It’s a Tuesday evening and I arrive at an unassuming brick building on Lincoln Avenue, just off KK, where I’m about to learn an ancient form of combat. Nick Stenz, proprietor of the Medieval Combat Center, is there to greet me.
“We focus on the sport of armored combat or buhurt, which comes from an old French word that means ‘to wallop,’” Stenz tells me, and, sure enough, the evening will include plenty of walloping. “Our sport is derived from the tournament fighting of the Renaissance era,” Stenz says. He explains that buhurt developed as a way to keep armies on their toes while they were waiting around for the next war to start. Stenz, looking for an activity as the pandemic began to pass, saw a viral Vice video on armored combat. Curious, he tracked down a local team, the Milwaukee Iron Stags, and began to train with them so he could learn to compete in tournaments.
Although sparring in class is done with foam weapons, actual tournaments feature combatants in suits of armor with metal weapons, though they are dull to prevent accidental decapitation or dismemberment. Categories include one-on-one duels as well as a “melee” of three to five fighters taking on a rival team.
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Stenz digs through a pile of beat-up helmets and pads to find some gear that will fit me, then hands me a foam longsword, with a blade about 3 feet in length. Students typically choose to fight with either one of these or a shorter sword and shield.
I’m given a crash course on the anatomy of the sword, from the tip of the blade to the pommel. The length and heft of the weapon is thrilling but feels awkward. Stenz explains that it generally takes a couple months for students to acclimate the muscle set used to heave and swing a sword. After some warm-up strikes against a target mummified in duct tape, I’m given instructions on footwork to prevent me from tripping over my own feet. By now the rest of the class, about a dozen people, have geared up and filled the room.
Our instructor for the evening is an energetic martial artist named Talon and the class resembles a ragtag Dungeons & Dragons party, with a couple students looking like they stepped fresh off of a Viking longboat. It’s kind of a MMA meets LARPing vibe, but everyone was polite to me even though I clearly didn’t know what I was doing, and the excitement of the students for the class was palpable.
Talon’s voice booms out instructions and the class pairs up to try to land strikes on each other. The room becomes a whirlwind of foam swords loudly thwacking shields and limbs. The sword feels cumbersome to control and my peripheral vision is blocked by the helmet in a way I’m not used to. An occasional hit to the head doesn’t really hurt but it is disorientating and invigorating. It feels for a moment like I’m fighting an epic battle in a scene from “The Lord of the Rings” instead of wildly flailing around with a foam stick. It’s also an intense workout. After a few rounds the entire room is filled with the wet thwock sound of weapons hitting sweaty bodies and I’m a bit relieved to see I’m not the only one out of breath and drenched in sweat. Rounds of heated sparring are followed by short breaks to breathe and drink water.
During one of these breaks I caught some talk about an upcoming Milwaukee Iron Stags bout happening August 22 at the Bavarian Bierhaus called Cream City Clash IV. Several of the students will be gearing up and participating in the tournament, a chance to show off their training. It’s also a good chance to check out what medieval combat is all about if you don’t exactly feel like being walloped by foam weapons for an hour.
After pushing one last dizzy sparring round I leave the Medieval Combat Center winded, soaked in sweat … and perhaps a bit more of a legend in my own mind.
