Each team has a substation area in the water at the edge of the court. When playing with a full team of ten players, there must always be four players in the sub box. To be considered to be in the sub box, the player must have their head visible to the chief referee inside the marked box. Players can sub anytime during the game, regardless of whether they play is stopped or not. As someone subs into the box, the player entering the game can not exit the box until the incoming player’s head is also above the surface of the water. The only time during the game that there does not have to be four players in the sub box is after a point has been scored, during half time, or during team timeouts. For all these situations, it is good practice to make sure the chief referee is signaling that one of these situations has occurred before exiting the sub box.
If a team has more than the allowed six players in the water at any time other than between points, half time or during a timeout, the play will be stopped. An illegal substitution foul will be called against that team and one player will have to serve a one minute penalty.
Demo video coming soon!
There are two sub boxes, both of which are located on the opposite side of the court from the chief referee and score table. They are five meters from the end wall and are one meter wide and five meters long. Teams use the sub box closer to their starting wall and will switch which sub box they use at half-time when they switch ends of the pool.
When the play is stopped for a foul, several players on both teams head to their sub boxes. The black team players clearly make sure their teammates are all the way in the box before they enter the play.
SUBSTITUTIONS