October 22, 2024 • 47 mins
There is a growing phenomenon in the world of extreme fighting you might not be aware of. Of course there’s boxing, wrestling and mixed martial arts… but for people who want something more dangerous, more brutal…a sport that affords an opportunity to hit…or be hit with a sword, a mace, or even a battle axe - there’s now…Medieval Fighting! Really, no really!
Jason and Peter wondered why seemingly average Joes would spend thousands of dollars on armor and 14th century weaponry and travel the globe for an opportunity to fight in this brutal way. So, they turned to Simon Rohrich, a multiple world champion and expert in Medieval Fighting.
By day, Simon is an Arizona based inventor and technology consultant… but his other persona is, Baron Josef Donnerbauch, who is proficient in staff, axe and longsword armored combat, close quarters fighting, and grappling. He discusses the growing appeal of Medieval Fighting, how it may help war veterans suffering from PTSD, and what it felt like to have a large axe imbedded in his skull!
***
IN THIS EPISODE:
- What exactly is Medieval Fighting and what are the rules?
- Rumors of infiltration by the Russian mob.
- Prize money?
- How protective is the hardened steel armor?
- That time an axe ended up lodged in Simon’s skull.
- What draws someone to this sport? Spoiler Alert: Trauma awaits ye!
- How this sport may help war veterans dealing with PTSD.
- Who’s tougher… Jason or Peter (The analysis might surprise you)
- GoogleHEIM: Medieval myths debunked!
***
FOLLOW SIMON:
Website: simonrohrich.com
Instagram: @SimonRohrich
YouTube: @axemaster
X: @SimonRinventor
***
FOLLOW REALLY NO REALLY:
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Now really.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Really now, really well, and welcome to really no really.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden remind you that you would
be like a knight in shining armor.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
If you simply subscribe to our show.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
And speaking of knights in armor, there is a growing
phenomenon in the world of extreme fighting that you might
not be aware of. Sure, there's boxing, wrestling, and mixed
martial arts if you're boring, But.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
For people who pine for something a little.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
More dangerous and brutal, a sport that features claboring people
with a sword, a club, or even a battle axe,
there is the competitive world of medieval fighting.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Really no really.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
We were wondering why seemingly normal guys would spend thousands
of dollars on chainmail and fourteenth century weaponry and travel
the globe for an opportunity to fight in this brutal way.
So we turned to Simon Rourick, a world champion and
expert in medieval fighting. Most days, Simon is an Arizona
I'm a based inventor and technology consultant, But when the
sun doth rise on the tournament field, he transforms into
(01:06):
his other persona. They're in josef Donnerbach, who's proficient in staff,
axe and long sword, armored combat, close quarters fighting, and grappling.
He discusses the growing appeal of medieval fighting, how it
may help war veterans suffering from PTSD, and what it
felt like to have a large axe embedded in his skull.
Now Here are the lords of our manor Jason and Peter.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Hello, pour sooth and pretty welcome to really nay, really,
that's how they would.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
Talk if we were actually.
Speaker 6 (01:41):
Or or it's one of those medieval lights things and
they say you want the basket and chicken, or you
want to lamb leg.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
The only thing I remember from Renaissance fairs is if
you put a dollar in the basket when they gave
you the coin dog, they go.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
Huzza for the tipper, huzzaf. Everybody would go huzza.
Speaker 6 (01:56):
I thought, Oh, that's kind of curses under his breast
and you're gonna walk back to the kitchen going out
of wear a hat with a fellow less less.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
No, let'st one not pick up on our theme for
the day. So today we're going to talk about this
is this is a thing. So we all know, there's boxing,
there's m M a there's mixed martial arts, there's all
this stuff.
Speaker 5 (02:18):
There's wrestling and wrestling. There is a phenomena.
Speaker 6 (02:22):
It's growing, it's.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Growing growing, it's it's out of control where people both
male and female, don medieval armor or replicas of medieval armor,
and with replicas of medieval weapons, swords, shields, living day
(02:44):
of each other, beat the.
Speaker 7 (02:46):
Living day each other, which is a fascinating until somebody goes,
either I quit or maybe.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
Ow we are, we are there. We got to find
out the rules. So yeah, medieval combat is like the
new listening. And now there was an organization that started
in Europe and there's somewhere.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Else when it's done. Medieval started in Europe.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Yeah yeah, we didn't have Native Americans running around going
what ho?
Speaker 5 (03:10):
Yeah, okay, but.
Speaker 6 (03:12):
Now it's spread. There's two organizations. And I wonder if
if if you see this fighting, you won't believe it.
And I got to ask our guest who's a fighter,
about why and how he does it. And I also
got to ask him. Supposedly, there was an incident with
a Russian fighter where he was going down, but somebody
(03:34):
reached into the ring and held.
Speaker 7 (03:35):
His belt so that he's he's out, but he's not
going down.
Speaker 6 (03:40):
So like, what cheating? What this is? Like what his
wife says?
Speaker 7 (03:42):
What you Well, that was an old medieval trick. Actually
they holding the belt. They would hold a dead knight
up erect and to let everybody beat the hell out
of him while they came around the back.
Speaker 6 (03:51):
Instead of in boxing we have a cut man, you
got a belt man.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
That's right, hold up, but sound you need a good
visor guy.
Speaker 6 (03:59):
It found about the culture and why and how and
who participation.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
So what this says about all of us about you know,
we have a lot of combat sport, but and I
know people are fascinated.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
You know, it's almost like role playing going back. You know,
we talk about it.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
We have medieval times where you go have a dinner
and night's joust and they do and Renaissance fairs are
a huge thing, and there's a fascinating it's almost like
a West World thing of dressing up and living in
a different time, in a different period.
Speaker 5 (04:29):
But this idea of.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
And my son, our announcer, Noah, actually did this one
time down to play here in southern California and they
they they put him in armor that didn't fit. He
went in and got his head handed to him. It's
been months. He still has a scar. He's got a
scar on his leg. It's going to be a perma.
So this, you know what it's like. Dungeon and Dragon.
(04:55):
We did an episode that it's celebrating the fiftieth anniversary. Yeah,
it's like one.
Speaker 6 (04:59):
Some guy during the Dungeons and Dragons game went, why.
Speaker 5 (05:04):
Is this imaginary?
Speaker 6 (05:06):
I want to hit you and beat you with a
club close to death. So we'll find out about that.
But I'm just curious and we can delve into why,
what this says about us, et cetera. What this is?
But did you ever, if you do, you ever drawn
to fight somebody? Do you ever have to really fight somebody?
Speaker 4 (05:21):
I have had one school fight, and when I was
at school, I was on the receiving end of I
wouldn't call them fights. I would call them assaults. You know,
I was in grade school. But yeah, I studied martial
arts for a number of years, and so I sparred
regular I never competed, but I sparred in the school, and.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
So I have. I have struck and been struck in
the name of sport.
Speaker 6 (05:47):
I had to punch your guy once I was going
down a country road or Benjamin was in the car
seat and these guys, two guys in the car were
riding my bumper intentionally laughing, and they started just touching
my bumper.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
Oh my god.
Speaker 6 (06:01):
And I pulled the car over. And my brother had
taught me, my nine year older brother, if you got
a fight, yeah, don't wait. So I walked to the
car and I'm a coward. I don't like fighting. Yeah,
I've been fighting two fights in my life. And I
walked up to the window. The guy's getting out of
the passenger seat and he sailling, oh, yeah, you want
to take them on? And the guy in the driver's
seat roll down the window, and without hesitation, I cocked
(06:22):
my arm and punched him, broke his glasses. I think,
is no.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
Oh.
