Practical water polo resources for coaches, hosts & spectators.
Stat-tracking explainers, tournament-running playbooks, FINA rule breakdowns, and the kind of hands-on knowledge you can't find anywhere else online — all written by people who actually ran the desks.
Eggbeater Desk is now a Mac app
The scoring desk runs natively on macOS — the same engine as the iPad desk and the phone, with the keyboard doing the work. Space starts and stops the clock; G, O and T record a goal, an opponent goal and a turnover, and every shortcut is printed on the button it drives. Because each play is attributed as it happens, the team’s analytics are already written when the game ends.
Eggbeater Ref: a free web beta for water polo referees
Claim the games you worked and the officiating record fills itself in from the desk — score by period, personal fouls by cap with the third marked out, penalty shots, timeouts. A season ledger with fees and miles you can export, and an incident report that starts pre-filled instead of blank. Read-only against the desk, free to the referee, nothing to install.
Your team already has a page: 1,092 schools, all eleven states
Eggbeater’s high-school directory covers every state where high school water polo is played — all eleven. 1,092 school pages with 773 rosters, 815 schedules, and school colors on 1,088 already there. California carries the complete 2025-26 season — every game, the standings, the brackets. Look yourself up at hs.eggbeater.app; if the page is yours, one reply claims it, and the first season is free.
High school water polo, live: what we built for the 2026 season
The scorer speaks NFHS — two 3-minute overtimes then sudden victory, a 30-second shot clock, high-school timeout counts, ties where the rules permit. One-paste MaxPreps import with a separate league record. A live team page for every school at eggbeater.app/t/your-school, real player stats from every logged play, and the varsity look, light and dark. First season free.
What’s new in Eggbeater: Ask the Desk, flight brackets, and a smarter way to follow water polo
One of our biggest update waves yet — Ask the Desk (a tap-to-ask tournament assistant in English, Spanish, and French), flight-sorted Platinum/Gold/Silver/Bronze brackets, player search, and Plan Your Day — live at once on web, iPhone, iPad, Android, and Apple TV. Free for spectators.
Behind the brackets: building the 2026 Junior Olympics experience on Eggbeater
Thousands of games, hundreds of clubs, dozens of divisions — and a home of its own at jo.eggbeater.app. How we turned the 2026 Junior Olympics into a live, searchable hub, folded in official desk results, and preserved Session I as a permanent data-story archive: 1,788 games, 445 teams, 88 shootouts.
Eggbeater is live on the App Store
The water polo app for spectators, coaches, and tournament hosts shipped to the US and Canada App Store on May 27, 2026. iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Live scoring, brackets, lock-screen Live Activities, branded tournament pages — free for spectators. Android closed beta still available.
What every water polo coach should track in game stats (and what to skip)
The five stats that actually predict wins (turnover differential, exclusions earned vs. committed, 6-on-5 conversion, GK save %, assists), the three stats most coaches over-track, and the right tool for the level you’re coaching at — clipboard, spreadsheet, or live-scoring app.
Lock-screen water polo: how Live Activities changed the spectator experience
iPhone Live Activities, Apple Watch haptics, and push notifications transformed how water polo spectators follow games — no app to open, no browser to refresh. Here’s how the pieces fit together, and what it took to ship them.
Following water polo on Apple Watch: the Smart Stack & Live Activities guide
Glance at the score during the swim back to your car. The Apple Watch Smart Stack chip appears automatically when an iPhone Live Activity is running — no separate install. Plus haptics on goal, a standalone Watch app, and a pinning trick for tournament weekends.
The operator’s field guide to multi-club water polo leagues
The host-and-visitor model, roster sharing across six independent clubs, cross-club standings + tiebreakers, venue logistics, the spectator-access problem, dispute handling, and money. Written for the commissioner who has to make it work.
Calendar subscribe is the most underused water polo feature
One link, pasted into Apple Calendar or Google Calendar once, and every game on the schedule shows up automatically — with every future change syncing in the background. The case for turning it on, plus the 2-minute setup.
