News From Abroad: Yuri Colet of Barcelona International Water Polo Academy

BARCELONA, SPAIN. A mantra for high school water polo players determined to attract the attention of DI coaches is practice, practice, practice—then excel against high-level competition.

Except in the East. Outside of Greenwich, Connecticut there’s simply not enough good competition, causing polo athletes—and their parents—to seek any opportunities to improve, even if they’re 3,800 miles away.

The Barcelona International Water Polo Academy (BIWPA) offers camps, residencies and high level competition at the epicenter of Spanish water polo. With programs ranging from camps, to a single week to full academic semesters—including high school and college—BIWPA is an attractive competitive cultural option for Americans. An important feature is training with the academy’s distinguished coaching staff, including Quim Colet, BIWPA’s leader who is also head coach for CN Sabadell, one of Spain’s oldest club.

[On The Record with BIWPA’s Quim Colet: Spanish Water Polo is Ascendant!]

Colet’s son Yuri, head coach of CN Poble Nou men’s senior water polo team, is a BIWPA co-founder and one of the academy’s primary coaches. I spoke with him last month at BIWPA’s training facility in Barcelona’s fashionable Esplugues de Llobregat district. Topics included the academy’s upcoming programs in Gainesville, Florida, former Barceloneta head coach Chus Martin’s impact on Academy athletes, and how training in Barcelona can make a huge difference for American water polo players.

- BIWPA will host three weeks of training in Gainesville, Florida in June. How is that experience different than coming to train with the academy here in Barcelona?

The difference is for the camp weeks in Florida, we’ll be focused on the knowledge level of the students, depending on the age groups and their previous knowledge. We want the kids to socialize, learn water polo culture and—most important—have fun.

Here in Barcelona the level, combining local and international athletes, is higher. We try to pull up all the skills of players that we have at our Academy program for a semester or the full year.

Also, in Barcelona we have competition every weekend.

The starting point is different and the clarification of the training season is different.

We will bring our methodology and effort to do the best training we can—but also need to adapt to anyone who finds us. We will be as accurate as possible to do the best we can in terms of levels and knowledge that the kids have to know. New skills and step-by-step advancing to higher and more difficult exercises.

- Are there any requirements to register for the Florida camp?

The main requirement is that [athletes] come with 100% energy and an open mind. We will explain things they’ve never seen before.

They have to be open-minded and receive all the information, process it then apply it.

A big difference in the type of training that American high schools and clubs and what we do is in decision-making situations. This works better here in Barcelona and in the clubs in the area. We will try to adapt that for the different ages that we have in the camp but it’s one of the big differences in the training.

This kind of training and decision-making demands a lot of concentration, a lot of focus. Of course [athletes] make a lot of mistakes before they do it correctly.

It’s a long process and in one week it’s difficult to change this. But we give the structure and the base to improve and correct from that starting point of the Florida camp.

Also another extra is one of the players <who?> is still an important player at the top level in Spain. He will be able to make a lot of examples in the water with the kids at times.

- Will Coach Martin make the trip to the states?

No. He has been called-up by the Spanish federation to give a hand with age groups of the National team this summer so he will have to be concentrated at CAR of Sant Cugat June then compete in July.

- Will some of the players from Barcelona come to Florida?

We’ll bring the coaches; including Albert Español, a former Spanish Olympic player (2012, 2016) who’s still playing professionally. He’ll demonstrate in the water. We will have players from the University of Florida that I met three years before when I was there—they will help us and stay with the kids.

- Last year there were plans to send a joint American and Spanish team to JOs. Is that still a possibility?

Let me say first [that] since we created the academy, we have been growing a lot. Our plan for JOs is something we’ve wanted to achieve since we start the company, but everything goes with time.

Last year it was possible that the kids from Barcelona were not permitted to fly but for this year we are planning. Maybe it’s not possible but it’s a plan we have in mind that we are working [on].

Our intention first is to go to California because of the [higher] level and because I think we can bring a good team that will compete for the top eight positions in the United States.

The coaching staff always goes to Junior Olympics to see different athletes who have been in the environment or who want to come to the academy. We have conversations with college coaches that we know from [previous] years.

Our plan is to participate in Junior Olympics as BIWPA or maybe collaborate with Gator Water Polo Club, our Florida partner.

