important to have really good coaches at the very beginning just to get you well and best prepared then for everything else which comes after that.

Speaker 1: Absolutely. I've had the honor of working for Ricardo Azevedo. Do you know who that is?

Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: Yeah, so Ricardo, Tony's dad, best fundamental coach in the world, or at least one of them. He focuses on 10U athletes. actually, so last year I was the head 10U coach. You know, he helped me really develop those kids and I've been under his weight for the last three years. And we only have youth in our club. So 13 and unders, 11 and unders and nine and unders, right? And the point was, you know, We want to give these kids the best leg up to playing when they get older, right? So we're starting young and we're giving them the best education and best coaching. So they have, you know, us working with their egg beater, us working with their tactical understanding, you know, and what I learned from him is that, you know, if we can give them all the information before they're 14, they're going to be one of the best in the world because information early, is the only limiter for a of these athletes. Learning these things early is why, you know, some of the greats are the greats. Would you agree?