It definitely looks like fun. Its definatly not "SCA safe" but I don't think its really as unsafe as it looks. I've done some rebated steel Jomsviking style fighting and its not that bad as long as no one gets stupid. I'd be completely comfortable doing Battle of nations, wearing well made late 14th century kit.

In fairness that does happen in pretty much every sport at one time or another.

Just questions of why and how often.

Yes, but the objective of this "sport" is to maim the opponent and hurt it with steel weapons untill it falls.
It's a bit different from the other non combact sports.

How do their rules not encourage techniques? Can you explain this part of what you've said?

Well I'm not a regular "buhurt warrior", but I did it a few times. Actually the rule that you are "killed" only when you fall down makes this sport (yes, IMHO it is a sport not reenactment) less dangerous. With a proper defence equipement it is hard to knock down your opponent with blows, so mostly people use wrestling techniques and something that is called "the tram" ( basically you run at your enemy at full speed from behind or side and push him, usually it is enough for him to fall down).

And in massive battles there are some tactics and formations. In my opinion better formation skills(and more pollearms) is the reason why our eastern brothers usually win with us ,Poles, on the Grunwald buhurts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcEMLFGsY_E (not the best quality movie)

Well I can tell you- it is fun( especially when you survive the full force halberd blow on your helmet ;) ) What I don't like in this sport is that the equipement evolved to match the reqiurements, and in many cases it hasn't much in common with real medieval stuff. For example: coat of plates with a few cm space between plates- since thrusts are prohibited it offers good protection against blows and is much much ligter than historically acurate armour. And of course buhurts are the best way to destroy your kit ;) , so many choose not to use their expensive reenactment armour.

You say it is dangerous. Well there are only adaults allowed. It is their choice, their risk. I respect that.

Sounds like Rugby with armor...and weapons. :-)

Once upon a time I thought it was cool to engage in dangerous activities with like-minded fools, for no tangible benifit other than a false boosting of my own ego. Thankfully I outgrew that impulse long ago, apparently some never do. This kind of activity achieves nothing positive for our larger community and I sincerely hope it stays on the other side of the pond.

Off topic but... who composed the music at the first video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLCLljsihzk ?

Unfortunately on most events rules don't allow fighting without weapons, and loosing it during battle is sometimes also a kill. ;) (so I wasn't precise that only collapsing eliminates you- in fact there are no universal rules, any organiser can change it, but those are most common)

So, I also have participated in a similar action in Lithuania, but normally I prefer one on one tournaments.

Yet I think this is a fairly accurate simulation of a medieval melee tournament on foot. So I think one could call that a reenactment sport.
As Michal has said, it is not as bloody as some might think. It's fairly save, too.
The difference to most western modern medieval fighting sports is that the goal here is to limit the danger of injury and death not by restricting the actions of the combatants but mainly by the use of protective armour. Naturally, there are rules, too. Thrusting is forbidden and the use of arms is mandatory and one is out of the game if one falls down.
Fighting this way in armour is extremely exhaustive, especially in summer and the participants train a lot; more then most of the blossfechters I know.

Coordinated group attacks are difficult in this kind of mass combat. The bigger bohurts are held with many different groups in a team, sometimes with people speaking different languages. The auditory and visual perception is limited and confused by the own armour and the cries of the men and the clashes of weapons and armour. The outcome looks fairly chaotic, but it's difficult to change that.

It is really not ment to be a reenactment of a real battle. The word "buhurt" in middle high german meant a sportive mass fight tournament, a kind of battle training, and this is what the people in the video want to do.

Here are some other videos of full contact fighting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-6GLORfF8k&feature=related
english language teaser of the Chotyn tournament :cool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeI8capzuqs&feature=related
another russian video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEHZA9XMPiI

A one-on-one torunament fight at Byczyna in Poland last year.

I have seen buhurts of the later period 'live' only a couple of times. (I prefer earlier periods) Because of the amount of armour worn, and the rules, they are pretty safe in theory. The biggest danger in buhurts are the so called 'MacLeods' from the Highlander series. People who believe they are invincible and do not drop to the ground even when greatly outnumbered... I mean, OK the rules are no stabs say, but in reality, you would have been stabbed long time ago in such a situation...[There seem to be buhurts with thrusts in Russia (wooden weapons however) any Russians here to comment about them?]

As for authenticity, it is often violated for the sake of safety, the so called 'buhurt optimization' (addition of non historical parts of protection (at best they are made from more or less authetic material)). So one should admire these with care...

As for 1v1 tournaments, I really do not see the point fighting without thursts with (especially one handed) swords when one is reenacting later periods (especially XVth century, where thrusting was the most (if not only) way of killing with a sword). One can admire the physical preparation required to bout for so long, but certainly, not for historical techniques. (Bashing plate armour with a sword is hardly useful (well OK, a longsword could cause some damage...))
I believe, that it is possible to allow thrusts in 1v1 tournaments since they are faaaaaaar more controlled then mindless buhurts...But that would take a lot of time and constrains on ones armour.

Oh, and if you look at the longsword part, complete waste of swords.

As for deaths, I personally have not heard of any death incidents in eastern Europe. I have heard about a crippling injury in Russia, but it was not accidental(spine injury...)

I'm not very experienced in historical fencing, but I think it's possible that they exchanged some words before striking, like: "Attention poleaxe!" - "OK." because these poleaxe strikes appear to be timed moves.

It appears to me that what they do over there is a good simulation of a medieval tourney (or battle, but those were probably more organized). In that it is at least partially historical as they are participating in a sport from 700 years ago. ;)

Personally I think it's awesome, even if it's not totally historical. I mean none of the WMA/SCA/Reenactment sparring/battles are totally historical anyway, otherwise we would have quite a few dead swordsmen. By participating in this they are showing what some might call stupidity for engaging in such a combat. But others might call it something else; by participating in this they are pretty much participating in an armed tourney. According to Geoffroi De Charny a tourney is second in worth to actually fighting in war. So if these guys want to risk some injury at a chance to gain honour it is their choice. They are following in the footsteps (in a way) of the Knights who a lot on this forum revere very much. If it is not historical in equipment then it is historical in spirit.

I know this doesn't answer the OP's question but just thought I'd throw it out there. Just 'cause it's dangerous doesn't mean its stupid. Driving a car, rock climbing and skiing are all probably as much (if not more) dangerous as this sport. Think where we would be if no one continued trying to fly because it was stupid and dangerous? O.K. I guess there is a bit of a difference here but still. :lol:

I'd rather have a well worn and battle damaged harness than a shiny suit of metal that sits in the corner unused.