
I decided to tell you about a wonderful, but somehow not very popular sport, called historical fencing. The gist is this: guys put on armor, or, as they also say, "sweaty gear," and start whacking each other with blunt metal objects. Variations: one-on-one fight without hitting with anything except a sword and without throws, one-on-one fight with shield strikes, kicks, punches, and throws (pro fights), wall-to-wall fight, polearms and axes are allowed + everything that is in pro fights (buhurt). Of all this, I have only participated in the first one so far, because with my 73 kilograms, in pro fights or buhurt, 85-100 kilogram hulks would beat me up like a kitten. I'll gain some weight over the summer, at least up to 80 kilograms, and then I can join. By the way, the blades in pro fights and buhurts are noticeably heavier than standard – almost 2 kilograms. A related sport is HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts), where they fight with longswords and shields, the protection is a soft helmet, groin protection, and knee pads. Most often, during training, we don't wear metal and train in HEMA gear; in tournaments, there are usually both steel and soft categories. Historical fencing is also closely related to reenactment, but it is not necessary to bother with civilian clothes and other nonsense that reenactors suffer from. In our club, most people, including me, go to reenactment festivals just to fight.
Training is extremely exhausting; people who are not physically fit will have a very hard time, and those who are sick definitely have no place here. Out of ten beginners, about one remains.
Almost everyone starts practicing historical fencing around the age of twenty. For me, a fifteen-year-old boy of relatively slender build, it was quite difficult at first, but after a couple of months of training, my physical abilities increased to normal, and now the only difficulty for me is the greater experience of other fighters, strength (although in HEMA and classical combat, endurance is what matters, although being completely weak is also not an option), and age is not an obstacle.
Now, about the sad and mundane. Our equipment is incredibly expensive. A set of armor costs about 60 thousand. I was a little lucky, and I was given a brigandine for the torso for free. It's true that it's not very well made, but it's free. But the price for training is very low – 500-1000 per month.
In general, I highly recommend that all men who feel they have heroic or at least some strength and some financial stability try their hand at this sport. Even if you don't have much money, you can just fight in HEMA; it's also very fun. But women should not do this sport; there is a special sport fencing for them.
Our sport is not popular, but there is at least one club in almost every city.
There are quite a few videos of fights on YouTube; take a look.