Speaker 6 (06:26):
The other guy then got back in the car and
they took off kurt like forever. And I felt horrible
that I did it. Yeah, but these guys were putting
my family in jeopardy.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
And a couple of times that I've had a street
encounter back that way, back in my twenties. No, I'm
sick for weeks, if not months after that, because you're paranoid.
Speaker 5 (06:47):
You think there's going to be a retribution for it.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
You don't know, you know it's it is unsettling too
when that's not your thing to suddenly be in that,
it's very disturbing.
Speaker 6 (06:59):
So we went a segue to if it is your
thing and you're wearing fifty or one hundred pounds of
armor and you're entering with a sword going after somebody,
or four on four or five on five, what does
that feel like? Our guest, Simon Rorick, is an Arizona
based inventor technology consultant specializing in mobile technical solutions. And
he's also Baron Joseph Donnerbach who's proficient in armored combat
(07:24):
with staff as long sword and close quarters fighting. Holy crap,
he's also handing when it comes to hand to hand
group tactics. And let's not forget you have a good
grap on.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
By the way, here's your man makes a sooup fle
light fluffy.
Speaker 6 (07:39):
You can't believe, Simon, Thank do we talk to you?
Speaker 5 (07:41):
Welcome?
Speaker 6 (07:42):
Baron or Simon? Who are we talking to here?
Speaker 8 (07:45):
You can just call me Simon?
Speaker 6 (07:46):
Yeah, okay, right, well, thank you for coming on. So
give us some background in this, because how did it
take off?
Speaker 5 (07:54):
Before you even asked.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
But for those of you not watching on YouTube, Simon,
you're wearing arm are you not male?
Speaker 5 (08:01):
What do you?
Speaker 6 (08:02):
Oh?
Speaker 9 (08:02):
No, this is a This is just a three D
printed shirt with some scale armor on it.
Speaker 6 (08:07):
But behind you you have a battle acts and other
sharp objects on the wall.
Speaker 9 (08:10):
Well yeah, I mean, I thought I would dress up
for the occasion. I don't get to talk to people
like you very often. This is a big deal to me,
so I thought i'd do some presentation.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
And because of the weaponry behind you, I want to
say from the heart, you look fabulous.
Speaker 8 (08:25):
Bad well, thank you, you look fabulous.
Speaker 7 (08:28):
To Oh, thank you, sorry too.
Speaker 6 (08:31):
That so, give us some background on medieval fighting, how
it's taken off the rules. Give a tutorial to people listening.
Speaker 9 (08:39):
There's a two different worlds of medieval fighting. There's the
Lark live action role playing fighting, and that's what most
people are familiar with. And that's what I started in.
Speaker 8 (08:51):
In nineteen ninety four, and that's where I have my name.
Speaker 9 (08:56):
That's where my name comes from, is the Joseph Dounnerbauch
and Joseph donnerbaukkas from my Lark background. And I did
that for many years. I did that from nineteen ninety
four to about twenty twelve. Then I saw a video
online where a guy was in full armor and he
got jump kicked. The flying jump kick in the back
(09:16):
of the head hit him so hard that his head
almost exchanged places with his ankles, and the guy landed it,
jumped around in full armor and ran off, and I
posted on Facebook, Hey, you know where can I do this?
Because I've always wanted something a little more violent, and
(09:37):
I wanted something more and I was always getting in
trouble for hitting people too hard or gain too aggressive
because I'm essentially a dudgeon dragons nerd with anger issues.
But anyway, so in twenty twelve, a friend of mine
contacted me and he said, hey, the first United States
team is forming and they're having a World Championship in
(10:00):
this kind of unlimited format medieval combat. And so I
got my armor right away, cost me a pretty penny
because it was hardened steel armor.
Speaker 8 (10:11):
You have to have hard and steel armor to survive.
Speaker 9 (10:14):
And went over to Poland and fought in the first
World Championships against about twenty other countries back in twenty twelve.
It was against the best and brightest, most violent nerds
of other countries now. Keep in mind, in other countries
it's not considered so much a nerdy hobby because that's
(10:36):
their heritage, whereas the United States has a bunch of
European transplants, so it's not the same, but still a
high number of nerds. And I got to knock people out,
you know. We showed up there and as a team,
a lot of us were larkers, and we saw people
getting pulled out of there on stretchers. I think we
saw like twelve people on backboards getting pulled out, and
(10:58):
we were.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Like, good times, good time, we're are homes. Yeah, we
found our tribe.
Speaker 8 (11:04):
No, no, you were. You were kind of terrified as a.
Speaker 6 (11:07):
Group, okay, good good.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (11:09):
Had been role players where there's a certain amount of
camaraderie and niceness, you know, and well that exists in
the medieval mm A thing.
Speaker 8 (11:20):
It was a lot rougher than any of us had seen.
Speaker 9 (11:23):
Luckily, I'd been a bouncer for a decade by that time,
so I just went out there and just fought people
in a group format, which is what I was used to.
So my squad did pretty well, but pretty much everybody
there got their app collectively kicked despite being some of
the largest people and the largest fighters there.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
There's so many questions, and I know Peter's going to
jump in, but just because I I am not well versed,
and perhaps others listening aren't. Can you explain the difference
between LARP and what what we're talking about today?
Speaker 9 (11:58):
Okay, LARP is super fun, immersive, but it's live action
role playing, and part of that role playing that they
do is the combat. Obviously, they have to role playing
a system where you know, if I hit you really
hard with my phone or my stick and then you're
sort of on your honor to acknowledge that hit and
be like, oh, I'm getting the lord and you fall down,
(12:20):
or do some role playing.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
Right, got it? So it's not a board game situation.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
You're up on your feet, you're you're acting this stuff out,
but you're using implements that are gentler.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
Is that basically the difference.
Speaker 9 (12:31):
Yes, And the armor's lighter and there's it's also not
a combat sport, which you know, a combat sport involves
pain trauma, you know, much like boxing or MMA or
anything else. Sure, the lark aspect is fun and it
can be bruising and tough, and in fact, some of
the best medieval mma guys were really accomplished slarpers who
(12:56):
translated those skills. But medieval mma is a combat sport
where you knock people out. There's no imaginary hits gotcha.
For example, in the Lark, if you came up and
you hit me in the side of the head of
an axe, you know, it might hit my head, might
give me a good bomb, but then I'll be like, oh, okay,
I'm dead, fall over right.
Speaker 8 (13:18):
Medieval mme is to the pain for any of you.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
Princess Princess.
Speaker 6 (13:26):
Sim And I said this from a good place, and
we'll get to this what's wrong with you? So so
let's before we again as basic info, tell us the
weapons used and the rules, and then we can get
into the person, the personal issues and the different organizations stuff.
What is this like, what does this look like like?
What what weaponry do you have? And what are the.
Speaker 8 (13:48):
Rules to take?
Speaker 9 (13:52):
No stabbing, because that was the most effective way to
anybody good. The rules that we use are from tournament
rules back in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. They had
rules just like we do, no stabbing, blunted weapons. They
even had rules like If you get thrown to the ground,
you lost. We have that same rules, so no stabbing.
(14:15):
The weapons have to be blunted. We don't use maces
or hammers over two and a half pounds. The maximum
weight for our two handed weapons is seven pounds, which
is about the same as what you'd find at home depot.
Speaker 8 (14:29):
If you've got a two handed tree felling acts. They're
around that.
Speaker 6 (14:32):
Oh good.
Speaker 9 (14:35):
And if you hit the ground, you're done fighting. You
can't hit anybody while you're down. You can't be hit
on the while you're on the ground either. And then
it's multiple formats. One versus one, five verses five, ten
versus ten, twenty one versus twenty one. They've even gotten
to like one to fifty versus one fifty at the
(14:55):
World Championships. The one versus one are a little different
because they are scored like a boxing match. There's points,
number of hits judges, and then there's a knockout gain
compliance component.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Also, I would imagine in the one fifty versus one
fifty there's some friendly fire. Oh yeah, gotta be hey, Jacob,
come on, man, come on you, I didn't recognize you
with your Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
If the visor give.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Me A.
