First time in a European or Wordl Championship

How was the situation of uwh at your country when you had the first national team going to an international competiton .

here in Portugal we want to go to turkey but the national federation tell us that we are few people yet . Do you think 2 teams and almost a new one and more then 30 players is a few number to start a national squad ? please tell me your opinion and story

talk to the turks! they only started a few years back and they have some good stories about how they started out

__________________
it's more polite on the grating than on the subs bench

Hi Torto,

It's very simple. You only need 10 players to create a national team.
We had the discussion in Belgium as well two years ago and we decided to go for it, no matter what. Even it this meant paying it out of our own pocket.
The thing is that in such a tournament, you're players will learn a lot more than they can in 20 different international tournaments throughout the year.
I'm not saying Belgium has a great team, far from it, but the level of the players that participated to the last two international tournaments of this level has increased a lot.
They can now also teach their experiences to younger players and that is the only way to grow.
Nobody will come to Portugal and teach you, you'll have to go out and seek the knowledge and this tournament would be the ideal first step.
Try to explain that to your federation and they will hopefully understand.

Should they, however, be a narrow minded diving association, give them a marketing speech on how the enhancement of their product mix will increase their number of customers (being members) and how their market positioning as the underwater sports federation with the biggest offering will only do them good.

You read my mind Fred... they only care about diving . Im just starting to the a big forcing in the federation but old people in big chairs always putting barriers . We already have like 25 players playing so I guess its a good number . some of us already played in spanish league and french...

thanks for the advice and hope to see you in Turkey =)

It is such a great news to see UWH growing in Portugal!

Just for info:
2005 Marseille : 10 men (including two absolute beginners), 8 women (4 absolute beginners)
2006 Sheffield : 14 men for the two weeks competition (including two absolute beginners), no women (registration fees were to high)
2007 Bari : 12 men out of a selection of 20 candidates, 10 women (2 beginners)
2008 Istanbul : 42 players attended the first men selection camp. 16 candidates for the woman team.

During the same period we had a proportional increase of the general number of UWH players in Belgium.

If we can help you in anyway just let us know!

I believe Tony could/should help you to convince your federation to join Istanbul.

Tony is currently putting a lot of work in trying to make Istanbul as cheap as possible in order to allow a maximum of European nation to attend.

I look forward to play with you in Istanbul!

Romain how did you do it , the first time how many teams did you had at your country? its because here we have my team with almost 30 players and other team beggining now with 8 players .

torto, i think the more important thing is not how many teams you have, but one simple question...

do you have a full team of enthusiastic and fit players?

i would think twice about sending a team that lacks one of those two qualities but it sounds like you have them both.

as fred says, you will learn a huge amount as a team at your first comp. if some of your players have already been to other comps around europe, then you should know roughly what to expect.

__________________
it's more polite on the grating than on the subs bench

Boa tarde torto,

We only have two clubs playing uwh in slovenia. All together 35 players plus and minus 5 persons each year. We are far away from the best but if you enjoy playing and socialising with all these uwh freaks as we do, than it is must to go on tournaments and all these EC, WC,....


Pero

__________________
Why ground the albatros, just because penguins can't fly

Where's the Turks? I must agree with Liam on this one. I remember talking to them after our friendly game in 2002. I think one player on the team had tried underwater hockey before the tournament. Most of the team had played underwater rugby. They were quite litterally new players. Sure they got smoked, but they came to worlds asking questions about play, gear, teams, clubs, EVERYTHING. They made contacts with players, they were (still are) a really good friendly group smiling and laughing and learning. I don't think as a club they would be where they are today without this first attempt. Still growing but you have to start somewhere and I think if most of the teams that have played in their first worlds or euro's in the last 10 years waited until they were a bigger club they still would be waiting.

__________________
An aquifer is a water bearing layer of rock or soil. Aquifers are separated by impermeable layers of rock or clay called an aquitard. Aquitard, however may sound a bit offensive to some, and therefore we will be changing the name to Aquachallenge.

Tuck is perfectly right. You have to start somewhere and the sooner is the better.

Torto, when we attended Marseille EC there were 6 teams in Belgium (Mantis, Genk, Bilzen, Buwh, Gent, Menen). 4 were decreasing (today 2 of them have even disappeared) and the 2 others were created in 2004 (Bilzen & Buwh).

Most players in Marseille were coming from the new teams