# 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:** 3
### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/41 "2006-06-07T03:47:22Z")
I think Tour de France biking works. Teams compete for sprint, hill and leader points, with strategy and tactics during the race. It’s not just a race to the finish line, as there are points to be earned along the way, and for teams, it’s not just the lead rider that counts.
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### Author:  [@Mesquite-oh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mesquite-oh)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/42 "2006-06-07T03:54:13Z")
Orienteering- We would play it in Boyscouts, I think that it is a bigger deal outside the US.
Some fishing tournaments have teams
I think that auto racing could qualify. You definitely got teams, they don’t shoot or throw things at each other, it is not simply a race or a contest of strength agility or speed (it is not just a matter of machine speed either), you got at least 2 opposing groups, and there are lots of people participating at the same time (the entire pit crew doesn’t just take a nap while the car is running). I admit, the last one is a little weak.
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### Author:  [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/43 "2006-06-07T04:05:48Z")
Orienteering isn’t a team sport (there might be the odd relay but I don’t think that would count). If you competed in teams that was only because you were boyscouts and not trusted to be out on your own ;).
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### Author:  [@Twotwofive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Twotwofive)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/44 "2006-06-07T16:11:42Z")
Am I too late to submit a serious answer? How about kabbadi?
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### Author:  [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/45 "2006-06-07T16:25:49Z")
I suggested kabaddi earlier, but now I’m not so sure it meets the OP’s stipulation that “at least two people in each group [are] playing simultaneously”. IIRC, in kabaddi the “raider” operates alone during each turn, his teammates doing nothing more than urging him on. It depends on how strictly you interpret “simultaneously”.
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/46 "2006-06-07T16:47:31Z")
> [@Rysto](#):
>
> Unless you count the laser as a projectile.
Light is an energy, not a projectile.
You could have projectiles using industrial lasers. Example: Timmy picks up arm from ground and throws it at Joe.
For the people I know will think the Wack a Mole bit is real, don’t.
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### Author:  [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/47 "2006-06-07T17:43:30Z")
- 1000 Meter relay. It’s a team sport where they have to take a baton and get it around the track the fastest of all of the teams competing.
- Synchronized swimming. A team sport where the team does a choreographed set of swimming moves and get judged accordingly on their technical and artistic style.
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/48 "2006-06-07T18:37:39Z")
> [@Dragwyr](#):
>
> - 1000 Meter relay. It’s a team sport where they have to take a baton and get it around the track the fastest of all of the teams competing.
> - Synchronized swimming. A team sport where the team does a choreographed set of swimming moves and get judged accordingly on their technical and artistic style.
The first is a race with no score but the end time.
The second doesn’t have teams competing against each other at the same time.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/49 "2006-06-07T18:54:07Z")
Teams can be useful in orienteering, if you ever need to take back-readings (which can be a significant part of a course, if it’s poorly or cleverly enough designed).
And photons are projectiles, so laser tag is out.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/50 "2006-06-07T18:57:49Z")
> [@Telemark](#):
>
> The second [synchronized swimming] doesn’t have teams competing against each other at the same time.
Now _that_ I would pay to see.
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### Author:  [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/51 "2006-06-07T19:09:56Z")
If orienteering works, how’s about those adventure racers, like the EcoChallengers? Yeah, it’s a race, but it’s also a game type thing that relies heavily on teamwork and coordination.
Ooh, ooh! Survivor? Card games (those involving teams, natch)? Not sure if these are sports, per se.
What about gymnastics? There’s a lot of competitors, not competing on the same apparatus at the same time, but all competing on something simultaneously. And it’s team-based.
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/52 "2006-06-07T20:20:31Z")
Many of the Lumberjack contests are two men teams against another team.
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### Author:  [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/53 "2006-06-07T20:38:23Z")
> [@Telemark](#):
>
> I think Tour de France biking works. Teams compete for sprint, hill and leader points, with strategy and tactics during the race. It’s not just a race to the finish line, as there are points to be earned along the way, and for teams, it’s not just the lead rider that counts.
