HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1995-06-07, Page 14Tug of war - a serious pull
The Bluewater tug-of-war team, based out of Dashwood has their eye on international competition
Chris Skalkos T -A staff
DASHWOOD - Every Tuesday
night a group of 18 men meet on a
farm outside of Dashwood to prac-
tice one of the oldest sports known.
The Bluewater tug-of-war team
have been together for over two
years competing locally
and now they have their
sights set on inter-
national competition.
The name Tug of War
stems from the old Ger-
man words toga werra
meaning "a contest in
tugging." The sport can
be traced back to pre-
historic times when the
contest of pulling on a rope was part
of ancient ceremonies in Asian
countries.
It is primarily a team sport made
• up of eight athletes categorized into
team total weights. With two teams
pulling on opposing ends of a.rope
the goal of a tug-of-war team is to
pull the opponent team four meters
forward indicated by a marker on
the rope passing over the centerline
on the ground.
Athletes must use the musculature
of the body as a biomechanic lever
in order to produce maximum trac-
tive power, while walking back-
wards with a rope.
Tug-of-war was developed as a
sport as early as 2500 B.C. in an-
cient Egypt when groups of men
contested their strength by pulling
each other over a mark in the
ground using a rope. In Ancient
Greece tug-of-war was practiced
both as a competition and as phys-
ical exercise.
When the Olympics were revived
in the 1900's tug-of-war was fea-
tured on the program until 1920
when it was deleted by the Inter-
national Olympic Committee. As a
result National Athletic Gymnastic
Associations were not interested in
the tug-of-war discipline at the time
so the tug -of- war teams that existed
started to form their own associa-
lions. The first one was founded in
Sweden in 1933 and other countries
followed soon after.
The sport of tug-of-war is most
popular in Europe, however, it has
gained international recognition
when it was affiliated with the Gen-
eral Association of International
Sports Federation with pulling
competitions being organized
world-wide.
Eric Freiter, coach-
es the Bluewater
tug-of-war team
which practices
weekly on his farm
located north-west of
Dashwood.
Consisting of 18
male pullers, the
Bluewater team has
been competing in the provincial
league under the Ontario Tug -of -
War Association for over a year
now; however, the team's origins
date back to 1982 when a few area
farmers organized a rag -tag group
of men to enter the tug-of-war com-
petition in the Freidsburg Days cel-
ebration in Dashwood.
"We were sitting around the pic-
nic table having a couple of beers
when we decided to get a team to-
gether," says Freiter. "We were all
farmers so we called ourselves the
14th Sodbuaters," Freiter says ex-
plaining that most of the pullers
were from farms on concession 14
and 15 between Hay and Stephen
township.
"It was an excuse to get together
once a week. A lot of the guys wer-
en't involved in any sports so this
gave us something active to do,"
says Freiter. But after winning the
Freidsburg tug-of-war event for
four consecutive years and com-
peting in other local fairs the team
started to gain popularity with
many other people expressing inter-
est in joining.
After taking a seven year hiatus
the team made a revival changing
their name to Bluewater in order to
better represent the demographics
of the team.
They have been associate mem-
bers of the provincial league since
1993, and full fledged members in
"It takes full
dedication,
commitment and
enthusiasm....
you've got tb
have heart"
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1994 competing all over Ontario.
Currently they're training for inter-
national competition in hopes of
becoming serious contenders in the
1998 World Tug-of-war Competi-
tion scheduled to be held at Rich-
mond Minnesota.
To help his team prepare for in-
ternational competition Freiter re-
cently solicited the help of friends
Jerry Niesen and Ray Wipperfurth,
two professional pullers from Mad-
ison, Wisconsin. Their team, The
Untouchables, have been pulling—
for several years and have pulled
twice in World Competition, in-
cluding last year's world event held
in Sweden.
Niesen and Wipperfurth were di-
recting the Bluewater team in "di-
rect pressure pulling" the technique
most commonly used in world style
pulling.
"They were kind of like a spark -
plug, sharing their ideas and tech-
niques with us," says Freiter. "We
have developed a mutual friendship
and we're taking advantage of their
experience."
Although tug-of-war is not rec-
ognized as an official sport in Can-
ada the Bluewater team is strictly
self-funded but according to Freiter
that's not a problem because the
sport requires little money to par-
ticipate since there are no equip-
ment costs and there are no short-
ages -Of corporate sponsors- willing
to fund tug-of-war events.
"There a lot of companies out
there willing to give a lot of money
just to make the event happen,"
says Freiter adding that the first
price bounty given out at a pull at
the Canadian National Exhibition is
$1,000 cash with teams receiving
$250 just for showing up.
As a coach and part-time puller,
Freiter says the most important as-
pect of a tug-of-war coach is to
j� ige the opponents by predicting
what .tactics and techniques they
will employ to better help his team
counter with an appropriate ma-
neuver.
Freiter enjoys tug-of-war because
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it requires not only a great deal of
strength and stamina, but also a
strong mind.
"You have to keep your mind
clear and be thinking all the time,"
explains Freiter. "You're exerting
so much energy it's difficult to
maintain a clear line of logic so you
can still concentrate on techniques
and tactics. It's not easy because
your'mind tends to go blank under
that much physical intensity."
Freiter says the challenge of the
tug-of-war athlete is to combine
strength, balance and physical fit-
ness along with the right attitude to
become a successful puller.
"It takes full dedication, commit-
ment and enthusiasm," says Freiter
who considers those traits more im-
portant than raw strength. "But
most importantly...you've got to
have heart."
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Above, Jerry
Nlesen from
Wisconsin
demonstrates
a pulling tech-
nique for the
Blue Water
tug-of-war
team. Behind
him is Tim
and Ted Hoff-
man, Matthias
Metzger, Ivan
Bedard, Rick
Bilcke, and
Joe Vermont.
Left, coach
Eric Freiter
barks out in-
structions to
John Ellering-
ton during a
practice drill.
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