A. Categories
1. International eight members’ competition: classified with total weights, from 480kg to 720kg, one category of each 40kg.
2. Traditional tug-of-war competition: people limits, rare weighs limits.
3. Games of tug-of-war sport: cross tug-of-war, sun tug-of-war, circular tug-of-war, train tug-of-war .etc.
4. Chinese ancient tug-of-war: martial tactics later developed as a ceremony touring performance.
Above 1&2 are official competition, 3 is game activity, 4 is performance. 3&4 are not for competitions because they do not have clear rules and fair referee. Large numbers of members and different directions of forces make it unsafe.
B. Tug-of-war Rules
1. Two hands palm upward, no wrapping hands like “8” to avoid injury (no gloves).
2. Put the rope under arms (keep the rope from wrapping arms).
3. Put the tiptoes ahead of knees (no squat).
Above three are basic postures of tug-of-war. No squat but stretch the whole body.
C. Fouls
1. About rope: locking, climbing the rope, rowing etc.
2. About body: touching the ground with any part of the body other than feet for an extended period, deliberately sitting or falling on the ground etc.
3. About field: stepping outside the demarcated pulling area, etc
D. Rope
1. Texture: Manila rope
2. Spec: at least 33.5-m or 110-ft long
Tensile pulling force: 6000-8000kg
50m/m tensile pulling force is 4 000kg can take a competition of 60 members in total (general for schools).
3. Rope length
1) Eight players: over 25m for indoor games, over 33.5m for outdoor games.
2) Traditional outdoor competition: 30 players each team, length of the rope should be over 70m. each player should have 1m safe distance to each other.
3) Safe distance for two teams: 5m for indoor, 10m for outdoor.
E. Rope Inspection and maintenance
1. Inspection
1) Manila rope should be keep away from and water and keep dry. It’ll become hard or go moldy when wet.
2) If three strands Manila rope become loose, cannot be used again.
3) If one of the three stands wear out or raised, cannot be used again.
4) For used rope, the middle one bears the largest tensile pulling force and will become the thinnest one. Double up the rope. If the center points had 2m/m less or over 4m/m apart, cannot be used again.
5) The end of the rope can loose easily, which should be fixed well by tape or thin lead wire or just knot it.
2. Maintenance
1) Eight-player game rope: 38m/m thick, 33.5m length, 35kg weight (32m/m thick, 28m length, 21kg weight)
A. Hold in a 1m square canvas bag and put in ventilated place;
B. Hold in a 1m rectangular basket, no expose to direct sunlight;
C. It’s better to be held with standard ropewinder, which is rare in China at this moment.
2) Traditional rope: 50m/m thick, 70m length, 130kg weight. It’s too large and heavy to carry and keep. Therefore, it is often pulled from the land and kept in the corner. Only large ropewinder can make it easy.
F. Fields
1. International eight-player game
1) Indoor: except using official tug-of-war track, clear wood floor or PU ground are also options.
2) Outdoor: flat grassy patch of land
2. Traditional tug-of-war:
1) Flat grassy patch of land, not hard playground.
2) PU track
G. Costume and protection equipments
1. Long sleeve thick cloth to protect armpit;
2. Long or short sports pants; can use kneecaps to protect legs;
3. Shoes better to be antiskid with flat shoe soles. For indoor game, can wear volleyball shoes with shoelaces tight.
4. Backfielder shall wear safety helmet and shoulder belts.
5. All players can tie sashes to protect waists and increase strength
H. Process
1. Pre-competition
1) All players wear costumes and equipments.
2) Players take position on either sides of the center line after entering the arena with 1m distance from each other.
3) Judges to check hands and shoe soles.
4) Only coach and team leader are allowed to enter the arena to instruct competition. Rest substitutes and cheerleaders should be at auditorium.
2. Start
1) After judges finish checking, all players are in position, and the field is clear, then the referee can start the competition.
2) The referee commands: pick up the rope---take the string—steady---pull.
3) All players look at the referee’s gesture command (no whistling or firing shot).
3. End
1) As soon as the part of the rope marked with the white tape (four-meter tape) crosses over the center line, the team which has pulled the rope to their side wins. For eight-player game, there is no time limitation.
2) For outdoor game, the white tape (four-meter tape) crosses over the center line;
3) For traditional game, also the same. Or can judge according to the time limitation.
4. Congratulations
1) After the referee announcing the result, each team salute to each other. Players raise their right hands. Players of losing team run across wining team and clap hands for congratulations.
2) Whole teams leave the field by instruction of the referee.
I. Precautions
1. Coach shall learn about player’s situation. Players with following situation are forbade to attend games: heart disease, asthma, hypertension, habitual dislocation etc.
2. Players shall warm and stretch out, can drink some water.
3. Players shall not hold breath for long time. The whole team shall exert forces, shout out and breathe with rhythm.
4. The referee shall check the rope carefully before the game; pay close attention to abnormal change of the rope from the center line to the first player.
5. The referee shall guarantee enough safe space during the game; shall not let external factors influence the game.
6. The referee blows whistle to announce the end of the game and run to hold middle of the rope. Players shall not let the rope go all of a sudden.
7. Players shall never let the rope go all of a sudden or shake the rope to make opponents fall down and then pull the rope. It’s seriously against the spirit of shorts and the referee can announce disqualification.
8. Apart from instruct how to compete during the game, the coach shall also check if palyers’ postures are right for safety.
9. For outdoor games on the grassy land, the referee shall check if it is necessary to change track after one game.