CORAL SPRINGS, FLA. (WSVN) - A sport that will literally take your breath away: Underwater rugby. A rapidly growing sport that’s making it’s first big splash in South Florida communities.
Hoping to compete on the world stage, the high-intensity sport is a combination of swimming and rugby.
“It’s a sport played in the deep end of a swimming pool. Six versus six. We’re trying to put a negatively buoyant ball into a goal at the bottom of the pool,” said Cyrus Katrak, an underwater rugby enthusiast.
Playing rugby under the bottom of a 12-foot deep swimming pool is a game of timing, breath control, composure, and resilience.
“It can be a little intense. It just takes time and patience and training to get to the point where you can maintain your composure in a situation especially when you have two, maybe three people tackling you,” said Katrak.
This game of endurance requires players to solely depend on their lungs, a concept that leaves non-aquatic rugby players in disbelief.
“When you tell people it’s, you know they’re like ‘Underwater rugby?’ And you try to explain and it’s like, ‘Yes, it’s in a deep pool and you go down and you have to be down’ and their first reaction is ‘How do you breathe? You have tanks?’ No, you use your lungs. It’s tough, but it’s fun,” said Julia Gomez, a Colombian national team member.
This niche sport that originated in Germany during the early 1960s is beginning to gain popularity globally and across the United States.
“We’ve seen major clubs pop up around the U.S. you know actually globally it’s bigger than in the United States. It started in Germany, currently, the world champions are the Colombians in both the men and women and we’re starting to see it grow in the U.S. a lot,” said Tim Brown, a U.S. national team member.
Just last month, underwater rugby made its debut at the Coral Springs Aquatic Center as some of the best in the sport came together for the Underwater Rugby National Championship.
“Certainly there’s a physical aspect to the sport. There’s a lot of cardiovascular endurance that’s required. To really excel at the sport, you need a lot of strength, teamwork as well, but then the mental side of it is really interesting too, learning to stay calm, learning to really control your breath,” said Katrak.
Transitioning to underwater rugby is best for people who already specialize in water activities. For people that primarily do land sports this is hard sport to jump right into and should proceed with caution.
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