Tanab Keshi is one of the passionate and joyful folk sport that is done among the groups with different age and no gender limitation in the villages and cities of Iran from the past. This sport is taken from the ceremonies and ancient events held in different methods and styles in many regions of the world. Nowadays, Tanab Keshi is done as a team competition between two participants groups so that each group takes a head of rope in its hand and pulls it based on .defined rules after starting the match
The winner will be the group who can pull the rope along with the opposite group to their own side while the opponent group passing the middle line. This folk sport is conducted in festivals and leisure times with no attention to the rules of match in different types. Tanab Keshi matches are usually hold indoor, in resort, outdoor on turf or in the beach on the sand in an even place with the length of 30 meters and the width of more than 3 meters in group of 9 persons (8 main members and 1 substitute), based on the weight (the total weight of members in a group): 480-520-560-600-640-680-720kg.
The material of this sport’s rope is Kenaf with the length of 33 meters and the diameter of 10 to 12 cm both side of it should have knot. No knot or loop should be in the length of rope and the rope should not be fastened to the body of team members. In order to increase the level of judgment by referees, 5 colorful tapes or signs inserted on the rope: a red tapes at the center of rope, 2 yellow tapes in 4 meters far from the center and 2 black tapes in 5 meters far from the center that the referees can judge it easily if the rope pulled or stretched. The members of groups should not take a further point of the rope than the colorful ribbon and at the start of each stretch the first person can stand as near as possible to the colorful ribbon.
Both groups should take the rope with no gloves but they can run the game with or without shoes. This sport is performed in 3 stretches with 2 minutes break time between them in the preliminary round and 3 minutes break time in final round. The group will be winner who can move the rope at the marked distance which on the ground and pull the rope up to where it passes from the central sign on the ground and the game will be repeated if the rope breaks. Replacement in group is only possible when the first stretch of first match to be completed .The stretch has no result unless the referee decides, and 1 point will give to each group after 5 minutes and in case of any collusion between the groups, they will remove from the match. The rope should pass among the body and the arms of team members and each obstacle which is the cause of stop the rope movement and any types of body touching with ground except the foot such as knee, hips, the upper parts of body, hand and head are considered to be error.
All the team members should place in a pull mode during the match time. Each group can have only 2 individuals or group errors and if a group have 3 errors in each pull mode, they will lose that score with 1 to 0 point. Each group who can win in each pull will be given a point and if this group can take the point from 2 consecutive pulls from 3 pull and takes 2 points, it wins 3 points and the loser team doesn’t have any point, if a group can win the opponent in 3 pulls by the points of 2 to 10, it will be given 2 points and the opponent group given 1 point so that the winner can be determined.
