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Join Finn Macdiarmid with a roundup of Kent's sporting action.
On today's episode we meet Alan Knott, a Tug of War player and organiser, who participated in and helped set up the National tournament in Tonbridge.
On today's episode we meet Alan Knott, a Tug of War player and organiser, who participated in and helped set up the National tournament in Tonbridge.
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TVTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to Invicta Sport, the only show on your TV dedicated to Kent's sporting
00:21action.
00:22Now, we're switching things up and doing some of the classic longer interviews with
00:26some of Kent's sporting stars.
00:28So today we're bringing you an interview with Alan Knott, he's a tug of war competitor and
00:32organiser who participated and helped run the tug of war championships that were held
00:37in Tunbridge earlier this year.
00:38He's also been playing the sport since the age of 14, well we hope you enjoy.
00:44Well Alan Knott joins me now, thank you so much for your time today Alan.
00:47I suppose the first question that we'd like to ask all of our guests is, tell us a bit
00:51about your origin in the sport, where did your tug of war sort of dreams really start?
00:57Well I first got involved in the sport when I was 14 but I got into it through my dad
01:06who was already competing at the time so obviously I'd already been taken along to competitions
01:11and trainings and that sort of thing so I'd already sort of had an introduction to the
01:17sport that way. And then when I was 14 sort of old enough to sort of start training with the senior
01:22team that's when I started and have been competing pretty much consistently every year since.
01:28Amazing and talk to us a bit about where that started, did you mention your dad had an interest
01:33in the sport? Did he play himself?
01:37Yeah, yeah so my dad was a competitor, he started sort of as a teenager
01:42through sort of friends and he was sort of asked to get involved. He did that for a few years and
01:49then sort of he did have a sort of a few year, you know sort of five or six years away from the sport
01:54when you know at that stage of your life where you're buying houses and having children and so
01:59on and then he obviously got back into it and and was competing and then obviously when I was old
02:04enough I was taken to training and got involved that way. Brilliant and tell me when you first
02:09went down to those training sessions how old would you have been? You mentioned maybe about 14 there,
02:14what was the first thing that really struck you about the sport? What is it that really got you
02:19attached to it? What did you like about it? It's sort of a difficult one to sort of explain really
02:27because you sort of never know what to expect when you first do something that you've never actually
02:31done properly yourself before because other than maybe at a school sports day or something like that
02:36you don't really get to do it sort of on a weekly basis like you would in school PE lessons like in
02:41football or rugby or athletics or anything so you sort of go in not knowing what to expect and
02:47you know sometimes it does take you a few sessions to sort of get into it and find your feet and sort
02:53of you know it does take a few sessions to sort of work out if you enjoy it or not so you know it takes
02:59a little you know a few weeks but once you get into it it's enjoyable. Brilliant and obviously you said
03:07you started it when you were 14. What was the sort of progression? Did you stick with that one
03:10team you were training with for a while or what was the sort of the progress from being 14 to then
03:16obviously continuing it into your adult life? Yeah so I started out with obviously so that
03:22I was 14 so 1998 then and so over 20 years ago now so I'm showing the age a bit there but yeah
03:30you sort of start and you might you you don't at that age get into like the senior team straight away
03:35you might sort of at the sort of earliest competitions of the season you'd be used in
03:40some of the weight classes to sort of give you that experience then you'd probably take you sort of
03:45three four even five years to sort of establish yourself as a as a as a competitor in those senior
03:52teams and so that's sort of that was my progression in the sport but other you know the team didn't have a
03:58youth side at that time so you know there are other clubs that do have junior sections and there are
04:03pullers now that start progressing with their juniors first then move into the sort of senior
04:09level that way so you know everyone's journey in the sport will be different and that was my journey.
04:15I see and do you think that because you mentioned there that you know there wasn't that now kind of
04:19juniors juniors team you kind of just had to join the men's team do you think that could be linked to
04:23the origin of the sport because from what I know of tug of war a lot of its kind of history was to do with
04:28people who worked together so it was oftentimes adults who had a sort of a factory team or
04:32something like that do you think it could be linked to that?
