Talk:Underwater rugby

Ball

Could someone please specify the size and the weight of the ball? Thanks, interesting article. Fph 09:32, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

jumbled History

quote: The tournament has been held every year since then, which makes it the oldest tournament in the history of the sport. The Cologne version of the game didn't make the breakthrough, and was only played for a short time thereafter in Cologne, and has been long since forgotten. The Cologne team itself also turned to Underwater Rugby.

This makes sense only if the Cologne club turned to something else, not to underwater rugby. This may be out of sequence too.

No, I think the point is Cologne was playing that proto-game earlier mentioned, the one with the net. Other clubs saw the saltwater-filled ball, and developed underwater rugby. In time, DUC Köln ditched the volleyball-like game, too, and got on board with UWR like the other clubs.

Feel free to rewrite that section to make it clearer. :) —Wiki Wikardo 12:28, 8 August 2011 (UTC)

structure improvements

The whole article is not well structured. Sections like equipment, rules leagues would be very much appreciated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.178.30.197 (talk) 16:19, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

The two preceding paragraphs are repetitive and the penultimate paragraph of the section returns to the early years again.("This match can be regarded as the first underwater ball game. ...") The History section should provide one narrative. --P64 (talk) 13:28, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

International competition

There is only Champions Cup played in Berlin. However, my teletext informs that there are ongoing World Championships, started just today, August 16 to August 20. 82.141.116.210 (talk) 14:04, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

Indeed. —Wiki Wikardo 01:46, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

Smaller review

Hi, I've just made some smaller changes recently and I would like to do more. I'm a person who has been playing and following the sport the past 5 years. About the most recent edit : I might be biased so that could be the reason why some of the texts sound buzzwordy as I've been a fan of this sport for quite a while now. On the other hand I know quite much of it and I can compare it to other sports I did or still do. I think the whole page would require updating, the reasons why I haven't done that is because I don't know Wikipedia much, I don't have so much time, and I would need to have the text checked by someone as my English knowledge is not flawless. Anyway, I would really like to emphasise how young and different UWR is, for instance the fact that it allows mixed gender teams to compete, or being a 3 dimensional teamsport, which I find exceptional. Simply saying it's underwater does not describe that, I also play underwater hockey, which is also underwater yet it has nothing in common with rugby in this aspect as the puck does run on the bottom of the pool even if some shots lift it up. So the same discipline as hockey, soccer, etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Uwrplayer (talk • contribs) 00:18, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

But "new generation" doesn't really mean anything - what's the old generation? who defines it? - and adding the phrase just confuse the reader, who would expect some description of distinct generations in the article. The distinctive elements of the sports should be described in the article, not hyped with phrases. And any sport that's underwater is inherently 3-dimensional, even if UR makes somewhat more use of the vertical axis than other underwater sports (although not all of them - e.g., underwater football or Aquathlon (underwater wrestling)). - DavidWBrooks (talk) 02:39, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

I would say common sense defines the meaning of the phrase. UWR belongs to a group of sports which have been developed in the past decades and are defined by the era they were born in. What I mean by this is that we have inherited a lot of sports from the ancient greeks, like wrestling, which are seen by the western world as the classic/olympic disciplines. And there are also many sports which have different, but still long traditions, like soccer or football/rugby. These are newer generation compared to the first types, they are mostly team sports. And then you can find a group of sports usually not older than 300 years which were called to life by the industrial revolution, like water polo. And then there is the newest generation of sports which are made possible by a 2nd boom of development in wealth and technology as the atomic age started when all sports started to be more affected and later defined by the media and the internet. I believe they are many ways significantly different than the previous sports. UWR and UWH and other smaller teamsports are kind of an exception in this group as it mostly includes extreme sports which are broadcasted to many, but done by few. Many people buy expensive mountain bikes suitable to be ridden off a cliff, but it's rare to see someone riding the same level as the person on the videos who influenced these people. Even less fly wingsuits, ski across avalanches or free solo long trad routes on mountains and so on. Wikipedia on the history of sports goes as far as spectator sports, professionalism and performance-enhancing drugs and only leaves a short note about "post-modern" sports.

So I see how new generation sounds like a buzzword, as it is. Post-modern is would sound alike, and wouldn't even describe it as well. These are the sports around us which gain popularity quickly as sometimes a well made video goes viral, grants worldwide recognition for the sport, and money is invested in it, but the interest lowers as the element of surprise fades. These sports, being developed in a modern era, show a way different approach in general, a great example could be X-Games. Underwater rugby allows mixed gender teams to compete as well, while large sports are yet to start such debates. Also many of these young sports like UWR have not yet settled into a governing body properly on international level, which is their disadventage, as they are not represented, but on the other hand, it's also an adventage as they are community-driven, like Wikipedia.

And yeah, as noted, not just all underwater, but all sports are inherently 3-dimensional, but very few (extreme dodgeball) take adventage of this vertical axis as UWR. In underwater hockey you are also given the freedom to swim free but the gameplay is still 2 dimensional like in soccer. Trust me, I suck at it, but I still like to play it.

This was the first time I've heard about underwater football, I've looked it up, but to be honest it seems like one of the many local alternatives of UWR.

The concept of UWR in the Wiki article is the most common, "German" understanding of this discipline, just like the way UWH started in the UK and later widespread in the US, Canada, Australia, New-Zealand, this one got popular in Europe, and according to Facebook likes it is accepted as a legit sport by 30.000 people. But I've got to know other people over the net who played it differently and have recognised it as something of their own local development. In Oceania, Japan, etc. surfers train with rocks and call it rock rugby. In Hungary, military divers did something similar to UWR in a shallow pool until they've adapted the common rules from the Czech Republic. I've got messages from freedivers from Asia and Hawaii, who play almost exactly the same game, but in the sea or in the ocean. I believe unless underwater football manages to broadcast their matches, they are going to either adapt or disappear, the same way an early version of underwater rugby had disappeared from the US. I've found a Times magazine from the 40s in which they play a US version of water polo which was more like underwater rugby, and later the country have adapted the more common European volleyball-like concept of polo.

I agree that Aquathlon should be labelled 3D as well.

So that's why I've used "new generation". I wont be able to cite any study on this, as it is so new, only recently have a few sport university studends started their studies regarding underwater rugby. Please, if you have a phrase better than that, which still describes the above, let me know.

- — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.201.66.37 (talk) 23:57, 17 February 2015 (UTC)