faire du waterpolo?

Question

I was marked wrong for "jouer au waterpolo". The correct answer was revealed to be "faire du waterpolo". Can you explain why waterpolo takes "faire de"? I consider it a team sport, it uses balls, all hallmarks for me to use jouer à.

Merci !

Accepted Answer

Hi Andrea,
It is just the way it is...
Take a look at the following article which confirms this -
https://trendy.letudiant.fr/paroles-de-champions-pourquoi-faire-du-water-polo-a3063.html

Answer

Thank you Cécile. I see the title. However, within the article itself it said Romain, 15 ans, joue au water-polo depuis quatre ans.

So it seems both terms work? Or really "faire de" is the only correct answer?

It's okay, I just was surprised to see it used both ways in the article given to support the one correct answer.

Answer

Hi Andrea, 
Interesting point!
There is, I think, a slight difference between faire du waterpolo and jouer au waterpolo.
It would be the same for playing rugby for instance -
You might say :
Mon fils fait du rugby = My son plays rugby  ( meaning the activity , he doesn’t play football, tennis etc.)
But 
Mon fils joue au rugby le samedi matin = My son plays rugby on Saturday morning
Meaning, he is playing in a rugby match.
It’s a subtlety that doesn't exist in English.
In the case of waterpolo, my initial reaction would be to say ‘faire du waterpolo’ (the activity) and ‘jouer du waterpolo’ for the matches.
In the second example- 
“Romain, 15 ans joue au waterpolo depuis 4 ans”, faire would have been equally acceptable as it is the activity.
Hope it helps Andrea, as not easy to explain...