Our plans for the next years and the future of BIWPA goes through the United States and the East Coast. It’s a thing we have in mind since we started the company and every year we are growing—step-by-step, of course. We are a small company; we do a lot of things, but we have 10, 11 employees and the academy runs every day.

We can say in the next two to three years we will achieve this goal to bring a team to the Junior Olympics.

- …representing your company…

Representing BIWPA—boys, girls… if we have to go with Gator, we agree it's a great opportunity for the players. As a coach it’s an experience [but] the biggest experience is for the players.

The main goal that BIWPA has in the Junior Olympics is to the players. If we can do more for our academy players—give them not only the opportunity to play Junior Olympics but the whole experience. The flight to the United States, use English, eat different [foods], cultural difference with schedules, a different type of referee… it’s the whole experience.

This year if we can; if not, next year.

- Currently the dominant style of polo is that played by Serbia, Hungary, Croatia. But the Spanish style—good decision-making, smaller, more mobile athletes—has recently yielded impressive results.

I think all the styles can be good. We have our methodology, our way to train and it’s good for all types of players. For water polo you need a big center, but I also depend on [a player’s] strengths and weaknesses. Depending upon this every player has to create his style and way of [playing].

I think our methodology can develop all [kinds] of players. We base it on the game system and on the evolution of the techniques and tactics of the game.

Of course, a big player in good condition maybe will dominate in a static [situation] but if the other team is constantly moving—swimming with intensity, pressing their opponent, just like the Spanish national team did in the last Olympics. They don’t get a medal but probably they [played] two of the best performances in the Tokyo Games.

- You’re talking about Spain’s matches against Serbia and Croatia in men’s group play…

I think that the last two games were not the best ones (losses to Serbia and Hungary), but the Spanish played pretty good and the last year this style is going better and better.

But you cannot say this style is good; Serbia has its style, Croatia has its style, Greece…

What happened is from experience you take some things of the Serbian style, some things of the Italian style. You do have to adapt all this knowledge for training and what the thing is best for your players. I am always open to new ways of training. Our methodology is based on what you’re saying—decision-making, fast players, quick [decisions] but it can also be applied for the big players.

We have a say that international water polo is getting faster, players are not as specific as before—now, center shot will defend more—there are players who are not centers who have to work at two meters and fight.

This is one of the big water polo questions as a debate—that we can be talking for hours about which is the better exercise to improve the shot, etc. I don’t know that it depends on “style;” most important is that the coach correctly transmit these exercises to the player.

- BIWPA’s training reflects the Spanish style.

We say the “Spanish style” but we can talk more about the Barcelona regimen. Most of the best players in the top [professional] teams are in Catalunya. The high performance center where the national team trains is located in Sant Cugat next to Barcelona.

It is like the military base for [Spanish] water polo is in Barcelona. [Between] the high performance center and the clubs there is a common work. Every club is working to improve but the type of training and the methodology is spread from the high performance to the coaches of all the clubs.

Every coach has his way to train, his style, but the concepts of how we train the teams and the players is similar for all the clubs. All those coaches, me included, have been doing water polo development. We have been studying the sport; there are three different levels for coaches. Level One is for initiation, Level Two is for development and certification, Level Three is for national team—high performance.

This mean that more or less the type of training for the players is similar. Everybody develops in the same way [with] more or less the same style. When one of these young talents is showing the level that he has, he will develop very soon if he goes with the national team because the methodology is the same as what they’re doing [in his club].

The [path] for kids starts at 7 – 8 years old and rises to [the] high performance [center].
Everything is structured and the coaches have knowledge of water polo—they have done the courses with a lot of hours or study and practice with coaches of the national team, who teach in the correct way.

I think this is one of the big differences that we have between Europe and American water polo.

- USA Water Polo’s John Abdou would beg to differ. The whole approach for their Olympic Development Program (ODP) is just what you’re saying; that the national team training is carried down through the various age group clubs by regional clinics where the American style—however that is defined—is transmitted.

Maybe it’s the same Idea but the contents, the methodology, the environment are different. There’s also the fact that the type of competition here is different; kids get experience quicker here in Barcelona. We have also differences with Madrid that is the second power in Spain for water polo, this happens everywhere. This makes the development of the athletes for the high performance can be better in an specific area or country.

The main difference are professional leagues in Europe and the culture and tradition of clubs with more than 100 years since they where created. In Barcelona everything is concentrated because nine out of 12 teams of the [Spanish] professional league are in the Barcelona area.