FORUMS > Water Polo Forum Rules

a bud of mine says his team in California used to practice in the nude
anybody else ever experience this?

Entirely possible, if your bud is roughly your age. But he would have been fairly young to have trained when it was still possible for men-only swim times & practice to be conducted in the nude. I swam naked when it was the rule for men & boys in many pools.

Most of that ended by around the early 1980s. Of course, a private team practicing in a private pool can always voluntarily choose to dispense with suits. But prior to the 1980s institutional nude male swimming still existed in some US pools. Nowadays it's rare and limited to a very few exclusive men's athletic clubs.

This sounds almost unbelievable...

but isn't water polo a sort of rough sport? Wouldn't there be a bit of "damage"?

Does swimming in the nude make you go faster than swimming with that speedo suit?

There was a story in the New York Times a couple of years ago on the long tradition of nude swimming in elite men's clubs in New York:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/28/fashion/thursdaystyles/28nude.html

I don't recall any mention of water polo, though.

Red_Vespa saidEntirely possible, if your bud is roughly your age. But he would have been fairly young to have trained when it was still possible for men-only swim times & practice to be conducted in the nude. I swam naked when it was the rule for men & boys in many pools.

Most of that ended by around the early 1980s. Of course, a private team practicing in a private pool can always voluntarily choose to dispense with suits. But prior to the 1980s institutional nude male swimming still existed in some US pools. Nowadays it's rare and limited to a very few exclusive men's athletic clubs.

Um, which ones :-)

I've lost suits from being ripped off in water polo (always wear two at the same time just in case). Games can get pretty vicious with pulling, tearing, and nails going at each other, so I like to have some cover in those delicate areas. Swimming nude, fine by me, but water polo nude, I'll pass.

beaujangle said
so which clubs can u do it in the nude? I'm curious.

SockMonkey already gave a link to a NY Times article on the subject, which I'll repost here. This is also to answer the same question by AlterEgo.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/28/fashion/thursdaystyles/28nude.html?_r=1

I played water polo in high school. It's a dangerous sport for the genitalia...definitely not something I would ever attempt in the nude.

Me and a couple buds thought we'd try it nude and it wasn't anything special. Water polo nude is just like water polo in trunks.

lol, I remember playing water polo and being grabbed by my nuts through the suit, couldn't imagine it in the nude... the pain...

maybe if you tell everybody to take off their suits, and ask them to play nice . . . I'm sure they would

pecmansd saidmaybe if you tell everybody to take off their suits, and ask them to play nice . . . I'm sure they would

I suppose it all depends upon what you mean by "play."

BTW, when I reposted that NY Times link about nude pools above, courtesy of SockMonkey, I was merely endorsing it as providing exactly the answer a couple of guys here had asked me (and getting me off the hook from having to do the research myself to find that article, which I've seen before).

In other words, Sock's answer was the answer I would have given, too (thanks, SockMonkey). One question to me had posted to my computer before Sock's reply, and the other after, but I combined my reply to them out of convenience, and not being sure if the second guy had seen Sock's comment on his own computer yet when he questioned me.

Which may have led to the misimpression that I was implying the second questioner was incapable of understanding Sock's answer or something. Sorry if that happened, the sequence of these discussion threads can get all jumbled and lead to misunderstandings.

I play in Toronto's GLBT team and sometimes, when I'd get stupid questions like "what's the difference between a gay team and a straight team I'd say we play in the nude" just to play with their head.

As for being serious about playing in the nude, we wear nylon suits that are so tight they actually hurt so you can't get a good grip on anything in a game. Playing nude, while it sounds sexy and hot, would actually be a really bad thing, you don't want to give the opponent anything to grab in the pool.

related curious question:
Do you think there's a higher percentage of gay guys who play water polo than in the general population?

Our teams (high school and college) never practiced in the nude. Our pools were open and visible to women and other spectators. The game is rough (as others have said above me here) and I agree - you don't want to give your opponents anything to grab. You get grabbed and kicked, some violence happens that hopefully the refs miss out on. I can't imagine playing nude!

Second part of your question about a higher percentage of gay guys playing polo? I'd have to say I only wish that could be the case - but I'm afraid not - at least in my experience. Anybody else have newer or hotter experiences?

ouch on the water polo ..but i can remember when nude swimming was kinda normal for same sex even in school. Funny how somethings have become so much more conservative in such liberal times.

blah blah blah

someone e-mail me when pictures are posted

pecmansd saidrelated curious question:
Do you think there's a higher percentage of gay guys who play water polo than in the general population?

Ummm... I dunno. Always played in Speedo briefs, lots of physical contact, all the guys in perfect physical shape. Have to get back to you on that...

Sounds like time for an 'end of summer' pool party for the RJ boys!

When/Where?

Well, let's start a polo team where we all play nekkid . . .

pecmansd saidWell, let's start a polo team where we all play nekkid . . .

Good idea! But actually the question was "training" in the nude, not playing. A lot of guys have replied here about the unlikelihood of playing nude, to which I would agree. But training could be a different matter.

Years ago men & boys were often compelled to use indoor pools naked unless in some competitive event with mixed spectators. It was about pool filtration costs due to the linty fabrics of older swim suits, and hygiene concerns before modern pool chemicals & monitoring had been developed. And simply a holdover custom from earlier times, which maintained that males only wore swim suits to spare females a scandalous sight, but in whose absence suits were an unnecessary bother.

Nude polo training...Sounds like an orgy to me

There is something about being naked in a pool that gives me an instant erection. It just feels so erotic. That said, I don't think I would have lasted long at a nude Water Polo practice

I played water polo in college and in grad school - but never in the nude. Things can get kind of rough in the game and it seemed to me the pain from shots in the nuts was bad enough with a suit on. I like skinny dipping and fooling around with guys in pools, but I always kept it separate from water polo. As far as finding other gay polo players, in grad school I fooled around (out of the pool) with a team mate. Our first time together was a classic two team mates get very drunk scene. From then we were v good fwb's.