Underwater rugby

Underwater Rugby (UWR) is a sport that has its origin in the physical fitness training of German diving clubs and has little in common with “normal” Rugby except for the name. It is played in a pool with a depth of 3.5m to 5m and the goals (heavy metal buckets with a diameter of about 40cm) are at the bottom of the pool. Two teams (blue and white), each with six players (plus six substitutes), try to score a goal by sending the slightly negatively buoyant ball (filled with saltwater) into the opponents’ goal. It is a fast and exhausting game therefore the subs replace their players on the fly.

The game always takes place under water and the ball must not leave the water. The ball can be passed (in any direction) to the other players. It “flies” about 2m or 3m before it stops due to the water resistance. This makes good tactics and good (three dimensional) positioning essential. The players can use different abilities. Strength, speed, mobility or simply low consumption of oxygen are all similarly important.

Not many people play underwater rugby, because of this; UWR is often played in mixed male-female teams.It was a member of the German Underwater Club, Cologne by the name of Ludwig von Bersuda who in 1961 came up with the idea of a ball game underwater. Whether he got the idea from conditioning exercises with sand-filled bottles in the Munich Underwater Club, or some other thoughts played a role, will never be known.

An air-filled ball is not suitable for underwater games, since they are buoyant and always return to the surface. For this reason, Bersuda filled the ball with salt-water. Since the density of the ball was now greater than that of normal water, it no longer floated to the surface, but slowly sank to the bottom. The sink rate could, within certain limits, be controlled by the concentration of the salt solution. The first underwater ball was invented. Since soccer-balls were too large to be practical, water-polo balls were used.