Amazing pictures at source, although no blood.
Also, just noticing, that cutlass (for lack of a better word) -- is it true to period?
Posted on 02/16/2015 4:27:22 PM PST by Ramius
As maces crash into shields and battle axes cut into armor, knights are left wounded and bloodied on the battlefield.
But while this scene appears reminiscent of a Medieval clash, these fights are happening in the U.S. with the launch of a new extreme sport in the form of a medieval fight club. The Armored Combat League of America (ACL) sees knights from different states face each other in battle, armed with maces and swords.
The Armored Combat League of America has launched its own Medieval fight club, where people dress as knights in full armor and equip themselves with maces and swords to do battle with rivals across the US.
The knights are required to use 'real weapons, full force' as they face each other in battles across the US. And they don't hold back from actual battle or injury. Founding member Jay Brooks said: 'It is as rough as human beings can be with one another without one of them dying.' The ACL currently has around 100 people doing battle across America and was launched to give people enthusiastic about the medieval era the chance to relive it. Mr Brooks added: 'It just feels completely natural to us. This is what our ancestors did in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2955576/The-mace-wielding-fighters-REALLY-medieval-opponents-wearing-suits-armor-brandishing-real-weapons.html#ixzz3RxQ6RX2U
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(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Sword Ping!!!
Sword Ping!!!
This won’t end good.
Hmm, back in the days of actual knightly contests, there were significant rewards to justify the risks. Just to do this stuff for fun? You gotta be a special kind of crazy!
I love it!
Someone should start a paintball Dueling League.
I would watch that on ESPN8, especially this time of year when the only motor racing out there is snowmobiles and school busses.
Oh Crap !
Another bureau for Obungler to invent ,harvest and tax !
The new "Office of archaic and anachronistic self-defense of weaponry" (AASDOW) ,
soon to be listed under BATF with another 300 FeDGovt. employees,
and surpervised by OSHA !
Bring on the Crusades !
Come home with your sword
or on your shield
Just dont apply for ObunglerCare !- the premiums will be a killer !
As I told Mr Bowman in a message:
The group I belonged to also fought with full intent and real weapons, although the swords were unsharpened. We didn’t wear armor or pads, but we did wear masks when fighting with steel. We didn’t bother when we fought with wooden wasters. We got some bruises and cuts, but that was all part of the fun.
We would swing with full force and intent, but if it was going to make contact with the body we would try to pull the strike at the last second.
These guys are taking it to a new level. And I can tell you... Getting your bell rung my a mace is -no- fun even with a steel helmet on.
Hopefully they are studying the available fechtbuch sources and making a good historical research activity. There’s nothing like good honest contact to test everybody’s theories about how medieval martial arts really worked. The last decade or so has brought out a wealth of new information from these sorts of studies. Much of what we thought we knew about the martial arts of Europe has turned out to be wrong.
This is fake or just plain nuts.
It might. A good sword might cut into plate armor. But armor existed for a long time, and for a good reason. It worked. It gave the armored fighter an advantage over his opponent.
How historically accurate do weapons and armor have to be? I could see some technology that could come in handy.
Amazing pictures at source, although no blood.
Also, just noticing, that cutlass (for lack of a better word) -- is it true to period?
There’s a great deal of technology that would make a difference. I don’t know but I think it would be frowned upon. :-)
It’s dangerous to say that any certain weapon was -never- used on a medieval battlefield. Of course many soldiers used whatever they were most comfortable with, or whatever they had on hand. But yes... A single edged “cutlass” type blade would’ve been unusual.
The blade you're referencing in the picture is a more properly a falchion rather than a cutlass, which was more of a 17th Century to 19th Century weapon. As to the "basket hilt" protecting the hand, it would be historically possible from the late 1400's to the 1500's (in short, the end of period)...
the infowarrior
I don’t see a basket hilt. I think, the solid metal piece around his hand is the glove, and the hilt is two tiny cross guards above that.
Thank you about “falchion”, the word didn’t exactly spring to mind.
Ahh... Good call on the falchion. Agreed. That ‘splains it better.
Yeah, to kill each other. You're not trying to kill each other - you're faking it and calling it real.
This is just stupid. Someone should show up in one of these things and actually try to kill their opponent. Then they could piss their tin pants and start to feel what it was really like, as they tried to stay alive.
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