04:37I think every team is different there's always been sort of junior competitions in the sport you
04:42know obviously it's very hard you know obviously juniors come and go they come of age and then you've
04:47got to try and get the next lot of juniors through so it's been different for every club I mean
04:52like you mentioned historically there are a lot of factory teams in the in the sport you know and also the
04:57young farmers as well so if you you're sort of a farming community based team and a lot of juniors
05:03come into it that way so yeah for every sort of club in different towns and regions it will be different.
05:09I see and you also mentioned the weight classes earlier tell us a bit about that and how they
05:13kind of in these big events they split up all these different weight classes how do they divide that?
05:18In the early days of tug of war it was mainly catch weight competitions which
05:26there's no weight limit and then they started introducing weight classes where it was combined
05:31weight of eight men or in the early days didn't really have ladies competitions sort of in the
05:37early part of the 20th century so all the weight categories now they go up in sort of bands of 40
05:44kilos so the lightest weight category you have for men's teams is 560 kilos but the lightest weight
05:49classes for women's teams is 500 kilos so it's you know average weight for 560 kilos which is a lot of
05:59the weights that I'm in a lot of time that's an average weight of 70 kilos and then it goes up in
06:04sort of 40 kilo bands all the way up to 720 kilos as a weight class and then you have the catch weight
06:09where you can you don't have a weight limit you can be as light or as heavy as you want to.
06:15Right and going back to your own status as a player I'm aware that you competed in an indoor
06:23competition in 2004 and you won gold tell us a bit about that. Well I've won a few I've won a lot on
06:32the indoor actually more probably more so than the outdoor uh circuit but yeah that was one
06:37particularly year that um we won the indoor 560 kilos competition so you know um
06:46yeah they are they are yeah every competition whether it's indoor to the war or outdoor to the war they're
06:52all uh hard to win and you know but obviously you know they all have different memories for different
06:58reasons you know with a particular team you may have beaten in the final or it was a
07:02a really intense match you have different medals that you remember for different reasons.
07:08Absolutely when I I went down to um film the national championships the England national championship
07:14sorry in uh in Tunbridge you could really see that you could really there was really that sense
07:19of competition in the air because there were so many weight classes and so many medals to really win
07:23um flipping back to outdoor you also I believe uh were in the 2006 world championships for England
07:29under 23s tell us what that experience was like. Yeah well that was sort of a my swan song at that age
07:37category at that particular event so it was sort of a a last chance saloon and we managed to to get
07:42the bronze on that occasion so yeah that was a really memorable one that was it was a boiling hot day
07:47like it was in Tunbridge as well so yeah you come off dripping with with sweat and you know you've
07:54you've gone through that sort of pain barrier to try and get that medal so you know it was nice to
07:59finish on a bit of a winner in that age category certainly. Absolutely and that's a lot of what struck
08:04me when I went down to see it was that you know most people like you mentioned only really know it from
08:09sports day but it's so competitive uh to the extent that I was sort of going around asking people
08:14I was so unfamiliar with this kind of version of the sport because there's so many differences
08:18it feels like like for instance tack could you talk to us a bit about tack and that kind of impact
08:23on the sport because I think that's something that most people might not expect in tug of war.
08:28Yeah well so the tacky resume we use it's primarily to help with your your grip on the rope so you know
08:34you probably go to a lot of the strongman events or the gymnastics and when they're doing bar events
08:38or lifting the big stones they put chalk on the hands to help them grip you know tacky resin is what
08:43we use for tug of war so you know all the power you put through the rope ultimately goes through
08:50your hands as a point of connection in the rope and if you if you lose your grip you can't put nothing
08:55through the rope no matter how strong you are so you know that yeah it is a sort of an important
09:01facet of the sport. I see and tell us a bit about now what you do as a player now obviously you still
09:09play for Bosley but you also have an organizational capacity with the tug of war association tell us a
09:15bit about balancing that organization and that life as a player what is that like?
