M-for-N: M players for N positions.  Example: 3-for-2 means 3 players for 2 positions.

At tournaments, side-subbing is preferred to end-wall-subbing.  The sub-boxes are in the water but outside the play zone.  When subbing, the exiting player's head must break the surface of  the water within the box before the fresh player may enter the playing area.  At the Plunge, the area around the stairs will be the sub-box.

As teams are formed, choose an Offensive Coordinator (OC) and Defensive Coordinator (DC).  This person should choose a subbing strategy and inform other players how it works and ideal subbing frequency.

The subbing strategy should depend on the training and the attitude of the players.  If the players are untrained or tend to be negative about subbing, you can always fall back to Round-Robin.  If players are good about subbing quickly, then we'd be in better shape going to tournaments if the Coordinator chooses a more optimized subbing strategy.

Players play fixed positions, and the Coordinator chooses a player rotate through.  For example, if you have 3 players for 2 positions (3-for-2), 2 players will always stay in the same positions, and and the other will tell those players when to sub out.

Sub any time you believe the person subbed out is ready to go and don't worry so much about a structured rotation.  Most importantly, the focus needs to be on the sub and not whether you feel the need for a break.  During play, the main trade-off should be your distance from the sub-box.  If you are far, wait for a stoppage of play.  If you are very close to the sub-box, keep subbing on every breath until the puck is cleared. The player in the sub-box should be back in the game after every stoppage of play.  At tournaments, sub out *before* you find out why the play stopped, and swim fast to the sub-box - you're about to get a break!

Having only one sub for any set of positions avoids confusion.  If you have 6 players for 3 positions, go 2-for-1 (often inconsistently referred to as 1-for-1) for each position.  If you have 5 players for 3 positions, split 3-for-2 for two positions and 2-for-1 for the other.  The position with 2-for-1 could be either the center or the near-side, depending on the players and formation.

 index finger for near-side, index and middle fingers for center, and index, middle and ring ringers for far side.