Canoe Polo combines kayaking and ball handling skills into an exciting contact team game, where tactics and positional play are as important as the speed and fitness of the individual players. The game requires excellent teamwork and promotes both general paddling skills and a range of other techniques unique to the sport. Each team has five players on the pitch (and up to three substitutes), who compete to score in their opponents goal which is suspended two metres above the water. The ball can be thrown by hand, or flicked with the paddle to pass between players and shoot at the goal. Paddling with the ball is not allowed, so teamwork is essential. Pitches can be set up in swimming pools or any stretch of flat water. The boats are specifically designed for Polo and are faster and lighter than typical kayaks which give them fantastic manoeuvrability. The boats also sport nose and tail bumpers for safety, and full face guards and specially padded buoyancy aids are also required to be worn at all times.