# Team sports games without projectiles
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 6, 2006, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608 "2006-06-06T14:07:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/1 "2006-06-06T14:07:09Z")
Do there exist any athletic sports games which are played by competing teams and which do not use balls, pucks, darts, bullets, or other projectiles? By “game” I mean to rule out track and field events like races and jumps, which are simple contests of strength, agility, speed, etc. And by “team” I mean that there must be at least two opposing groups, with at least two people in each group playing simultaneously.
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/2 "2006-06-06T14:11:03Z")
Rodeo team roping.
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/3 "2006-06-06T14:13:15Z")
Of course not simultaneous. Sorry.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/4 "2006-06-06T14:13:58Z")
Capture the Flag?
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### Author:  [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/5 "2006-06-06T14:14:44Z")
There’s [Kabaddi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabaddi) (national sport of Bangladesh, don’t you know), which was actually shown on TV here for a couple of years. It’s basically team tag.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/6 "2006-06-06T14:16:03Z")
Tug of war.
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/7 "2006-06-06T14:28:22Z")
Relay racing
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/8 "2006-06-06T14:29:20Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#):
>
> Relay racing
ixnay on the aceray.
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/9 "2006-06-06T14:29:44Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#):
>
> Relay racing
Never mind.
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/10 "2006-06-06T14:32:30Z")
ixnay on the Tug of war.
> [@](#):
>
> I mean to rule out track and field events like races and jumps, which are simple contests of **strength** , agility, speed, etc.
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### Author:  [@ululate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ululate)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/11 "2006-06-06T14:36:42Z")
Rowing? (And, come to think of it, all those Olympic events involving sailing and yachting?)
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/12 "2006-06-06T14:42:39Z")
SCA melee combat.
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/13 "2006-06-06T14:43:20Z")
> [@ululate](#):
>
> Rowing? (And, come to think of it, all those Olympic events involving sailing and yachting?)
That’s just another kind of race, isn’t it?
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### Author:  [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/14 "2006-06-06T14:49:36Z")
I think Tug of War meets the spirit of the original post. While strength is important for ToW, there is also a large component of coordination. Furthermore, the teams compete directly against each other, not against some quantitative strength measurement (weights, etc).
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### Author:  [@Jake4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake4)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/15 "2006-06-06T14:58:34Z")
ballroom dancing
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### Author:  [@ululate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ululate)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/16 "2006-06-06T14:59:41Z")
> [@psychonaut](#):
>
> That’s just another kind of race, isn’t it?
Well, as with the argument that’s starting to get made about tug-of-war, you can’t simply have everyone start rowing; they have to do it in sync to get anywhere, cooperating for the rhythm, right? (Sailing and Yachting I know even less about, but I assume there’s a whole teamwork thing of coordination going on.)
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/17 "2006-06-06T15:07:30Z")
> [@ululate](#):
>
> Well, as with the argument that’s starting to get made about tug-of-war, you can’t simply have everyone start rowing; they have to do it in sync to get anywhere, cooperating for the rhythm, right? (Sailing and Yachting I know even less about, but I assume there’s a whole teamwork thing of coordination going on.)
That may be true, but I think rowing still fails on the second definition. Specifically, in rowing, you’re racing against the clock, not against other teams. You could just as easily let one team at a time run the course as all teams simultaneously; there’s no interaction between teams.
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### Author:  [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/18 "2006-06-06T15:15:14Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> SCA melee combat.
Nah, there’s always archers somewhere.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/19 "2006-06-06T15:27:13Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#):
>
> Nah, there’s always archers somewhere.
Not during a melee reign.
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/20 "2006-06-06T15:30:08Z")
How about curling? The rock’s not a projectile (thank goodness!) and teamwork is involved to keep the rock sliding along.
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