Shelby Richardson, president of the USA Tug Of War Association (TOWA), says competitive tugging isn’t as simple as it looks.
Much technique is required to pull off a tug-of-war win, from the strategic placement of the rope to the positioning of the body.
Richardson says being fit is crucial for the sport, since it requires upper-body, leg, and abdominal strength.
Competitive tuggers train daily with cardio so that they won’t run out of breath during intense match-ups, which can last upwards of four minutes.
With eight tuggers to a team, Richardson says the sport is a group effort.
The “game of inches” is centers around being aggressive and adding pressure to the opposing team to make them as “uncomfortable” as possible.
However, that doesn’t include letting the rope go so the other team falls, since that would be “unsportsmanlike.”
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