If tour-style bicycle racing counts, it’s not because of all the various side competitions (sprinting, team points, etc.) These are really just there as consolation prizes and sideshows to keep things interesting.
But it is perhaps a candidate in that only time trials are against the clock. In the regular stages, because of drafting to reduce wind resistance, it is very much about interacting with the other team, responding to their tactics, trying to fake them out, while working together as a team at the same time.
It might be marginal in that the pure physical speed/endurance component is so large, but does seem to meet the OP, just like yacht racing (and for basically the same reason, too).
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### Author:  [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/54 "2006-06-07T22:32:36Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Teams can be useful in orienteering, if you ever need to take back-readings (which can be a significant part of a course, if it’s poorly or cleverly enough designed).
Have you ever done orienteering competitively? Because I was state champion in my teens (he mentions casually), and back readings are simply not part of the vocabulary of myself or anyone else I ever came across in the sport.
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/55 "2006-06-07T23:09:13Z")
> [@Harmonious Discord](#):
>
> Many of the Lumberjack contests are two men teams against another team.
You are really only racing against the clock. There’s no interaction between teams except in burling (log rolling) and that’s a single’s event.
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### Author:  [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2006, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/56 "2006-06-08T03:05:26Z")
> [@Telemark](#):
>
> The first is a race with no score but the end time.
>
> The second doesn’t have teams competing against each other at the same time.
Well then… in that case…I submit…
Calvinball!
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### Author:  [@Mesquite-oh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mesquite-oh)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2006, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/57 "2006-06-08T05:14:54Z")
> [@Princhester](#):
>
> Orienteering isn’t a team sport (there might be the odd relay but I don’t think that would count). If you competed in teams that was only because you were boyscouts and not trusted to be out on your own ;).
Now hold on there pardner! Us former Texas Boyscouts take our Orienteering competions pretty seriously! The Longhorn Council Spring Orienteering Meet is a Class B Event (whatever that means) sanctioned by the US Orienteering Federation and is open to Scouts, ROTC units, and Orienteering Clubs. And they allow teams: [Longhorn Council Orienteering Events](http://www.longhorncouncil.org/orienteering/ntoa/spring_omeet.htm)
> [@](#):
>
> In the competition event participants compete as individuals or Two-Person Teams on courses of different degrees of difficulty (denoted by color)… Teams can be made up of youth & youth, parent & youth, husband & wife, etc. Teams compete against all other teams running the same course.
ROTC units (A vocational course/club in highschool and college for people who want to join the military) also compete in teams without being a relay. [Marquette ROTC Ranger Competition Results](http://www.marquette.edu/rotc/army/news/maleranger2005.shtml)
There are also these companies that sponsor team vs. team orienteering events for corporate team building exercises (HR department vs. Accounting or whatever)
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2006, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/58 "2006-06-08T05:47:33Z")
I’d say that Dancesport (aka Ballroom Dancing) does meet the simultaneous requirement posed in the OP. Part of dancing well is avoiding collisions with other couples on the floor. I really don’t know what the Dancesport penalty is for causing such a collision during a competition, but it can’t be slight.
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2006, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/59 "2006-06-08T05:48:46Z")
> [@Princhester](#):
>
> Have you ever done orienteering competitively? Because I was state champion in my teens (he mentions casually), and back readings are simply not part of the vocabulary of myself or anyone else I ever came across in the sport.
Perhaps you’re more familiar with the expression back azimuth or reverse azimuth?
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### Author:  [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2006, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-sports-games-without-projectiles/359608/60 "2006-06-08T09:23:49Z")
There was this thing they used to do at the annual Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance where teams used to have to dismantle a field gun, carry the parts over an obstacle course, remake the gun and ready it for firing. By no means a simple race on account of the technical expertise and physical strength necessary, although you can legitimately argue that it was a race against the clock as it would have made no great difference whether the teams competed simultaneously (as they in fact did) or one after the other. Still, the unusualness of the event merits a mention I think.
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