Pool Session

From ICCC

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During Autumn and Spring terms, the club books the pool in Imperial's Ethos sports centre between 8:30pm and 10pm every Tuesday night. We use this time to practise techniques, teach beginners, and generally relax after the stresses of the week.

If you fancy trying canoeing, you are welcome to come along and give it a go. You don't need any specialist equipment - just your normal swimming gear and a towel.

The sessions start at 8:30pm; however we try to be ready to get into the pool on the dot of 8:30pm. So that we can carry the kit over to the pool and be changed and annoying the lifeguards at 8.27pm, we meet at Beit Quad Stores at 8pm at the latest. However, there tend to be club members in Da Vincis from around 6pm having a beer or perhaps a sneaky chilli.

NB You need to have your university card activated in order to gain access: just call into Ethos reception.

Canoe Polo

Since practising canoeing in the pool becomes less interesting after a while, after a few sessions the surprise approach to rolling practice is initiated.

Canoe polo is a radical spectator sport (if you're into watching ten unfit undergraduates bimble around a swimming pool). The goal scoring rate is only slightly slower than basketball and a 15 minute game leaves the players (well, at least me) completely knackered. The idea of the game is very similar to any other game - score more points than the other team. Usually however, the team size is restricted to five each side and the goal is a suspended net.

The fun comes in tackling manoeuvres, once you have the ball you cannot paddle (as in netball) and anyone close enough can push you in using their hand pushing your shoulder. This soon improves the rolling and paddling skills of beginners.

Basically it is a good excuse to tank around the swimming pool throwing a ball at people and pushing them in.

We actually entered competitions on a couple of occasions. We were of course never in danger of winning much. Have a read about them here: 1997 BUSA, 2002 Warwick.

Alternative for when polo gets dull: Canoe rugby.

External links

• Kayakwiki:Kayak_Polo - Anyone can edit this kayakwiki definition
• canoepolo.org.uk - website from the BCU.