Tualatin Hills Water Polo Club has programs for all ages and experience levels.  The goal in all of our programs to provide players with the knowledge and skills to help them achieve whatever goals they may have.  The base of every water polo player is fundamentals, the basic skills needed to play.  These skills are taught from the first day forward and on through the player\'s entire career.  Along with the fundamental skills, game strategy, tactics, and dryland training are involved at all levels. 
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As with other sports, our programs are dictated by a players age.  In the world of water polo, a players age group is based on their year of birth.  You are classified in age group based on your age on December 31.  As an example, if you are 14 on December 31, 2007 you are a 14/Under for the entire year of 2007.  There are times when we do classify players based on their grade in school.  This is usually for players that are still in  eighth grade, but have a birthday that many other players of the same age are in high school. 
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During the fall months, most high school players are playing with their school.  While the older players are involved in high school water polo, our younger players practice and develop their skills and take part in games and tournaments. Much of their game experience comes from scrimmages against each other.  After the high school water polo season is over, we welcome back our older players.  All programs at this time work on fundamental skills, basic tactics and developing team chemistry. 
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After winter break, the players come back to practicing regularly and start to prepare for upcoming tournaments.  The practice plans start to involve more and more tactics and the conditioning phase becomes more critical.  Dryland is of extreme importance, as this is the best time of year to gain strength.  High school swim season wraps up and we welcome more players back into the fold. 
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The spring months offer more tournaments for all of our players.  We continue to work on tactical skills, conditioning and fundamentals.  More scrimmaging takes place in practice, as more particular game phases are worked in. 
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During the summer is when the most notable changes to practices happen. The high school players have practice up to two times a day.  There is morning workouts for all high school players, and evenings for all ages.  During the summer there are increasingly more tournaments available for all players and age groups!
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USA Pacific Northwest United is a cooperative agreement between T-Hills and Washington Water Polo club.  Its goal is to increase the level of play by pooling the resources of the two clubs.  In an effort to provide our players with the highest level of games possible, United hosts the largest tournaments in the region, competes in all major national tournaments, and has opportunities to travel internationally.  The team structure is based of the national team system, where players come together over select weekends, trains together, scrimmages, breaks down tactics and game strategy together.  These weekends are extremely important on multiple levels.  It is a chance for players to see who they are competing with for game time, develop camaraderie with players from other areas, create highly competitive scrimmage situations, a chance to get to know and learn from the staff that they don\'t see on a daily basis, exposure to college and national team coaches.   Being a part of United provides our players with access to some of the best coaching in the country, and a greater number of game opportunities for those who want to compete.  Being a part of United in not mandatory, however the coaching staff strongly recommends player\'s participation at all ages.
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12/Under
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The 12/Under program is a truly grass roots program.  The main goal of this program is to provide an introduction to water polo and to teach fundamental skills while having a good time.  Much of what goes on in this program is getting young players comfortable with the water and the ball.  A typical practice would include swimming, moving with the ball, passing, shooting and a whole lot of fun.  Basic game tactics will be taught, but the main focus in on developing individual skills.
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14/Under
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As the younger players get older, their desire for more competition grows.  The practices are still heavily rooted in fundamentals, and how to use these fundamentals in game situations.  Accordingly, game tactics play a more prevalent role in practice.  All phases of the game are taught, set up offense and defense, transition and man up or man down situations.  These practices and the program is designed to prepare a player for high school water polo, or to compete at local and national level tournaments.  A typical practice would include swim conditioning, ball skills, passing, shooting, counter attacks, and game situations.
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High School
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Players in this group are either in high school, or will be soon.  There are many local high schools that have water polo, and our program sees players from many of these schools.  Some players wish to become better high school players and some wish to see what they can do after high school.  This program accommodates all of these goals. By playing more and creating a competitive practice environment, players will experience success at the high school level.  Practice plans are developed based on the time of year.  In the winter, the focus is on more individual skills with game basics, and heading into the summer months, the focus shifts to game tactics and theory.
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