Speaker 9 (15:30):
Really true friendly fire is the worst because you're not
set up for it. You're not ready for the direction
it's coming in, so it's way likely to knock you out. Yeah,
I've broken friend's arms before by accident.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Come on, who hasn't, And then you're going for a
beer after with the good arm.
Speaker 9 (15:45):
They had a guy in a headlock, you know, and
I hit him with an axe. I was going for
the guy's head and I missed.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
And I did that in the way into the studio.
That's no big deal. Don't feel bad about that.
Speaker 6 (15:55):
The worst I've ever done is knocked a Danish out
of Jason's hand, and that's because it had a fly on.
I was saving you. So Simon is funding. Some of
the stories are it's funded by the Russian mafia, some
oligarchist funny who puts up the prize money and.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Who puts up the money?
Speaker 9 (16:17):
So early on the Russian teams were funded by like
the son of a Russian oliguard who was involved in
a way that I can't quite describe because I don't
speak Russian. But let's just say that there's lots of
betting going on, right, okay, and the sportsmanship from the
(16:38):
Russian fighters was good, but the cheating from the organization
was notorious, got it, which is, you guys touched on
that a little bit.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
So you've heard that story about the guy who was
up the win and they were holding his belt through
the ring or whatever they went.
Speaker 9 (16:51):
Joel had the camera up in the stands and he
had a high speed camera. I went through about twenty
thousand pictures and found the first five sent those out
because I'd heard that it happened, and.
Speaker 8 (17:03):
The guy denied it, denied it, denied it.
Speaker 9 (17:05):
So my friend Joel had the fancy camera and I
went up there and went through the pictures. Found the
guy reaching through the fence and holding the Russian fighter up.
And the thing is, the Russian fighters were good enough
to beat us, they didn't have to do that. But
there's sort of this mentality of for not cheating or
not trying hard enough or something like that, which is.
Speaker 6 (17:25):
We have a pillow my living, we have another pillow
my friend my father handed that down. Yeah.
Speaker 9 (17:31):
So yeah, so then that actually started where that started
a fissure, and after that those pictures came out and
there's no denying it because the video of that fight
mysteriously disappeared. It was a new organization, So all the
Western countries minus Russia formed a new organization called the
(17:52):
IMCF for more fair competitions. I fought in that World
Championship and actually won the World Tampionship.
Speaker 6 (18:00):
In the fisher mentioned you are, I didn't do that
in the intro. You are a world champion multiple times
and medals around the world. So who funds this organization?
If that one was funded that way initially? Where does
the prize money come from?
Speaker 9 (18:14):
Well, now it comes from event organizers that want to
sell tickets or merchandise or food or tricky legs. But
there isn't really a ton of prize money. This is
still I was.
Speaker 7 (18:26):
Going to say, what's I was going to say, is it?
Is it a belt, the trophy.
Speaker 6 (18:30):
Late or suggest for the love of a concussion.
Speaker 9 (18:33):
I have made so many tens of dollars I cannot
tell you what dollars.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
Yeah, I've made yeah. No.
Speaker 8 (18:40):
So the largest person I had was on a History Channel.
It was ten K.
Speaker 9 (18:45):
And they had a History Channel series called Night Fight,
and they did a season of it.
Speaker 8 (18:49):
I was on episode seven.
Speaker 6 (18:51):
Ten K. That doesn't even pay for a kevlar jocks.
Speaker 9 (18:54):
Rep No, it would pay for maybe two suits of armor.
Speaker 8 (18:59):
But that's about it.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
Well, that's why. So I was going to ask that, Hey,
it's an investment to do this, but.
Speaker 7 (19:05):
Even where do you where do you go for a
suit of armor? And the other question, I'll throw them
all at your answer and anywhere you want.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
My impression is, if I'm covered in steel, what's what's
hurting me? How how come I'm still getting hurt inside?
Speaker 6 (19:23):
That can? All right?
Speaker 9 (19:25):
Well, to answer your question about injury, it's probably the
same reason why people still get hurt in car accidents.
Nothing is proof against sufficient force, sure you know. So
the seat belts leave a massive bruise that will cover
your whole torso get in a car accident, So it's
the same thing. It's And then the joints in the armor.
(19:48):
The joints in the armor have gaps because you have
to be able to move. So if you want to
hurt somebody the most, you aim for those gaps. You
learn to see your opponent's armor and you learn to
identify their weaknesses based off the armor type. And so
sometimes the shoulders will comes over and leave a gap
right here, so you can hit somebody right in the scapula,
(20:12):
paralyze their arm. Sometimes it will hurt them enough for
them to drop. You hit people in the back of
the legs, just not in the back of the knees.
That's another rule that I skipped over is you cannot
attack the back of the knees.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
You know, this thing has more rules than Nazi rules football.
Speaker 6 (20:27):
I'm swinging a club those football I.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
Think there's no eye gouging. That's about it. Everything else
is on the tip.
Speaker 6 (20:33):
These guys show you get to change. I was joking,
where do you get to change? Where do you buy
the arm backsmith makes it for you?
Speaker 8 (20:40):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 9 (20:41):
There's there's a cottage industry that the internet's really helped with.
And then our first foray overseas really brought a lot
of the Ukrainian and Polish craftsmen to the United States.
And it's called mild steel. This stuff has to be
hardened in the same way that swords are quenched.
Speaker 8 (20:56):
You see a sword that's been quenched in the water.
Speaker 9 (20:57):
To harden it, you have to do the whole piece
of armor, right, the whole thing, because if you're if
you wouldn't you you'd risk you risk death.
Speaker 8 (21:07):
Essentially if you don't have your armor.
Speaker 6 (21:10):
I love the chuckle. I love the chuckle. So what's
wrong with you?
Speaker 7 (21:14):
The fact you said you've got to tell your.
Speaker 6 (21:17):
Face so you had you said you had anger issues.
Pardon me, I go to therapy for that rather than
to the blacksmith. You there's something there again, reading your
bio technology consultant, You're educated, you have a regular day job.
Is it? You can't get that kind of endorphin rush
doing anything else in your life? So this is really
(21:39):
really that big a deal because you've been doing a
long time well, is it? You can't get that kind
of endorphin rush doing anything else in your life, So
this is really really that big a deal because you've
(22:01):
been doing a long time.
Speaker 9 (22:02):
Well, I mean yeah, I've been in combat sports a
real long time. And it really just comes down to
a rough childhood with dad that probably shouldn't have been
a dad. If we want to want to bring the
tone of this whole thing down.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
It's actually that is really informative.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
It is informative, and it's really interesting because you probably
heard the intro that Peter and I were doing. I mean,
I I studied some martial arts, but I was really
in it because I was the target of bullies and
I just wanted to be able to, yeah, put up
a little bit. But I would be surprised if someone
who didn't have something that was frightful or fearsome or
(22:48):
in some ways brutal in their childhood. I can't imagine
the average Joe who didn't have that experience being drawn
to something like this. Do you find that the people
that you know who are part of the sport are
they do?
Speaker 5 (23:01):
They have a similar background to you, a similar journey.
Speaker 9 (23:04):
A lot of them do, and in fact, we do
a ton of veteran outreach because it's a very effective
therapeutic activity for people that are trying to master those
adrenaline dumps and deal with these panic attacks that they
have but still follow rules. So our sport provides an
(23:25):
exposure therapy for them, and the camaraderie under duress is
something that they seek and that they don't have in
the civilian life. So there's a huge PTSD contingent of people.