09:20Yeah it can be quite demanding and challenging at times and you know it takes up a lot of your sort of
09:26personal time and you know you do your best to balance as you can and yeah it's tricky but you know
09:33I think when things do come together as an organization or as a team it is it is worth it
09:38when when when you get the reward so yeah hard work but you know you just get on with it.
09:44Absolutely and what interests me is when you're playing tug of war obviously you have your team
09:50members is there ever any kind of dispute about the position because obviously certain people will
09:55be closer to the other team certain people be further along the rope what what is the sort of decision
09:59behind that? It's what you work at in training at the end of the day the objective really is to sort of
10:06get your eight strongest men together or or as one and you sort of you'll put them together on the rope
10:13and then if someone pulls slightly higher or slightly lower then you'll adjust the position
10:18on the rope you're trying to get the rope in a straight line so you know it's things you work on
10:23in training over time and you know you might you may think oh I'm not very good in that position or
10:29you know someone may be better than you in that position or you know it might the rope might just work
10:35when you're in a different particular position on the rope so it's just about working it out over time
10:41and you know you do you do occasionally change your team around just to see what works in those
10:47circumstances so you know there is a degree of trial and error until you've sort of built up a
10:53team with the experience and they've had that time to practice together in those positions it's just
10:58yeah it does take time. I see well I think that might be all the time we have for this part but
11:04we'll catch up with you very soon. And don't forget you can keep up to date with all the latest
11:10football news by reading Kent Online but did you also know you can have your weekly digest of Jill's
11:15news sent directly to your email inbox just search Kent Online email alerts and sign up on the website for
11:21all the latest written transfer news match reports and interviews. And if the Jill's isn't your cup
11:27of tea well there's plenty more email alerts to choose from including all the latest non-league
11:31football news too. Well that's it for part one join us after the break as Alan and I talk about the
11:38current state of the game and what his message to his younger self might be we'll also touch on the
11:43intricacies of the sport both as a player and as someone who worked behind the scenes see you in just a
11:49moment.
15:12Hello and welcome back to Invicta Sport right here on KMTV. Today we're speaking with Alan Knott,
15:17a player and organiser of the tug-of-war national championships that was held right here in Kent,
15:23specifically Tunbridge. Well here's part two of our chat with him. Tell us how do you train for a tug-of-war competition?
15:29What does that look like?
15:33Well there's sort of three strands to how you prepare a tug-of-war team. There's your main
15:38tug-of-war training which teams will do a couple of times a week, two or three times a week.
15:42If you can imagine sort of the weight machines you have in a gym which are on a sort of pulley system
15:49that you either press or lift up and down. Basically it's a big version of that. You'll have
15:54a weight attached to a pulley system and teams will pull it up and down together and what you use that
16:00for is to build teamwork, footwork etc. So I guess the sort of nearest analogy you could probably think of
16:09really in terms of developing your tier work is rowing. You know in rowing you want everybody
16:14moving their bodies at the same time, the oars hitting the water at the same time. Well in tug-of-war
16:19you need everyone in the same position. You want the feet moving at the same time and hitting the floor
16:23at the same time. So that's what you use the training rig for. And then the other sort of rope
16:28work you'll do, you'll do sort of mock competitions, live pulling etc. And then the second sort of strand of
16:34your training is the strength and conditioning work. So you know your gym work, running, cardio,
16:41rowing machines etc. Circuit training, you'll do that on the nights that you're not training.
16:47And as I mentioned there's three, there's the third one which is also important is your nutrition.
16:53It's a weight categorised sport. So like boxing, you're having to maintain a
16:57a healthy weight to get into those weight categories.
17:02Coming close to a championship, you know, the day before you may, you know, just to get hit the
17:06weight you might have to go in the sauna and just lose a bit of water to get that excess little bit
17:12of weight off. You try and keep that to a minimum because you don't want to be dehydrated. So those are
17:16the sort of three main strands of tug-of-war training that come into it.