Eggbeater’s summer of live water polo: JO Quals, Club Champs & the Super Finals
Three weeks, four big June events — JO Qualifiers, the Super Futures Girls Finals, the US Club Championships, and the Boys Super Finals. The bracket, live scores, My Path, and play-by-play that families followed all summer, no app and no login, plus what shipped for the coaches on the deck.
Follow your team — no app, no login: the spectator beta
Open one link, pick your age group, division, and team, and follow water polo live — schedule, scores, pool standings, the full bracket, and My Path. No install, no account. The three June 2026 events we opened for the spectator beta, with the codes to follow along.
Eggbeater for Apple TV: your tournament on the big screen
The full Apple-Sports bracket, live scores in about 5 seconds, rolling play-by-play, rosters and season stats, and My Path — now in a lean-back layout you drive with the remote. Free, no login. Try demo code BSDEMO before your own weekend rolls around.
How to run a water polo tournament: the complete guide
Format selection, schedule math (game lengths, buffers), bracket seeding, game-desk volunteer onboarding, and the worst-case scenarios you should plan around. Field-tested across pool play, single-elim, and double-elim formats.
How to run a water polo league: round-robin, swiss, multi-club
Pick a format (round-robin, single-elim, Swiss, weekly pods, multi-club), auto-schedule from one weekly preset, live standings with configurable tiebreakers, sheet write-back, and the per-team .ics + /leagues/{slug}/ SEO page that comes with publishing.
How long is a water polo game? Quarters, clock & real time
The short answer: 4 quarters of game time, 60–90 minutes of real time. Quarter length by level (FINA 8 min, NCAA 7 min, youth 5–7 min), why the clock stops on every whistle, overtime + shootout rules, and how long to budget on tournament day.
Water polo glossary: every term spectators, coaches & scorers need
The complete water polo vocabulary in six categories — game flow & clock, field positions, fouls & penalties, shooting & scoring, strategy & tactics, and tournament & league lingo. Every term, plain English, cross-linked to deeper explainers. Bookmark it and share with new spectators.
Water polo positions explained: goalkeeper, center, wings, drivers & set defender
The 7 positions in the water (1 goalkeeper + 6 field) and the 5 named field roles. What each player actually does, where they swim, the eggbeater-vs-shot tradeoff at the hole set, and the 6-on-5 reshuffle. Cap-number conventions, position aliases, and what spectators should actually watch.
The eggbeater kick: the leg movement that defines water polo
The single technique without which the sport would not exist. An alternating leg rotation that holds a player vertical with both arms free — mechanics, the standard training progression, the five mistakes coaches drill out hardest, and why the leg-burn at the end of Q4 is the kick catching up to you. The app got its name from this.
Your first water polo game: a complete spectator survival guide
Reading the scoreboard, the cap-color cheat sheet, the three fouls you’ll see most, what to wear and bring for the 4–6 hours you’ll actually spend at the pool, where to sit, and the unwritten rules about cheering from the deck.
What does a water polo coach actually do? A spectator’s guide
Set plays called by hand-signal and code word, substitutions every 30 seconds, the 2 timeouts and when to use them, what the coach is tracking on the bench (foul counts, matchups, who’s fresh for the 6-on-5), and why deck-side yelling is signal not anger.
Basic water polo drills: a coach’s starter set for the first five practices
Five practices, every drill named, every set timed. Eggbeater + tread, ball familiarity, passing + catching, shooting basics, and the first scrimmage — with rep counts, work-to-rest ratios, age-group timing matrix, and the drill-pacing rule that keeps young athletes locked in.
The water polo coach’s pre-tournament checklist
A seven-stage operational checklist from 2 weeks out to post-tournament wrap-up — roster locks, opponent scouting, peak-week practice, equipment audit, day-of warm-up and pre-game huddle, between-games refuel and matchup adjustment, and the Monday debrief that’s where coaches actually get better year-over-year.
Common water polo injuries and recovery: a coach + spectator guide
Shoulders are #1 by a wide margin — then hands, eyes, backs, kicks, and the underrated cap-line chafe. Realistic recovery timelines for each, prevention recipes (scapular stability, hip mobility, taping), the warning signs that mean see a doctor today, and a quick-reference table for the tournament first-aid kit. Includes a non-negotiable medical disclaimer.
