Mas-wrestling

A contest of strength and balance between two athletes pulling a stick.

Names among the peoples

mas güreşi (Turks of Türkiye)

About

Mas-wrestling is a traditional sport from Yakutia (Sakha). Two athletes sit facing each other with their feet braced against a board between them and, on the referee’s command, pull a stick toward themselves.

An athlete wins a bout by pulling the stick out of the opponent’s hands or pulling the opponent over the board. Balance, fast reactions and quick decisions matter as much as strength.

A match is the best of three bouts. Competitions take place on a 4 x 5 m platform no more than 0.8 m high.

Other Turkic peoples have a game of the same kind. Among the Nogais it is called taban-tires ("bracing with the heel"): two men sit facing each other, brace their heels against a board laid across and pull a stick. It is played at feasts and festivals in the Nogai villages of Dagestan and Karachay-Cherkessia; in the old days the opponents pulled the stick with one hand and struck each other with a whip with the other. Taban-tires has a page of its own in the catalogue.

History

Mas-wrestling grew out of the traditional stick-pulling contest of the Sakha — mas tardyhyy. As N. Shkurko and co-authors write, it was made into a modern sport by the Olympic wrestler Roman Dmitriev. The International Mas-Wrestling Federation was founded in 2011; today it brings together federations in 40 countries.

Rules in brief

By the rules approved by Russia's Ministry of Sport in 2020, the stick — the mas — is turned from birch or another hardwood: 40 to 50 centimetres long and 34 millimetres across. The board against which the athletes brace their feet is two metres long on the inside, 24 centimetres high and 4 to 6 centimetres thick.

A bout has up to three rounds and goes on until one athlete has won two. A round lasts no more than two minutes, with a rest of no more than one minute between rounds. A round is won by the athlete who pulls the stick out of the opponent's hands or pulls the opponent over the board to his own side; it also goes to him when the opponent breaks a rule or gets a second warning. Pulling before the referee's signal, taking hold of the opponent's hand and touching the support board with the trunk or the head are not allowed.

Federations and competitions

International federation, world championships. In the All-Russian Register of Sports.

Peoples

Research: Vasif Namazov, Turan Games Concept