We have several war like bonified war heroes in our group,
and then you find people that were bullied just like
(23:47):
you and I were. But you know, I think humans
have a need for physical combat, and so I think
that there's a component in our psyche that requires some
kind of conflict. And it could be pickleball, it could
be badminton, it could be any of those things. But
I think a lot of the problems we have today
(24:09):
is is there's no outlet for this kind of thing.
Speaker 8 (24:13):
But I found mine.
Speaker 9 (24:14):
It brings me peace, It brings a lot of vets peace,
and it brings a lot of people that have anger
issues peace, so that we can interact in the world
and make it safe for everybody.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
And Simon, is there a considerable participation by women or
is it mostly a male dominated.
Speaker 8 (24:32):
There's a considerable participation by women.
Speaker 9 (24:34):
I think because in part because while we have this
mm a rough and tumble a sport, there isn't that
dude bro douchebag mma. I call them taps bros. There's
a douchebag tap row mentality. So it's more welcoming I think.
(24:55):
So we get some more, we get more participation than
you'd expect.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
You've sort of given an interesting profile for the guys
that participate. Is there a similar profile for the women
or is it just is it surprising what kind of
women get into this.
Speaker 8 (25:09):
You know, I gotta say.
Speaker 9 (25:13):
The women I know personally have some similar experiences, but
it's kind of a subject that you kind of have
to be like.
Speaker 8 (25:20):
So, were you abused as a kid? Is that why
you're here? It's a rough opener.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
You know, it's not a conversation starter.
Speaker 6 (25:28):
Do you ever? So I'm curious you suit up. It's
fifty two hundred pounds, you got the armor on. You
get into that ring once it starts. Does this guy
could hurt you, kill you, break something? Does it get
that amped up where you are just flat out survival?
You've put yourself in a survival situation.
Speaker 9 (25:49):
That's what happens at first, and that's just the result
of inexperience. And what you do is you wind up
dumping out all your adrenaline, spiking your heartbeat and breath
and your toast in thirty seconds. That's and that's just
an experience because a lot of people haven't been hitting
the face of an axe, let alone hit the face
of an axe with a couple of guys holding you
against the rail while another person's punching you.
Speaker 8 (26:10):
In the ribs all at the same time. So it's
an experience. But then a.
Speaker 7 (26:16):
Second, I just got to digest what you just said
for a second. Okay, that gives that gives new meaning.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
It's my favorite thing, and my favorite quote from any
fighter I ever heard still belongs to Mike Tyson when
he was being interviewed before the fight and the interviewer said, well,
you know, so and so has a plan. He studied
your tapes and he has a plan for how to
defeat you in the ring. And Tyson goes, yeah, everybody
has a plan till they get hit in the face.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
Right.
Speaker 6 (26:43):
Yeah, it's true, but what you just described is so frightening.
But you so with wisdom. You get some wisdom and
some some strategy once you've done it.
Speaker 8 (26:55):
Yes, once you realize that the armor really works.
Speaker 5 (26:59):
You know.
Speaker 9 (26:59):
It's one of the problems is that we've been we've
been taught by movies that armor can just be stabbed
through with guys and played. If you've ever seen a
movie where a person was writing plate armor and he
was stabbed and it went through him, that's never happened.
Speaker 8 (27:16):
Ever, I guess I would. I would bet a dollar
it had never happened back then. Either, So Hard, So Hard.
Speaker 6 (27:25):
This was a Monty Python movie. It would be cut
to a deceased warrior from the fourteen hundreds, going.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
Difference.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
So you're saying that a hardened steel breastplate always be
it's a hardened steel sword on the edge, on the edge.
Speaker 8 (27:42):
The slash.
Speaker 9 (27:43):
Do you ever see a medieval combat or in some
of the movies they're actually trying to do a better
job where they take the sword and use it like
a staff. Yeah, there's a point here. Yeah, they hit
him with the pommel there. That point was the most
dangerous part. So the idea was to batter or grapple
or stun the guy with the pommel or the base
(28:04):
of the sword, and when he was stunned or maneuvered
in such a way, you would get the point in
his armpit or underneath his helmet here, or any in
his face, anything, and use that point.
Speaker 5 (28:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (28:17):
You never ever would slash an.
Speaker 9 (28:20):
Edge of a sword against armor if you could help it,
because it wouldn't do and it wouldn't do anything.
Speaker 8 (28:26):
That's what axes and pole hammers are for.
Speaker 5 (28:29):
Of course, of course that's where's my pollhound. He's telling
me stuff. I know, Dade, how.
Speaker 6 (28:33):
Many fights can you do in a day at a tournament?
Speaker 9 (28:36):
You can do sometimes ten twenty thirty. It really depends.
It's the bracketing system, so it depends on how many
people enter. But at the World Championships, for example, it's
four days.
Speaker 6 (28:49):
Dude, and they have doctors. I guess right there. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 9 (28:52):
In fact, my friend as the team doctor in twenty
twelve attack, he reattached somebody's pinky finger tip.
Speaker 8 (29:00):
You know, got got nipped off.
Speaker 9 (29:02):
Use an arm brace to brace my leg because I
got hit in the calf with an illegal Russian mace
turned out to be twice as heavy as what was
allowed and uh smashed my calf, So he.
Speaker 6 (29:16):
Be fair.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
I think, uh, you know, for authenticity, the doctor should
only be able to apply me devil medicine, Leachers, leeches, yeah,
little leeches, and you know, I don't know what else.
Speaker 6 (29:28):
Potions we're going to do it. By the way, if
you had the bet on one of us, yeah, who
do you think looking at like looking at us, if
we were all suited up, who would be the guy.
Speaker 5 (29:37):
To I'll tell you you can't tell.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
Sitting here, Peter's got about a foot of height over me.
Speaker 5 (29:40):
I'll give you that.
Speaker 9 (29:42):
Well, you know you said that, you Jason, you said
that you had martial arts background, so you know the
center of gravity.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
And I was a.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
College fencer, Peter, So careful, be careful who you throw
your gauntlet down too.
Speaker 6 (29:55):
I've run away from so many people who threatened me.
I'm very fair.
Speaker 9 (29:58):
Here's the thing is that is that when he was
talking about no hesitation, remember when he's talking about his
story about the traffic thing.
Speaker 8 (30:05):
Yeah, so in martial arts you're taught some respect and restraint, right, Yes,
you run up against the guy that has no hesitation.
Personal yes, first wins first.
Speaker 6 (30:17):
There you go.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
There's a there's an unwritten martial arts that says crazy
beats good.
Speaker 6 (30:22):
Thank you, Simon, thank you.
Speaker 9 (30:24):
So I would say, if you guys fight, you better,
you better hit Jason really quick or you're done.
Speaker 5 (30:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (30:30):
Yeah, so Simon, before we go, can you just show
us a couple of your weapons and maybe club your
dog to death or do something that we can so
we can see see.
Speaker 8 (30:38):
I'm a cat guy. I have two cats.
Speaker 6 (30:39):
Club the cats to death. I'm kidding, Peter, Peter, please
go ahead, all.
Speaker 8 (30:44):
Right here, this one, here, oh boy, this one, oh
my god, has a pretty unique story.
Speaker 9 (30:51):
Yeah you see my can you see my?
Speaker 8 (30:54):
My face on there. Can you see that?
Speaker 5 (30:57):
Is it on the blade itself?
Speaker 6 (30:59):
We see?
Speaker 5 (30:59):
Oh yeah, now we can.
Speaker 6 (31:02):
Weapon.
Speaker 9 (31:03):
Oh yeah, so this part was inside my skull. I
got my skull fractured, my helmet got pulled off my head,
and I got hit with this exact weapon in the
head and it took a piece of bone and put
it through my brain about half a centimeter.
Speaker 5 (31:22):
That explains so much, right, So, uh.