17:21I see. And when you're actually competing, if you could almost rank some of these conditions,
17:28so would you say in terms, if you could rank these from one to four, so weight, strength, balance and
17:34rhythm, what would you say is almost the one to four? What's the most important for a team and what's
17:39the least important for a team when it comes to actually competing?
17:44They're all important in their own ways, but I think in terms of the
17:48top one and two, it would be strength and the balance of the team, rhythm and then weight.
17:56I see. Because when I was kind of, when I was there watching, it seemed that staying on your
18:04feet was actually so important and that just by one person coming off their feet, that lost a lot
18:10of strength. Because obviously the strength doesn't just come from your arms, it comes from your legs as
18:13well. So is that something that teams tend to focus on in training? Staying on your feet,
18:17keeping that balance?
18:19Yeah, exactly. Because if you're on the floor, you can't move backwards and your legs are probably
18:24one of your strongest muscles in your body. So when you see teams competing, they're actually
18:29pushing their legs into the floor. It's almost like a leg press going backwards as a team. So
18:36that's why it's important to stay on your feet. And obviously you do get cautioned as well if you're
18:40deliberately sitting on the floor. You know, the aim is to be on your legs and pressing the
18:45other team all the time as well as you can. I mean, sometimes you will be in a static position
18:50for a while if there's a bit of a stalemate and the teams are pretty even. But yeah,
18:54force with the legs is critical.
18:57I see. And almost, you mentioned there about the leg strength. When you're competing and
19:05actually sorry, I'm going to start that question again. You also mentioned there about cautions.
19:11Now, tell me, obviously that's a big difference from, as we mentioned, the actual sport compared
19:16to the sports day sport. Talk us through some of these cautions. How does almost the foul system work
19:21in tug of war? Yeah, so the main idea in terms of enforcing the rules in tug of war is that the
19:30only part of the body that should be touching the floor is your feet. The only parts of the body that
19:35should be touching the rope is the hands and the side of your body. Obviously, the anchor is allowed
19:40to put it over the shoulders. And in terms of cautions, it's sort of almost like a sort of
19:46red and yellow card system, if you like. So it applies to the whole team. So if a team is
19:51deliberately sitting on the floor or locking the rope, which is, you know, a lock is essentially
19:58trapping the rope over your leg or something to stop free movement, the judge in the middle will
20:04firstly give you a friendly warning. And then on the second infringement, he'll give you the first
20:09caution, then the second caution. And if you get a third caution, the judge blows the whistle and
20:15awards that end to the other team. So that's how our caution system works.
20:18I see. Sorry, you said that they award the end to the other team, sorry, or the win to the other
20:24team. Yeah. Yeah, they award that end. So it's best, in a traditional competition, it would have
20:30been best of three. But under sort of the new rules we do, in the group stages, it's best of two ends. So
20:36if a team got three cautions, that end would go to their opponents. So they will get that end. And then
20:44obviously, if it happened again on the next end, they'd also get that end and they get three points
20:48and you wouldn't get any. So that's how that works. I see. And obviously, the big Kent link here is
20:56that the England national championships are held in Tunbridge. Talk to me a bit about how a team can
21:01become eligible for participation in these championships. What is that process like?
21:05Well, basically, any team can take part in them. You know, all you need to do earlier in the year is
21:13sign up to the Tugger War Association and register all your competitors. You know, as long as that's
21:19all completed four weeks before the competition, then any team can be eligible. And the teams that
21:28want to go on and represent England, there's a bit more sort of a criteria and a process for them.
21:33They have to do a minimum of six competitions before that event. So, you know, you have to
21:38travel around the country to various meetings and compete. So you have to be eligible to represent
21:45England. You have to do a minimum of six competitions prior to the national championships in that same
21:50season. I see. And in terms of the sort of the health and the future of Tug of War, is it common that
21:58you see a lot of new teams coming up? Or does it tend to be old teams that have the younger generation
22:02carrying it on?
