Hi, this Sunday there will be a 7 vs 7 rope pulling (I don't know the popular term in English) internal competition in my company. The match will be played on soccer field. Reluctantly I accepted the responsibility as team leader, but I don't know the strategies.
For example:
The best arrangement of position (relative to the strength of the 7 team members)
When to pull/duration between each pull
The best gear to wear (shoes, shorts/pants)
What if we have to face stronger team (one of the team is the team security guards for example).
Could you wise JOSers give any stratagems?

Thanks

Tug of War.

Heaviest people at the end of the rope, wear studded boots if possible. Have them lean back on the rope and walk back dipping their hips and pulling just before walking back, they have to pull together. Winning Tug of War is usually momentum and as soon as one team gets into a rhythm that's usually it. Well matched teams may get into a see saw cycle and then its a matter of endurance.

Heaviest/strongest guy at the back
One or two practice runs to get the rhythm of pulling together "pull... pull... pull..."
If you have any open-minded women, put them in front and get them to flash the other team when you're against the security guards.

Philo

Actually "1 ... 2 ... 3 ... heeeeave ... heeeeave ... heeeeave ..." is easier to say when panting.

Hold on to the rope tightly. At a pre-arranged signal, everyone on your team lets go. The other team technically wins, but they're the ones falling on their ass and getting laughed at, and do you really care about winning this.  ;)

> The best gear to wear (shoes, shorts/pants)

Wear studs on your feet: e.g., given that it's on a soccer field, studded rugby boots.

> Have them lean back on the rope and walk back dipping their hips

Imagine the following:

#1 Hold on to a rope

#2 Walk your feet forward until you're leaning backward (holding on to the rope) at an angle of, say, 45 degrees, with your back and legs straight(*)

#3 From position #2, without moving any other part of your body, bend your knees slightly ... when you bend at the knee then your body length becomes (effectively) shorter, and therefore your overall attitude becomes more nearly horizontal

#4 From position #3, unbend (straighten) your kmees ... this is the tug, where you're really pulling on (competing against) the other team

#5 Assuming that you won the tug in #4, the other team has given or is giving ground ... so this is your opportunity to take a step back, and goto/repeat from #3 above

(*) I mean more or less straight, because totally straight isn't physiologically possible ... and don't hurt your back: this exercise could be similar to lifting a really heavy weight; so I'd try to practice the opposite of the four faults listed in http://www.pt.ntu.edu.tw/hmchai/Kines04/KINapplication/StandingPosture.files/SwayBack.png

What else ... how do you prevent hands from slipping on the rope? I don't know ... perhaps chalk dust, or rubber gloves.

> What if we have to face stronger team

Three tactics.

The first, obviously, is to get lower: you should stand less vertically than the other team, more nearly horizontally.

The second tactic might be to be quicker when the signal to pull is given (if the rules allow that). I used to play in the front row (as prop) of a scrum in a rugby-like game, where the opposing scrum were usually bigger than us ... to win that, we'd get lower (under the opposing row) and push *upwards* explosively as soon as the signal was given (because the other side can't push forward at all while you have lifted them off their feet ... you can't lift them off their feet in a tug-o'-war but the principles of getting lower and doing it earlier, ramping up more quickly, may still apply).

The third tactic is the timing of the heave-ho: if you do #3 and #4 quickly, i.e. try to straighten your legs while your body is still moving downward from #3, then your body's downward momentum too is converted into pull (having downward momentum to arrest makes your bodies effectively heavier).

were you a professional tug-of-war player in a previous life or something?

Me? No, I've no experience ... it was all 'plausible' advice, based on theory and experience of other activities (IANAPToWP, YMMV, etc). And Thursday evening was a Tai Chi class so I was feeling physical ... what's that word ... "haptic" ...