Speaker 9 (31:28):
I recovered and UH won the pole Arm Championship of
the United States six months later.
Speaker 8 (31:34):
But then my friends found the guy who did it.
Speaker 9 (31:38):
Uh, he's a Canadian and bought this from him and
remade the weapon. And this is the original blade and
that is why there's a laser at you. Maybe it
says skull crusher. Can you see it says skull This
is the piece right there.
Speaker 6 (31:58):
It was in your head. Yeah, so that's a special special.
Speaker 7 (32:03):
Yeah sentimental, man, you don't know what happened here.
Speaker 6 (32:06):
And by the way, in my yard is a car
that hit me when I was ten.
Speaker 8 (32:10):
Wow, now I use it to beat the crap out
of other people.
Speaker 5 (32:13):
Okay, well boy swept.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
Oh my god.
Speaker 9 (32:17):
These are yeah, these are all, these are all, these
are all weapons that we can use you see they're blunt.
Speaker 5 (32:24):
Yeah, oh sure, yes, harmless, But I.
Speaker 8 (32:27):
Mean you can still get something.
Speaker 9 (32:29):
I've gotten something called pressure cut where it'll hit your
armor so hard that will explode the skin underneath and
actually make a cut through the armor and not actually
penetrate the.
Speaker 6 (32:38):
Weapon he's holding up. Now, if you don't have video,
the grim Reaper would go too big.
Speaker 5 (32:43):
Over here.
Speaker 6 (32:44):
You could use that to do a field of grain,
to get the whole field done. My gosh, oh my god,
how big are you? By the way, how tall? And
how would you about? Six? Two?
Speaker 8 (32:53):
About two thirty I mean to eighty to three hundred
pounds depending on eight.
Speaker 6 (33:00):
Oh yeah, whoa.
Speaker 8 (33:01):
I grew up on a farm, you know.
Speaker 9 (33:03):
So people asking us, so, how do you hit so
hard that you can drop anybody with an axe no
matter where you hit him, And uh, I just say, well,
you got to be shoveling doing man's work by the
time you're eight.
Speaker 6 (33:15):
That's the name of my book, Shoveling doing man's work.
That's my that's my bio. Well, thank you, thank you
so much for being on. Simon Baron, Joseph Donner Black
is the way is that the website you look under
Joseph Donner back or do you look on Simon.
Speaker 9 (33:30):
Simon rock You know in the sport we don't do
any of the role playing stuff. We just like to
beat each other up and then have beers and hugs afterwards.
Speaker 6 (33:37):
Simon, thank you, Simon.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
We wish you well out there for the for the
you know, watch thy back.
Speaker 7 (33:46):
Yeah, if I had a lut I'd play it. Thank
you a pleasure. That So what the actual health is
just what's amazing to me. And this always happens with
our show. We try and find something that truly makes
(34:09):
it go really no really that exists.
Speaker 6 (34:11):
On the planet I know exactly. Hopefully, hopefully it's fascinating.
Hopefully we can have some humor to it. Yeah, but
you get into the reason behind. And when he was
talking about the anger issue and the vest again, we
always said with this show we were try and do
everything positive and not being negative because there's enough division
in the world. But I guess there's a percentage of
the population that has to control their anger, their victreol
(34:34):
and have an outlet for it. When he said the
PTSD thing it soldiers and this helps them. We can't
relate to that because of how violent. That is, and
I think, is this therapeutic? It's so foreign to me.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
You know, I hear what he was saying about using
it as a kind of a therapy for things like PTSD,
but I don't know how to say this, so it
doesn't sound like I'm being a smart ass. But he
had a blade in his head. The guy who wielded
that blade. Does that not give him more PTSD? I
(35:09):
mean in a sport.
Speaker 6 (35:11):
But because it's it's it's you're both agreed to the format.
You both agreed to the thing. What I wonder about,
and I didn't get to ask him, it is, so
you're a human being. You're fighting me in MMA. I'm
watching you, I'm seeing you. I'm hurting you. But we're
doing our thing.
Speaker 5 (35:25):
Right.
Speaker 6 (35:26):
As soon as I put on a face mass an advisor, I'm.
Speaker 5 (35:30):
Just the thing.
Speaker 6 (35:30):
It's now it's you're dehumanizing a person. I wonder what
that feels like, because now you're fighting a concept, you're
not fighting a person. There's no humanity there.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
Well that now you're describing modern warfare where the combatants never.
Speaker 6 (35:44):
So that I wonder the element there if that dehumanizes
again in PTSD, If I kill you accidentally if I
did something horrible to you. But then again, I guess
both if you did it with an agreement, yeah, I
guess you know. It's I don't know, it's hard to
wrap your head harder, but it is increasing and more
and more people are there's.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
This whole romance of medieval things. If this didn't have
a medieval flavor to it, you got these are just
people beating the cross wooden spoon from the kitchen and
they hit it. But there's this romance to medieval things,
which I gotta tell you, I don't understand.
Speaker 6 (36:20):
No, because there was an odor then, they didn't have bathroom.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Nobody who lived in the medieval times was going, these
are the best possible time.
Speaker 6 (36:26):
Fin the way you wiped yourself with that act. They
didn't have toilet paper yet.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
But I mean, we go to these Renaissance fairs, we
go to the I was in Ireland recently and there's
there's one castle that is it's almost like not's very
farm it. It looks they have actors playing exactly what
life would have.
Speaker 5 (36:43):
Been, and you go, this is Puaint on a good day.
But how many good days were there?
Speaker 6 (36:49):
I think medieval fighting came up. There's no bathroom, there
was no antibiotics. It's everything smelled you to take. I
think they wanted to die. That's why the.
Speaker 5 (36:57):
Fighter absolutely right.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
And honestly, bathing bathing in medieval times it was maybe
a three time a year by.
Speaker 6 (37:06):
The moon, by the lunar moon.
Speaker 7 (37:08):
Yeah you wash up, you know, because it's spring. But
it's it was not pleasant.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
And even when I go, I took the kids, you know,
when they were young, to medieval times here in La
where you have dinner and there's there's a show and
it's shousting. It's nights, you know, playing and everybody, everybody
knowing it is sworn to one night and you're you're
rooting for your knight. And the menu is a piece
of brisket, a chicken leg, a bowl of soup and
(37:37):
some ale. No, no napkins, no for aware. No, you're
eating with your hands and guys are down there whacking.
And you know, I am the blue Knight route for me.
I don't care how a loud I root they picked.
Speaker 5 (37:50):
Green is gonna win a different experience. It's and I'm going.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
And the boys were like, this is great, this is great,
and I went, this is.
Speaker 6 (37:57):
Nuts it is, but takes it another the medieval fighting.
I'm so glad we had him a champion him, but
it is fascinating and I still don't. This is one
of those where it ended the interview in it and
I still don't. He explained it.
Speaker 4 (38:10):
You can't because, like I said, my son, Noah, he
went down and tried this in southern California one time.
He knows nothing about it other than he saw it online.
He goes down a bunch of guys, hell fellow, well met,
that's fantastic.
Speaker 5 (38:22):
They give him some armor, some loner armor.
Speaker 6 (38:25):
It's like bowling shoes in the back.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
I mean talk about a gap in the armpit. The
gap in the armpit was his head. And he's and
they give him a weapon and he's out there with
no training, no nothing, no lead up. Who knows if
the guy he's playing with has done this one thousand
times and he gets he has a scar on his
shin that is never going over.
Speaker 6 (38:48):
Let's go, let's go to mister google him.
Speaker 7 (38:51):
Yes, David, welcome David.
Speaker 6 (38:54):
What are you so fascinating? Right?
Speaker 7 (38:55):
It's hard to understand squire google him?
Speaker 5 (38:59):
What say?
