WATER POLO IN SAUDI ARABIA?

PART 1
OLYMPICS HERE WE COME!!

One of my primary goals in Saudi Arabia was to get back into shape. It has been a long, long, long time since I felt like I was really in physical shape. I wanted to lose weight in Saudi Arabia to be sure, but I also wanted to be in real shape, not just 30 minute work-out shape. So when I started looking at compounds to live in I always checked to see if they had a good swimming pool. Yep, swimming would take the cake any day over running, biking, walking, weights, etc. Well the Oasis has a magnificent pool that is actually used by the compound swim team to train – more to follow on the Oasis in posts to come.

From my first weekend in Saudi I hit the pool. I’ll never forget those first 5 days. A 200 (8 laps) swim felt like a sick form of torture…sloppier and sloppier strokes each lap, huge breaths like toddlers when they’re learning to swim and breathe, hips sinking quickly towards the vertical state, and massive lactic acid build-up. At the end of 8 Iaps I would lunge for the wall like a drowning man, pop my head up like a Contra Costa Free-Swimmer, suck in a huge breath of O2, and there would be the pool cleaning guy, smiling and waving, “Hi sir.” Take that stupid pool cleaner and shove it!!!! It was awful, but I committed to add four laps a day to my swim work-out every day and I stuck with it. Pretty soon I was kicking off with a 1,000 meter warm-up and working in real sets. Each week I felt lighter and stronger in the water. I started adding sets of 100s (4 laps) and 200s (8 laps) in combination, IM sets, sprint sets…Matt Biondi is my name and swimming is my game! OK, not quite. There is still lunging going on and big, gasping breaths, but with much more justification now.

Well it took about 4 months of Oasis swimming for me to get to a place where I remembered why I always struggled with swim work-outs –I finally hit a place where I didn’t want to add any more yards. I would hit the 50 minute mark pretty tired and just didn’t want to swim anymore. It takes incredible personal discipline and drive to be a swimmer (shout out Lincan) and I just don’t have that kind of drive. You have to be willing to push through the pain, and alone in my case; it is usually easier to push along with other people swimming. Nope, I had hit the wall and wasn’t going to push much further. This was compounded by the fact that the Oasis ownership didn’t see a real reason to keep the chiller on as we moved into summer. A couple of times I got into the pool and the temperature was 88 degrees! It felt like swimming in a bathtub and just totally drained any energy I had; not good when extra yardage is already being questioned (On a side note, it gets so hot here in Saudi that they actually have to cool the water!).

It was about this time that I ran into a Monday night swim group at the Oasis. I was usually finishing my workout at 7pm, right when they were arriving to start their swim. For the most part, they were average swimmers just getting in a nice workout alongside friends, but there was one gentleman who seemed out of place. He jumped in without goggles on and swam a loping head-up style. It was a water polo player’s stroke. I didn’t think much of it past that evening, but the next weekend I was finishing my set when this gentleman arrived at the pool to work-out alone. Out of nowhere, as I heaved in gobs of oxygen after my toughest set, he introduced himself as Dennis Bell. Then he asked the greatest question I’ve heard in years. “Do you by chance play water polo?” What? Excuse me? “Of course…well I played water polo, but haven’t for 8 years.” “Well we have a team at Aramco and you just struck me as a guy who probably played water polo.” “Well, I know I’m pretty dynamic in the water, “lightning fast” if you want to call it that…” OK, just kidding. I just sat there in the water with a dopey grin on my face. He continued on, “If you want to play with us we practice on Tuesday evenings, Thursday and Friday mornings. In fact if you want to go tomorrow I’ll pick you up at the gate around 7:15am.” I was giddy as a school girl and couldn’t wait. Only God could plant this type of scenario in Saudi Arabia…what would make this guy just come out and ask, after showing up at the pool on a weekend night at the same time I was there!

The following morning I went to my first practice at the Aramco pool and met an amazing group of guys. Turns out that this Aramco team competes in the 50+ age group at the World FINA Masters Tournament every two years; in 2008 they headed to Australia to play, and this year they are heading to Sweden. This wasn’t some fly by night outfit of guys hacking through the pool. No these guys knew the game pretty well.

Thursday and Friday (my weekends) we practice early AM at Aramco. We usually get 12-14 guys at practice so we can actually full-court scrimmage. On Tuesday nights from 8-10pm we play a local club team named Etifat. We play at their pool, which is about 5 minutes from my apartment. Those games are usually pretty even. They’re a younger team (17-24) that swims like crazy, and we’re the slimy veterans who grab and hold all the time.

Our team is an awesome mix of nationalities. We have one guy from Iran who played on the 1976 Iranian National Team, one guy who played for Brazil, our Goalie (and best player) went to Cal in 1974 and played there, six guys from the United States (including yours truly), one from the UK, one guy from Australia, one from Saudi Arabia, our youngest player was on the Egyptian Junior National Team (he’s 26 now), and another player from Greece. It is a blast to play again, and perfect timing. Now I can mix in the water polo workouts with the swim workouts - the swimming has become much more enjoyable.

Top Row (L to R): Chuck Crew (USA), Jim Findley (USA), Me, Anthony Sawaya (USA-Ex Cal Hoorah!), Abdi Majdpour (Iran), Kostas Tsingas (Greece), Chris Heine (USA), Raul Murillo (Brazil), Haider Haj (Saudi Arabia)

Bottom Row: Dennis Bell (UK), Austin Brell (Australia)

This past weekend we played a game up at Ras Tanura, which is about 45 miles northeast of Khobar. I finally took some pictures of the team because they were all in one place. The action shot is a stinker – it’s actually not a real action shot at all, but you can see Anthony (goalie) pointing, slightly upset with someone - but more will be coming. The guys are in their final stages for training before their trip to Sweden and the FINA Championships. Two years ago they came in 9th place out of 11 teams, but they lost 3 games by a goal and were winning all three of those games at one point. This year there are 12 teams and they’re shooting for a top 6 finish. I wish I could play with them. Wish them luck!

After Sweden they come back to Saudi and we start over again for the fall season…yes, fall season. We have a tournament in late September in Qatar where we play against teams from Dubai (1 team), Kuwait (1 team) and 3 teams from Qatar, including their National Team (we lost 7-4 to them last year). That tournament is in a regulation men’s pool (30m x 20m) which will be a gagger. Most senior men’s tournaments are in 25m pools these days unless it’s International competition, 20-35 age group, or NCAA. We’ll struggle with the swimming in that tournament but we’ll weasel our way through it. More importantly we all get to play together in Qatar as it is not age-based. There is also a big tournament in Saudi in November with some really good teams from the Western Province. We’ll see how that goes. I feel like I’m back in summer water polo again…

I can’t express how blessed God has made me. I gained 10 friends in a span of two weeks, and I’m playing my favorite sport of all time. Awesome, just awesome. As we cruise along the next season there will be plenty of updates on this adventure.