Thrashing around in five-on-five team combat wearing 30 to 40 kilograms of authentically recreated steel armour and weaponry might not be everyone’s puddle of fun, but members of Taupō Armoured Combat say it can’t be beat for kicks – and punches.
The club is always looking for new members, says the club’s head trainer David Briscoe, and will be launching a membership push shortly – though this doesn’t involve raiding local villages to round up people at sword point.
It’s more about convincing them about the joys of participating in historical medieval battles or buhurt armoured combat (from Old French béhourd meaning joust or tournament).
“It is a lot of fun and there are a lot of really great people you meet all around the world. I know it's not for everyone, but anyone can do it,” says Briscoe.
Club members are just back from a tournament in Abbeystowe, Australia where they finished fourth out of 11 teams, competing in 12 fights over two days.
Briscoe also competed for New Zealand in a trans-Tasman battle in which Taupō club captain Ian Hendl would also normally have taken part, though he was not at the tournament.
“Unfortunately, Australia won,” says Briscoe, “but it was certainly a good fight… it's a bit hard when we couldn't get all our guys over.”
Australia is ranked in the top 10 in the world, with New Zealand somewhere around 30, says Briscoe.
Most tournaments are fights of five-on-five over two rounds, and the team which has one or more fighters still standing declared the winner of a round.
Rounds and even fights overall are only minutes long and some can be over in 20 seconds, though the average, says Briscoe, is probably three or four minutes a round.
While bouts may start with a lot of individual contests, as soon as one fighter gets his opponent down “you’ve got a two versus one somewhere and once that starts happening it collapses pretty quickly... you could have two or three minutes of a whole lot of one versus one grapples going on and then as soon as someone wins it might take 30 seconds to finish.”
If you put a body part on the ground other than your feet you are “dead”, having to stay lying where you fell, adding a trip hazard to the battle field.
Getting used to the weight of the armour is the biggest challenge for new participants, says Briscoe.
“It certainly drains your energy pretty quick.”
The weapons are blunt and have weight limits and while the neck, knees or groin are off limits and there is no stabbing, anywhere else is fair game.
Though with good armour, weapon hits don’t tend to drop people, says Briscoe.
“Mostly it comes down to grappling techniques, so we use a lot of judo throws… but there are punches and knees and kicks and all that sort of thing going on.”
Weapon blows have their place though.
“it’s the blow you don't see coming that puts you down.”
They might distract your attention and then you’re body slammed from behind, he says, or you spin and lose your balance, or a fighter will react to the shock of the hit enabling an opponent to deploy another technique.
Injuries are usually only bruising and muscle fatigue, with the odd twisted knee or ankle from trying to change direction quickly.
Broken fingers from being struck on the hand holding the haft of a weapon are getting rarer as gauntlets have improved.
“A lot of people got into it, like myself, through a love of history and growing up watching Robin Hood,” says Briscoe.
However the price for armour is measured in modern currency rather than a purse of coins.
“All new the basic suit of armour is between $3000 and $5000,” he says. “Even secondhand, you're looking at between $2,000 and $4,000.”
But for men and women interested in giving it a go, the club trains Tuesdays and Thursdays and has some spare armour.
More information is available on the Taupo Armoured Combat facebook site.