How to keep score in water polo: the volunteer scorer’s guide
What "keeping score" actually means at the table — pre-game roster check, the per-action mechanics for goals/assists/exclusions/5m/saves, paper vs digital, common mistakes and how to dodge them, and what the optional referee sign-off does for disputed scores.
Water polo equipment: everything you need (and what to leave home)
Two lists, one post — what players actually need to buy (Lycra suit, optional goggles, parka, mouthguard) and what spectators should pack for a 3–6 hour tournament day. Brand picks (Turbo, KAP7, Diana, Arena), starter-kit cost breakdown ($200–400), where to buy (and where not to), and what’s banned in the water.
Starting water polo as an adult: the masters player’s guide
Honest, encouraging guide for adults learning the sport from scratch — the appeal (full-body workout + tactics + team), the real learning curve (3–6 months to tread, 6–12 to ball-handle, 12 to read the game), how to find a Masters team, gear to start, your first 10 practices, the eggbeater kick problem, and where to play once you’re ready.
Water polo cap colors and cap numbers explained
White, dark (blue/black), and red — what the three cap colors mean, why goalkeepers always wear red even when their team’s color is red, the cap-1 starting-GK convention, how numbering works to 13, the cap-durability rule, and how spectators use caps to track a single player through the swim.
Water polo scoring rules: quarters, kickouts, 5m, shot clock & the 3-strike rule
The complete scoring rules reference — quarters and lengths by level, ordinary fouls vs kickouts, the 20-second exclusion window and 3-strike disqualification, when a 5m penalty is awarded, the 30/20 shot clock, ties + shootouts, and five things spectators get wrong on first watch.
Water polo stats explained: G · A · Sv · TO · FB · Excl
What every box-score abbreviation actually means, with the situational modifiers that distinguish a serious one from a casual one — 6-on-5 splits, FBU turnovers, Inside-2m saves, and earned exclusions.
Eggbeater vs TeamSnap for water polo
Where TeamSnap wins (broad sport coverage), where Eggbeater wins (water-polo-specific stats, live scoring, tournament hosting, branded public pages), and which to pick based on whether you’re a club, a host, or a spectator.
FINA rule changes 2026: what scorers and coaches need to know
The current FINA rulebook in plain English — 30-second shot clock, 20-second exclusion window, the 3-kickout disqualification rule, brutality vs kickout vs common penalty, and the shootout sequence. Written for the volunteer at the desk and the coach on the bench.
Water polo penalty shootout: how the 5-shooter format works (2026 FINA rules)
Knockout-round ties now go straight to a shootout under 2026 FINA rules — no overtime. The 5-shooter mechanics from the 5-meter line, who shoots and how coaches pick the order, sudden death after 5-each, ruleset variations (NCAA, USA Water Polo, NFHS), and the coaching decisions that decide it.
Building a water polo bracket sheet: pool play to championship
Pool-play math, tiebreaker order, cross-seeding, and single-elimination templates for 4, 8, 12, and 16-team tournaments. Plus a downloadable bracket sheet you can copy-paste into your own spreadsheet.
Volunteer scorer onboarding: the 5-minute version
Hand a spectator a tablet, give them this guide, and they can score a water polo game in five minutes. Action button cheat sheet, picker modifiers, common mistakes and how to fix them, plus ending the game — with the optional referee sign-off when the host turns it on.
Scoring modifiers cheat sheet (printable)
Every modifier in the Eggbeater scorer on a single printable page — 6v5, Backhand, Counter, the Forced Ball Under turnover, Kickout, Common Foul, Brutality, Earned Exclusion — plus the 3-kickout BENCHED rule and an action-button quick-reference table. Tape it to the game-desk laptop.
Run your club on the platform behind these guides.
Everything in these resources — live scoring, brackets, leagues, branded pages — is built into Eggbeater. Free for spectators; start hosting in minutes.