22:05And it's a little bit of both. I mean, I've sort of noticed sort of certainly in recent years,
22:10there's been a few more teams springing up. I think social media's sort of helped sort of bring
22:15the sport around a bit. And you get a few more sort of like the young farmers teams we've mentioned
22:20before that you get a few more of them attending competitions now. So it's sort of a mix of you and
22:25old. And I think certainly for me as a competitor, I've sort of, I don't know if it's because I'm getting
22:31older or whatever it is. But I think the profile of the actual competitors we've got are younger
22:37now than what they may have been sort of 10, 15 years ago. So I think that's a good thing. It's
22:43something we're still trying to nurture and sort of build on. So, you know, things like
22:48that do take time. But yeah, it's a bit of a mixture really.
22:51I see. And coming back to Tunbridge and the national championships, what really led it to
22:59being held in Kent? I'm quite curious because when I went down, there weren't actually any Kent teams.
23:04There are a lot of teams on that Kent and Sussex border. What do you think has led to that? And what
23:08was the origin of having the national championships there?
23:10Well, every year we move the nationals around the country. So different clubs or venues can
23:19put forward a venue as a bid, if you like, so that they will come forward with a venue to
23:24the association. Then based on the information we have in the facilities available, we will
23:29make a decision as a general committee as to which venue gets selected to host that that year's national
23:35national championships. So come November time this year, we'll know what venues are on the table,
23:41and then we'll vote accordingly as to where it will be held next year.
23:47I see. And talk to us a bit about the England nationals that are coming up in September. What
23:52can we expect? Is it going to be outdoors? Is it going to be indoors? And who's going to be competing?
23:56Talk to us a bit about that.
23:59Yeah. So in September, we're hosting the World Total War Championships in Nottingham. So the
24:05teams that certainly from England that will be competing there will be teams that competed at
24:12the national championships in Kent. So there'll be two days of open club competition and two days of
24:19internationals, which will be England against the various countries that are taking part. We've got
24:2622 countries taking part in the international competitions. And the sort of club entries deadline is
24:34still a couple of weeks away. So we've still got club teams that are confirming the various entries. But
24:40yeah, usually you get about 100 clubs taking part from all across the world. So yeah, it'll be a big
24:47event and there'll be about 1500 competitors competing. Wow, that must be an interesting event to kind of
24:55organise behind the scenes. You say 1500 competitors, 22 different countries. What are the preparations like?
25:01How long did the preparations start ahead of the actual competition?
25:06Yeah, we were first awarded the competition back in 2019. So it's sort of been in the pipeline for
25:12a few years now and sort of the main sort of part of the organisation has been taking place over the
25:18last 18 months or so. We're using the University of Nottingham's ground and complex. So it's ideal in
25:26terms of, you know, yes, you've got a competition venue, but you've also got somewhere to house,
25:31you know, over 1000 people, which is important, because you're sort of almost like an athlete's
25:37village. So you've got all of that. And then obviously, you've got all the sort of all the
25:41logistics around that and promoting the event and then encouraging spectators to come. So there's
25:45all sorts of different things that you're doing when you're putting these big events on.
25:49I see. And we are running out of time. But just before we go, could you tell us a bit about,
25:56this is a question we always like to ask our guests on Invicta. If you could talk to your
26:02younger self, that 14 year old who went along to the tug of war training to what would you tell them
26:07about tug of war and continuing it into your later life? What advice would you give them?
26:11That's a good question. Yeah. Just give it your all. Yeah, whatever and whatever, whatever you do
26:22in anything in your life, just, you know, dive in and go for it. You know, it's a great sport to do.
26:28There's yeah, there's you can meet loads of great people from all walks of life in it from everywhere.
26:34And that's it from us on today's episode of Invicta Sport. Don't forget, there's always plenty
26:39more sports news, interviews and features from right across the county available on our website,
26:44cametv.co.uk. But for now, that's all. Thank you for watching.
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