Speaker 6 (39:02):
And dragons?
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (39:04):
Ever had just lost control and smacked the guy across
from you.
Speaker 10 (39:08):
Well sometimes you know, the dice are flying, man, you know,
you should wear goggles.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Listen.
Speaker 10 (39:17):
I it's very interesting, right because he was before he
came on camera, he and I were talking and you know,
he was a way back D and D guy, and
he then obviously got into the LARPing, which is basically
live action D and D and then looking for the
more extreme thing. Now he has axes and and and
they hit each other so and.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Injury.
Speaker 10 (39:43):
Yeah, yeah, it was quite poignant from my perspective when
he was talking about the folks coming back.
Speaker 6 (39:50):
From battle that are not able to.
Speaker 10 (39:52):
Find that, and they're in this they are able to
so you know, I wish them. Well, it's really brutal.
Speaker 6 (39:59):
I really do.
Speaker 10 (40:01):
For people who are interested in understanding how brutal this is.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
These guys with these full on axes that.
Speaker 10 (40:07):
Are blunted as we are, no sharp edges, but there's
still axes that are wailing away and it's amazing.
Speaker 6 (40:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (40:14):
Only seven pounds though, only seven pounds, yeah.
Speaker 6 (40:18):
For the legal ones, for the legal ones, the guys
who are taking in the fifteen pounders, you know, yeah,
the check guys, you have to so what's your takeaway
before we wrap your well, A.
Speaker 10 (40:27):
Couple of things. Number One, i'd be a long bowman.
I think, you know, far away, yeah, right through the armor.
Number Two, you guys were pushing some myths, some medieval myths.
Speaker 5 (40:37):
Really.
Speaker 6 (40:38):
Oh okay, let's hear.
Speaker 10 (40:40):
Bathing, while not as common as we have today, was
actually very common in the Middle Ages and medieval times,
the Dark Ages, some people refer to it. Washing of
hands and face were a daily routine, a part of
eating and socializing. There would be a weekly house type
(41:00):
of situation for the full body or going to the
river or something like that.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
While there was eating with the hands.
Speaker 10 (41:07):
You would wash your hands beforehand, you'd wash your face beforehand.
There were utensils, there were knives, there were spoons, there were.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Not forks for most of the time.
Speaker 10 (41:17):
But it was not the king was not grabbing the
come on, come on, Henry the eighth, he's grabbing the
turkey leg. No turkeys, No turkeys, large chicken, large large chicken. Yeah, yeah,
no turkeys, no turkeys. Also another one that I thought
(41:38):
was interesting and a lot of what we're talking about,
like Renaissance fairis you know, the Renaissance is not medieval times.
Speaker 5 (41:45):
Right, the Roman Empire.
Speaker 10 (41:47):
Falls, there's a state of confusion, which is the Middle
Ages the time we're speaking of, and then the Renaissance
comes where they sort of get.
Speaker 6 (41:55):
It back together.
Speaker 10 (41:58):
It's a little history history, and again this is another
sort of a lot of our understanding of what the
Middle Ages were like as based on things that came
much much later, like the whole idea of dungeons and
torture devices, you know, in these dungeons and all of that.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Most of that did not exist. In fact, it was an.
Speaker 10 (42:21):
Invention created in eighteen nineteen by Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe
Like It Is Not, which is obviously way, way, way
way after the Middle Ages, which were from four to
seventy six a d. Through about at about fourteen hundred,
(42:43):
so that's sort of the time period work.
Speaker 6 (42:44):
So in that period you'd say, I am going to
torture you, but I have to wait several hundred years
years to where the.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Irony made and these sorts of things.
Speaker 10 (42:53):
They didn't exist, They did not exist at the time,
and really a lot of it was was fiction. It
never really existed in the way that it's presented in
some of these castles that you might visit.
Speaker 6 (43:05):
So it was years before they said, we got four
ropes and four horses, what do you want to do?
And I go, I don't know, I have no idea,
and then draw quarters.
Speaker 4 (43:11):
I find it hard to believe that they didn't have
a methodology for brutality during the medieval times.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
They just probably kill you. I mean they were just.
Speaker 6 (43:23):
Killing play with you. You need writers, like a writer's room. Guys,
what are we thinking here? What were your ideas?
Speaker 5 (43:29):
Let me tell you.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
I think there was a I think there was some shenanigans.
I don't I don't think so. Walter Scott, out of
nowhere said I got I'm tying it.
Speaker 6 (43:40):
I'm tying you to a chair and we'll take hours
to figure out what to do with you to make
you talk. I don't know what to do to make
them talk.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
What are they going to say? What do you want
me to say?
Speaker 6 (43:51):
I mean, you know that's David Yours come through, man,
Thank you God. I still don't believe the washing thing.
Thank you, David.
Speaker 5 (43:58):
May the gods sing the to of Valhalla and beyond so.
Speaker 7 (44:04):
You know what's wear After he was like, you know,
like you know, I work with the improvised Shakespeare company.
Speaker 5 (44:09):
I know how to do this crap. You good, good
for you, Good for your.
Speaker 11 (44:11):
Little little slug because I'm gonna producing them up Broadway
later in the he is boring me, he's going long.
Speaker 7 (44:22):
Okay, now I know why I'm gonna buy amazon a
scaff I'll buy the thing from him that it was
implanted in the head.
Speaker 4 (44:27):
Yeah, and then laser your face on. That's the kind
of lovely momento.
Speaker 6 (44:32):
And I we got a gift for you. O.
Speaker 5 (44:33):
Yeah, my laser's face on. A piece of his face
was on it. Why do you have to augment?
Speaker 6 (44:38):
If you're a real man, you would have left it
in your skull and around, looked around and hung your laundry.
Speaker 4 (44:42):
And let me tell you, see you walk, You walk
into a renaissance in your head. In your head, you're
the one that's right, the one that is psychological war.
Speaker 6 (44:52):
For listening, everybody, thank you for watching. And I hope
we've cleared up committing with times for everyone else. The yeah,
and if you want to fight, good bye.
Speaker 3 (45:04):
Really as another episode, if really no really comes to
a close.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
I know you're wondering.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
What are some more of the world's most dangerous sports well,
we'll leap into that answer in a moment, but first
let's thank our guests, Simon Roorick. You can follow Simon
on his website Simon Roorick dot com. On Instagram he
is at Simon Rourick. On ax he is at Simon
Our Inventor, and on YouTube he is at Axemaster. Find
all pertinent links in our show notes, our little show
(45:30):
hangs out on Instagram, TikTok YouTube, and threads at Really
No Really podcast, And of course you can share your
thoughts and feedback with us online.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
At reallynoreally dot com.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
If you have a really some amazing factor story that
boggles your mind, share it with us and if we
use it, we will send you a little gift. Nothing
life changing, obviously, but it's the thought that counts. Check
out our full episodes on YouTube, hit that subscribe button
and take that bell. So here updated when we release
new videos and episodes, which we do eat Tuesday, so
(46:01):
listen and follow us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
And now, what are some of the other most dangerous
sports in the world.
Speaker 3 (46:10):
Well, American football, in European or Australian rugby make the cut.
Concussions and spinal injuries occur frequently, and there are occasional deaths.
Bull Riding is more than a tad dangerous. Falling from
a bucking bulldozer and being stopped by eighteen hundred pounds
of angry bull is no picnic. Out of every thousand rides,
thirty two and in death or injury. Big waves surfing
(46:32):
has washed its share of broken bodies and fatalities to
the shore. Approximately ten big wave surfers die annually. Skydiving
obviously has a downside if the shoot doesn't open properly,
but even if it does, strokes and heart attacks have
claimed several victims on the way down. Statistically, one in
every two hundred thousand jumpers aren't alive on landing. Horse riding, racing,
(46:53):
and show jumping are the most common cause of sports
related traumatic brain injuries in the United States, and surprising
lead cheerleading studies show that cheerleading is the single most
dangerous sport for female athletes, with a number of serious
injuries and fatalities annually. In fact, on average, one cheerleader
has died every year since nineteen ninety one, and that's
(47:14):
in America alone, which is why I'm sticking with foosball
and pong. I mean, look, it's great to be a winner,
but living is cool too, no.
