FAQ
UWR seems brutal and dangerous? Actually, it’s one of the safest teamsports.
The sport is physical, but the rules all have safety in mind. The most important one is that you can only hold someone if that player is in possesion of the ball. The reversed meaning is that if you are out of air and being tackled, you can simply let go of the ball and surface freely for air.
The water absorbs much of the impacts and reduces wear on joints. All forms of violance are forbidden by the rules and two scuba referees make sure these rules are kept under the surface as well as above.
UWR has been around for half a century and it is present in more than 30 countries, yet the world is more aware of kids playing quidditch holding broomsticks between their legs. It may seem suprising first, but their is an explanation to it.
One of the international diving federations, CMAS, governs 2 teamsports, UWH and UWR, and most of finswimming. Unlike FINA, CMAS focuses on (fin)swimming only, leaving the teamsports to struggle on their own. UWH had a head start of 10 years, and it started to spread out amongst Commonwealth countries, which also helped with the language barriers a bit. More importantly, underwater hockey does not need diving pools to be played in, which further increases UWH’s availability. Finally, social media and waterproof sport cameras has only been around for a decade and they are vital to show the game to an audience.
Swimming is often recommended to people as a healthy workout. Rugby makes swimming insanely fun and mastering swimming very easy. So if you like fun and water you’d probably be into UWR too. Being an obscure sport, you are likely to find remarkable characters from around the world who dared to find something unique to love. Chances are, if you are reading this, you may be one too. So get out there and dive into UWR!
These risks are associated with diving for a reason, but neither of them occurs in UWR. We are not prone to decompression sickness as we are diving free. When it comes to shallow water blackouts, it’s important to understand that the condition rises from hyperventillation not from the fact that one is underwater. If you doubt that, you may achieve the same condition on the surface, but I advise you not to, as if you faint, you may hit your head badly. In rugby, we do not advocate lengthy dives at all, as the game is not about staying underwater, it’s about scoring and defending your own goal from your opponent. The shorter your dives are, the more likely you’ll be able to dive again when needed. Instead of teaching hyperventillation to extend our dives like some freedivers, we forbid the technique for safety reasons. Hyperventillation works tricking your body’s sensors so you don’t get the urge to breathe despite reaching hypoxic state. Know about it, read about it, don’t do it.
According to a study, the most common risk or injury is injury of the leading hand btw.