| Sam Gordon Campbell wrote: |
|
Ah yes, B.O.N., go figure Eastern Europe can get something like that up and running. I would add a nice layer to a full tourny I guess, sort of like hockey. But is B.O.N. a "sport"? I dunno, but if people watch it, pay for it, and it has some form of rule set (even as odd as BON [no thrusting... Really? That eliminates most Martial Art applications right there]). After all, one wouldn't think Chess is a sport, but it can be. |
Full contact sword fighting - in the eastern european fashion, as we used to say - is certainly a sport.. Not only because there are probably over 200 tournaments in Russia alone, and as much in Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Belarus together.
Also the very fact that you criticized, the regulation of allowed techniques, is a basic concept of sport.
In a match, boxers don't kick you in the nuts, yudokas don't punch you in the face, foilfencers don't thrust to the leg or arm, WMA-Blossfechter don't hit you full force on the head and we full-contact-and-armour-fighters don't thrust at you. :D
nonetheless, it's really exhausting to fight. Two minutes or three times one and a half minute with only minimal pauses, and this only for one opponent.
| William P wrote: |
| when my club heard of the battle of nations, which by the way we had been repeatedly invited to form a team and join, we flat out refused for a couple of reasons
1 those guys fight like madmen and we dont know their fighting style so we cant fight as safely. 2. too far away. |
William, don't fear what you don't know. As mentioned above, rules do exist and are enforced. I do like my handsome face and the health I enjoy now as much as you do, yet I practice this sport enthusiastically. The BoN-Tournament is one of the most prestigious and one of the hardest, also one where the best fighters of russia Belarus Ukraine Poland and Lithuania (the lithuanian national teem is btw sponsored by the lithuanian armed forces!) meet each other. It's different with us westerners who are barely starting. We feel like the jamaican bob team at the winter olympics '88 :lol: ( here in Germany, we finally had three tournaments with about 20-30 participants each)
But it's good fun and there are no more hurts then in any other sport with bodycontact I know.
To add something to the actual topic of the thread: I think it's prudent to start to bring jousting out of the renfaires.
There are many parallels with our sport, we also like to see it more like a modern "extreme sport" and less like a pure reenactment activity. We are aware of the fact that we are modern people living today in a modern world.
The problem is, it still is some kind of reenactment, we use medieval arms and armour and try to revive a medieval competitive "sport".
How modern can this get until it doesn't work anymore?