Water Polo Urged As Aid To Swimmers

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31967, 19 April 1969, Page 15

Water Polo Urged As Aid To Swimmers

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON. Water polo would play a vital role in the winter training programme of Wellington swimmers, and Canterbury would be well advised to follow suit, said the prominent Wellington water polo coach and swimming administrator, Mr W. H. Dyson, yesterday. Canterbury bad done well in age group swimming, he said, but Wellington could make up the leeway with its imaginative scheme during the off-season. Mr Dyson said that water polo would be used in the conditioning programmes of the leading swimmers, and it would also help relieve the monotony of pool training.

But the game would have far reaching effects on the “bread and butter" swimmers as well. It would help to keep these competitor interested in the sport and, as a consequence, would hold those parents who were administrators or officials. Mr Dyson, a pre-war national breaststroke champion, said he had been a great believer in winter training since bis schooldays, when he swain in the old Dunedin tepid baths between seasons. Christchurch had a wonderful asset in the Wharenui covered pool and if good use was made of it in the next few months, Canterbury swimmers would show up favourably in 1969-70.