Waterpolo and Home Office

Greetings everyone. It is now more than evident that the world before the coronavirus was hanging by a few small threads that have now snapped. We are all aware that the system has collapsed, and now we are all trying to create a new system while somehow maintaining the positions we held in the old system, whether in the market or in some social hierarchy. This is not the first time that systems have collapsed and new ones have been created.

One tactic that many use to maintain their positions during crises is to have greater financial stability than their competitors. Then we play games to see who will break first. One can break mentally or financially, but someone will have to break. Whoever survives will take over a part of their competitor’s market share and stay afloat. Unless we are talking about a disappearing market. When you delve into all this, it becomes very interesting to see what professions and markets once ruled the world but no longer exist today. Currently, it is fascinating to observe the collapse of Hollywood and everything connected to it.

Hollywood was born about a hundred years ago as a reaction to the monopoly in the film world at that time. The man who supposedly invented the camera and triggered the migration of the American film scene from the East Coast to the West Coast is well-known: Thomas Edison. I wrote “supposedly” because I assume everyone can understand it without further explanation. At the beginning of the last century, this notorious poacher, along with ten other film producers and distributors, attempted to completely monopolize the film industry, and the reaction to their move gave birth to today’s Hollywood. People often argue about the origin of Nikola Tesla for various reasons, forgetting the real essence of the life story of this genius. The fact is that he died poor and in misery in a hotel in New York, exploited and taken advantage of by figures like Edison. But let’s get back to the topic.

Currently, many corporations are losing a significant portion of their own value due to the decline in the value of their office buildings, which will create the need for new sources of real estate capital for these corporations. Pools are ideal for such endeavors, as many other developed sports already utilize similar strategies. Some even hold auctions for the naming rights of their arenas, where the highest bidder gets their name associated with the venue for the next few years. The problem with pools lies in the cost of their maintenance and the carbon footprint associated with it, but these issues can be addressed. The future is electric, and it seems that pools currently suffer from relying too much on a single energy source for generating electricity.

The future of generating energy is not solely dependent on wind, solar, water, carbon, geothermal sources, ocean currents, or uranium. Instead, it lies in combining all of the mentioned sources, and for now, pools lag behind other sports venues and arenas in this regard. Generally speaking, many things have remained unchanged for a long time, and this doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. If something is good, why change it? However, it’s essential to periodically review things and see if it’s a suitable time for some changes. Just because most pools have been heated in the same way for decades doesn’t mean that potentially better and more efficient solutions don’t exist today. We won’t find out unless we seriously explore this topic.

I recently watched a waterpolo interview with a waterpolo official, and it really got on my nerves. He said that there are no players like the ones from before, back in his playing days. However, he praised the referees, rules, and the overall waterpolo system of today, saying they are much better organized now compared to the past. He mentioned that in the past, you could witness brilliant moves that are no longer possible today. And this really irritated me. Today’s average player would have been a superstar in the past era of waterpolo players. The old centers wouldn’t stand a chance against today’s defenders, especially because centers can no longer push off the pool floor. Today’s centers would with their explosiveness outperform the center defenders that existed before. And don’t get me started on goalkeepers who had to defend brilliant shots from 7 meters or further, while defenders were allowed to use both hands in the block. Games often ended with scores like 3:2 or 4:2 due to their virtuosity. As for the ’80s, it seemed like playing chess was faster than the waterpolo back then. Maybe it’s not fair for me to speak this way about the old players because there were some amazing players who could probably compete in today’s waterpolo as well. But this comment just really annoyed me, so I feel compelled to express some uncomfortable truths that are rarely said. It’s not right to tell these older generations that most of them realistically wouldn’t be able to play modern waterpolo the way they played 20-30-40 years ago. How can we explain to them that modern waterpolo players are like extraterrestrials compared to their era of waterpolo? As long as there are waterpolo officials who claim that players were better in the past and that waterpolo structure today is better than ever… I don’t know what to say. How can you respect someone who doesn’t respect you and still take them seriously? A new generation of waterpolo chair-sitters is coming, raised in a system where once they sit in a chair, they rarely leave it. I’m not worried about them; I’m worried that these modern chair-sitters don’t understand that the era of traditional waterpolo chair-sitting is behind us. And I don’t think they’re prepared for what comes with the modern seats of power.

Conclusion, home office is here to stay. It is not going anywhere. We are entering an era where individuals can work full-time or part-time jobs while playing serious waterpolo. There are a few catch 22s that each person needs to figure out for themselves, and I see no reason why the next generation of waterpolo players won’t start their first real jobs at around 20 years old, gaining work experience, while still pursuing their waterpolo dreams, and all along becoming more complete and well-rounded individuals for our community.

How these modern waterpolo officials, consultants, and others react to these new world changes will largely depend on their adaptation to the new lifestyle possibilities of the athletes within our sport. In this process, we all need to be a bit more understanding towards each other, both players in the pool and players outside the pool. There will always be some differences between generations, but at the end of the day, younger individuals should respect their elders, just as the older ones should respect the younger ones. My name is Tomo Bujas, and thank you for reading.