Water Polo As “Play and War”: A Theoretical Analysis Through the Lens of Johan Huizinga

The theories of Johan Huizinga in his book, Homo Ludens, regarding play and war relate directly to many sports, specifically water polo. Water polo is a sport requiring physical and mental strength of a different caliber than all other sports. The concept of play in the game can similarly be compared to the international law that Huizinga speaks of on page 208 of Homo Ludens. Huizinga’s description of the supposed etiquette to be followed under international law governs most of our everyday lives. The main principles, for anything to be successful, Huizinga says, lay “outside the strict domain of law,” (pg. 208). Additionally, Huizinga “explicitly recognizes that the integrity of the system rests on a general willingness to keep to the rules,” (p. 208). This system for which international law is maintained is replicated and enforced for the sport of water polo in an all-to-similar fashion and is more formerly know as the NCAA 9-to-5 Drug Testing Policy (UC Berkeley, Department of Sports Medicine). This drug testing policy primarily serves as a guideline for the athletes with hope sustaining eligibility. Breaking any of the rules by using any of the banned substances results in a dismissal from the team and becoming ineligible. The similarities between this athletic policy and international law fall hand in hand as well with war. War in the international sense is the physical violence between two or more States. In the athletic sense, it is the physical competition one team faces with another. During water polo, often, play and war are closely related. The physicality, rules and code of conduct are what link the aspect of play in water polo to play and war.

The relationship between play and war, Huizinga says, “can be cruel and bloody and, in addition, can often be false play,” (p. 208). More importantly, however, his work describing archaic warfare as a noble game is also applicable to the sport of water polo due to the games development of such a prestigious and commendable set of rules and guidelines. The principles Huizinga speaks of (p. 208), when he perceives war as a noble game, are emulated for the foundation on which water polo is made. “Honour, decency, and good form,” are the play-rules that the noble game of war is based on. The expectations that men will fight with honor, fight with high morals, and fight by the rules. Once these play-rules have been broken, society, in this case water polo, “falls into barbarism and chaos,” (p. 210). In the context of a water polo game, when these play-rules have been broken, something called “clearing the bench,” happens. At this point, Huizinga says that, “the code of honour is flouted, the rules of the game are set aside, international law is broken, and all the ancient associations of war with ritual and religion are gone,” (p. 210). The relationship between play and war and the many meanings of the pair serves as an adequate tool for the in-depth analysis of a rigorous sport such as water polo.

Works Cited
• Huizinga, Jonah. Homo Ludens. Beacon Books, 1971.
• NCAA Drug Testing. Berkeley: UC Berkeley, 2007.