How to Play Tug-of-War

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Sports Apparel & Shoes
Garden Hoses And Attachments And Water Source
Measuring Tapes
Resins
Ropes
Sports Referee Whistles
White Spray Paints Or Flour
Colored Electrical Tapes

Step 1

Find a level, grassy area to play on.
Step 2

Make a line on the ground with flour or paint. This will be the center line. You can put a wading pool there or, better yet, make a big mud pit for the losers to fall into.
Step 3

Choose a non-player to be the judge. His job is to mark the rope, start the pull, determine a winner, and watch for people breaking the rules.
Step 4

Mark a 120-foot rope at the center with tape. If you make knots in the rope, be sure that they are at matching intervals from the center.
Step 5

Measure 15 feet from the center in each direction and tape the rope at those points. When this line crosses the line on the ground, the team on that end has lost.
Step 6

Make one more set of tape marks 2 feet further from the ones you just made. This is as far as each team is allowed to get to the center of the rope.
Step 7

Form two teams of at least six people each. The teams should have equal numbers of people.
Step 8

Make the largest person the anchor. This is the position at the end of the rope behind the rest of the team.
Step 9

Line both teams up on their respective ends of the rope. Stagger each person so that one is to the right of the rope and the next is to the left.
Step 10

Have everyone pick up the rope and hold it tight, taking up the slack between the two teams. The judge can now line up the center tape over the line.
Step 11

When the judge decides the teams are ready, he yells, "Pull!"
Step 12

Each team pulls until one side's tape crosses the line.

Comments

tazer said

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on 3/31/2007 Visit www.nortontugofwar.com to find out more information on tug of war

Anonymous said

on 8/8/2006 When you are just about ready to tug, put your team in a checkerboard pattern. For example; put one person on one side and then another on the other side and so on.

on 12/28/2005 With really large teams, or not-so-juvenile team members, the forces employed can get so intense that the rope will break. In this case, especially synthetic fiber ropes tend to react with an elastic backlash of both free ends toward the teams, potentially resulting in severe injuries of those hit. To prevent this, use one of the following:
a) The obvious: Use strong ropes (beyond household quality, as those used in boating)
b) Twist together three ropes of the same strength, like a braid.
c) Use ropes made from natural materials, such as hemp ropes of the kind used for hanging up a swing. These will just break without producing a backlash - so team members will only fall on their behinds in case of a rope break, but nothing worse.

on 11/22/2005 This game requires enormous supervision. A student from a school in Victoria, Australia had his hand 'removed' in 2002 when he eluded his teacher's eyes for just a split second, wrapped the rope around his wrist and it ended in tragedy!