Speaker 5 (47:28):
Feeling.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
It really is a production of iHeartRadio and Blase Entertainment.
Now really.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Really now, really well, and welcome to really no really.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden remind you that you would
be like a knight in shining armor.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
If you simply subscribe to our show.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
And speaking of knights in armor, there is a growing
phenomenon in the world of extreme fighting that you might
not be aware of. Sure, there's boxing, wrestling, and mixed
martial arts if you're boring, But.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
For people who pine for something a little.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
More dangerous and brutal, a sport that features claboring people
with a sword, a club, or even a battle axe,
there is the competitive world of medieval fighting.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Really no really.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
We were wondering why seemingly normal guys would spend thousands
of dollars on chainmail and fourteenth century weaponry and travel
the globe for an opportunity to fight in this brutal way.
So we turned to Simon Rourick, a world champion and
expert in medieval fighting. Most days, Simon is an Arizona
I'm a based inventor and technology consultant, But when the
sun doth rise on the tournament field, he transforms into
(01:06):
his other persona. They're in josef Donnerbach, who's proficient in staff,
axe and long sword, armored combat, close quarters fighting, and grappling.
He discusses the growing appeal of medieval fighting, how it
may help war veterans suffering from PTSD, and what it
felt like to have a large axe embedded in his skull.
Now Here are the lords of our manor Jason and Peter.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Hello, pour sooth and pretty welcome to really nay, really,
that's how they would.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
Talk if we were actually.
Speaker 6 (01:41):
Or or it's one of those medieval lights things and
they say you want the basket and chicken, or you
want to lamb leg.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
The only thing I remember from Renaissance fairs is if
you put a dollar in the basket when they gave
you the coin dog, they go.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
Huzza for the tipper, huzzaf. Everybody would go huzza.
Speaker 6 (01:56):
I thought, Oh, that's kind of curses under his breast
and you're gonna walk back to the kitchen going out
of wear a hat with a fellow less less.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
No, let'st one not pick up on our theme for
the day. So today we're going to talk about this
is this is a thing. So we all know, there's boxing,
there's m M a there's mixed martial arts, there's all
this stuff.
Speaker 5 (02:18):
There's wrestling and wrestling. There is a phenomena.
Speaker 6 (02:22):
It's growing, it's.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Growing growing, it's it's out of control where people both
male and female, don medieval armor or replicas of medieval armor,
and with replicas of medieval weapons, swords, shields, living day
(02:44):
of each other, beat the.
Speaker 7 (02:46):
Living day each other, which is a fascinating until somebody goes,
either I quit or maybe.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
Ow we are, we are there. We got to find
out the rules. So yeah, medieval combat is like the
new listening. And now there was an organization that started
in Europe and there's somewhere.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Else when it's done. Medieval started in Europe.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Yeah yeah, we didn't have Native Americans running around going
what ho?
Speaker 5 (03:10):
Yeah, okay, but.
Speaker 6 (03:12):
Now it's spread. There's two organizations. And I wonder if
if if you see this fighting, you won't believe it.
And I got to ask our guest who's a fighter,
about why and how he does it. And I also
got to ask him. Supposedly, there was an incident with
a Russian fighter where he was going down, but somebody
(03:34):
reached into the ring and held.
Speaker 7 (03:35):
His belt so that he's he's out, but he's not
going down.
Speaker 6 (03:40):
So like, what cheating? What this is? Like what his
wife says?
Speaker 7 (03:42):
What you Well, that was an old medieval trick. Actually
they holding the belt. They would hold a dead knight
up erect and to let everybody beat the hell out
of him while they came around the back.
Speaker 6 (03:51):
Instead of in boxing we have a cut man, you
got a belt man.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
That's right, hold up, but sound you need a good
visor guy.
Speaker 6 (03:59):
It found about the culture and why and how and
who participation.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
So what this says about all of us about you know,
we have a lot of combat sport, but and I
know people are fascinated.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
You know, it's almost like role playing going back. You know,
we talk about it.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
We have medieval times where you go have a dinner
and night's joust and they do and Renaissance fairs are
a huge thing, and there's a fascinating it's almost like
a West World thing of dressing up and living in
a different time, in a different period.
Speaker 5 (04:29):
But this idea of.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
And my son, our announcer, Noah, actually did this one
time down to play here in southern California and they
they they put him in armor that didn't fit. He
went in and got his head handed to him. It's
been months. He still has a scar. He's got a
scar on his leg. It's going to be a perma.
So this, you know what it's like. Dungeon and Dragon.
(04:55):
We did an episode that it's celebrating the fiftieth anniversary. Yeah,
it's like one.
Speaker 6 (04:59):
Some guy during the Dungeons and Dragons game went, why.
Speaker 5 (05:04):
Is this imaginary?
Speaker 6 (05:06):
I want to hit you and beat you with a
club close to death. So we'll find out about that.
But I'm just curious and we can delve into why,
what this says about us, et cetera. What this is?
But did you ever, if you do, you ever drawn
to fight somebody? Do you ever have to really fight somebody?
Speaker 4 (05:21):
I have had one school fight, and when I was
at school, I was on the receiving end of I
wouldn't call them fights. I would call them assaults. You know,
I was in grade school. But yeah, I studied martial
arts for a number of years, and so I sparred
regular I never competed, but I sparred in the school, and.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
So I have. I have struck and been struck in
the name of sport.
Speaker 6 (05:47):
I had to punch your guy once I was going
down a country road or Benjamin was in the car
seat and these guys, two guys in the car were
riding my bumper intentionally laughing, and they started just touching
my bumper.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
Oh my god.
Speaker 6 (06:01):
And I pulled the car over. And my brother had
taught me, my nine year older brother, if you got
a fight, yeah, don't wait. So I walked to the
car and I'm a coward. I don't like fighting. Yeah,
I've been fighting two fights in my life. And I
walked up to the window. The guy's getting out of
the passenger seat and he sailling, oh, yeah, you want
to take them on? And the guy in the driver's
seat roll down the window, and without hesitation, I cocked
(06:22):
my arm and punched him, broke his glasses. I think,
is no.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
Oh.
Speaker 6 (06:26):
The other guy then got back in the car and
they took off kurt like forever. And I felt horrible
that I did it. Yeah, but these guys were putting
my family in jeopardy.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
And a couple of times that I've had a street
encounter back that way, back in my twenties. No, I'm
sick for weeks, if not months after that, because you're paranoid.
Speaker 5 (06:47):
You think there's going to be a retribution for it.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
You don't know, you know it's it is unsettling too
when that's not your thing to suddenly be in that,
it's very disturbing.
Speaker 6 (06:59):
So we went a segue to if it is your
thing and you're wearing fifty or one hundred pounds of
armor and you're entering with a sword going after somebody,
or four on four or five on five, what does
that feel like? Our guest, Simon Rorick, is an Arizona
based inventor technology consultant specializing in mobile technical solutions. And
he's also Baron Joseph Donnerbach who's proficient in armored combat
(07:24):
with staff as long sword and close quarters fighting. Holy crap,
he's also handing when it comes to hand to hand
group tactics. And let's not forget you have a good
grap on.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
By the way, here's your man makes a sooup fle
light fluffy.
Speaker 6 (07:39):
You can't believe, Simon, Thank do we talk to you?
