Whats up with the Water Polo Whistle?

Question

What's up with the whistle being blown every few seconds in water polo. No one I ask ever seems to know.

Answer 1

In many sports, the whistle indicates a pause in the game. In water polo it indicates a foul, a penalty shot, a kick out or ejection. It rarely stops the play. Players listen for the type of whistle or glance at the hand signals of the referees to know which penalty it is. I would suggest reading

http://www.nbcolympics.com/waterpolo/ins...

The whistles are important in water polo to keep the players safe from undo harm and keep the plays moving.

Water polo is an enjoyable sport to watch if you know and understand the rules.

Answer 2

A whistle indicates a foul.  There are three basic types of fouls: ordinary fouls, exclusion fouls, and penalty fouls.  An ordinary foul results in free pass by the team that got fouled.  An exclusion foul means the player who committed the foul is excluded for 20 seconds.  A penalty foul awards a penalty shot to the team that got fouled.  Ordinary fouls are very common in water polo and happen almost constantly.  Fouling a player and dropping on the center is a very common defensive strategy. Also, perimeter players will sometimes draw a foul (isn't very hard) to get a free pass or shot.  Centers often get fouled a lot since the defender will do whatever they can to prevent a shot from that close.  Ideally (for the defense) it will just be an ordinary, but many exclusions are called on the center defender position in a given game.  Three exclusion fouls on a player results in a foul out.