This water polo team is pretty new. You guys aren’t even practicing yet?

We are in the recruiting process. We’ve got about 30 people who are interested in playing right now. And I’ve found two places aside from the Water Cube—because no one plays in the Cube—that would be ideal for training. I’ve basically spent the past few months finding people who’d like to play.

Were you able to play during that time?

I spent the first two months looking on my own before getting in contact with the local Beijing team. They’re all Chinese. I’ve been training with them and for a while I was the only foreigner. I’ve since found three or four people to come play with me as well. The problem is the Chinese are doing 30 hours a week in the pool. As foreigners, we all have jobs. So what I’m trying to do is establish an expatriate team so we can find more reasonable hours to play.

You played water polo for your university in the U.S. What’s your impression of how it’s played here in China?

Since I’ve trained with the local team, I can tell you that from the Chinese end they are very into training, almost more so than playing. In the weight room and in the pool doing sets, I was getting beat. They were crushing me. But when they got to play in a game, you could see they lacked that vision and experience. They haven’t had that much playing time.

So who can join the team?

Anyone with experience can show up. The people we’ve got have a fairly high level of experience. If people are serious about playing, we want them to come out. This isn’t like basketball where you can have a pickup game. People don’t play water polo for fun. But come if you have some playing experience and you want to play. Even if you are here for only six months, we’ll keep you in shape.

Interview by Zachary Franklin

DETAILS

What: Beijing Water Polo

Contact: richard.andrew.young@gmail.com

Web: http://groups.google.com/group/beijing-water-polo