Speaker 5 (07:41):
Welcome?
Speaker 6 (07:42):
Baron or Simon? Who are we talking to here?
Speaker 8 (07:45):
You can just call me Simon?
Speaker 6 (07:46):
Yeah, okay, right, well, thank you for coming on. So
give us some background in this, because how did it
take off?
Speaker 5 (07:54):
Before you even asked.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
But for those of you not watching on YouTube, Simon,
you're wearing arm are you not male?
Speaker 5 (08:01):
What do you?
Speaker 6 (08:02):
Oh?
Speaker 9 (08:02):
No, this is a This is just a three D
printed shirt with some scale armor on it.
Speaker 6 (08:07):
But behind you you have a battle acts and other
sharp objects on the wall.
Speaker 9 (08:10):
Well yeah, I mean, I thought I would dress up
for the occasion. I don't get to talk to people
like you very often. This is a big deal to me,
so I thought i'd do some presentation.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
And because of the weaponry behind you, I want to
say from the heart, you look fabulous.
Speaker 8 (08:25):
Bad well, thank you, you look fabulous.
Speaker 7 (08:28):
To Oh, thank you, sorry too.
Speaker 6 (08:31):
That so, give us some background on medieval fighting, how
it's taken off the rules. Give a tutorial to people listening.
Speaker 9 (08:39):
There's a two different worlds of medieval fighting. There's the
Lark live action role playing fighting, and that's what most
people are familiar with. And that's what I started in.
Speaker 8 (08:51):
In nineteen ninety four, and that's where I have my name.
Speaker 9 (08:56):
That's where my name comes from, is the Joseph Dounnerbauch
and Joseph donnerbaukkas from my Lark background. And I did
that for many years. I did that from nineteen ninety
four to about twenty twelve. Then I saw a video
online where a guy was in full armor and he
got jump kicked. The flying jump kick in the back
(09:16):
of the head hit him so hard that his head
almost exchanged places with his ankles, and the guy landed it,
jumped around in full armor and ran off, and I
posted on Facebook, Hey, you know where can I do this?
Because I've always wanted something a little more violent, and
(09:37):
I wanted something more and I was always getting in
trouble for hitting people too hard or gain too aggressive
because I'm essentially a dudgeon dragons nerd with anger issues.
But anyway, so in twenty twelve, a friend of mine
contacted me and he said, hey, the first United States
team is forming and they're having a World Championship in
(10:00):
this kind of unlimited format medieval combat. And so I
got my armor right away, cost me a pretty penny
because it was hardened steel armor.
Speaker 8 (10:11):
You have to have hard and steel armor to survive.
Speaker 9 (10:14):
And went over to Poland and fought in the first
World Championships against about twenty other countries back in twenty twelve.
It was against the best and brightest, most violent nerds
of other countries now. Keep in mind, in other countries
it's not considered so much a nerdy hobby because that's
(10:36):
their heritage, whereas the United States has a bunch of
European transplants, so it's not the same, but still a
high number of nerds. And I got to knock people out,
you know. We showed up there and as a team,
a lot of us were larkers, and we saw people
getting pulled out of there on stretchers. I think we
saw like twelve people on backboards getting pulled out, and
(10:58):
we were.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Like, good times, good time, we're are homes. Yeah, we
found our tribe.
Speaker 8 (11:04):
No, no, you were. You were kind of terrified as a.
Speaker 6 (11:07):
Group, okay, good good.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (11:09):
Had been role players where there's a certain amount of
camaraderie and niceness, you know, and well that exists in
the medieval mm A thing.
Speaker 8 (11:20):
It was a lot rougher than any of us had seen.
Speaker 9 (11:23):
Luckily, I'd been a bouncer for a decade by that time,
so I just went out there and just fought people
in a group format, which is what I was used to.
So my squad did pretty well, but pretty much everybody
there got their app collectively kicked despite being some of
the largest people and the largest fighters there.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
There's so many questions, and I know Peter's going to
jump in, but just because I I am not well versed,
and perhaps others listening aren't. Can you explain the difference
between LARP and what what we're talking about today?
Speaker 9 (11:58):
Okay, LARP is super fun, immersive, but it's live action
role playing, and part of that role playing that they
do is the combat. Obviously, they have to role playing
a system where you know, if I hit you really
hard with my phone or my stick and then you're
sort of on your honor to acknowledge that hit and
be like, oh, I'm getting the lord and you fall down,
(12:20):
or do some role playing.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
Right, got it? So it's not a board game situation.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
You're up on your feet, you're you're acting this stuff out,
but you're using implements that are gentler.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
Is that basically the difference.
Speaker 9 (12:31):
Yes, And the armor's lighter and there's it's also not
a combat sport, which you know, a combat sport involves
pain trauma, you know, much like boxing or MMA or
anything else. Sure, the lark aspect is fun and it
can be bruising and tough, and in fact, some of
the best medieval mma guys were really accomplished slarpers who
(12:56):
translated those skills. But medieval mma is a combat sport
where you knock people out. There's no imaginary hits gotcha.
For example, in the Lark, if you came up and
you hit me in the side of the head of
an axe, you know, it might hit my head, might
give me a good bomb, but then I'll be like, oh, okay,
I'm dead, fall over right.
Speaker 8 (13:18):
Medieval mme is to the pain for any of you.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
Princess Princess.
Speaker 6 (13:26):
Sim And I said this from a good place, and
we'll get to this what's wrong with you? So so
let's before we again as basic info, tell us the
weapons used and the rules, and then we can get
into the person, the personal issues and the different organizations stuff.
What is this like, what does this look like like?
What what weaponry do you have? And what are the.
Speaker 8 (13:48):
Rules to take?
Speaker 9 (13:52):
No stabbing, because that was the most effective way to
anybody good. The rules that we use are from tournament
rules back in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. They had
rules just like we do, no stabbing, blunted weapons. They
even had rules like If you get thrown to the ground,
you lost. We have that same rules, so no stabbing.
(14:15):
The weapons have to be blunted. We don't use maces
or hammers over two and a half pounds. The maximum
weight for our two handed weapons is seven pounds, which
is about the same as what you'd find at home depot.
Speaker 8 (14:29):
If you've got a two handed tree felling acts. They're
around that.
Speaker 6 (14:32):
Oh good.
Speaker 9 (14:35):
And if you hit the ground, you're done fighting. You
can't hit anybody while you're down. You can't be hit
on the while you're on the ground either. And then
it's multiple formats. One versus one, five verses five, ten
versus ten, twenty one versus twenty one. They've even gotten
to like one to fifty versus one fifty at the
(14:55):
World Championships. The one versus one are a little different
because they are scored like a boxing match. There's points,
number of hits judges, and then there's a knockout gain
compliance component.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Also, I would imagine in the one fifty versus one
fifty there's some friendly fire. Oh yeah, gotta be hey, Jacob,
come on, man, come on you, I didn't recognize you
with your Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
If the visor give.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Me A.
Speaker 9 (15:30):
Really true friendly fire is the worst because you're not
set up for it. You're not ready for the direction
it's coming in, so it's way likely to knock you out. Yeah,
I've broken friend's arms before by accident.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Come on, who hasn't, And then you're going for a
beer after with the good arm.
Speaker 9 (15:45):
They had a guy in a headlock, you know, and
I hit him with an axe. I was going for
the guy's head and I missed.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
And I did that in the way into the studio.
That's no big deal. Don't feel bad about that.
Speaker 6 (15:55):
The worst I've ever done is knocked a Danish out
of Jason's hand, and that's because it had a fly on.
I was saving you. So Simon is funding. Some of
the stories are it's funded by the Russian mafia, some
oligarchist funny who puts up the prize money and.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Who puts up the money?
Speaker 9 (16:17):
So early on the Russian teams were funded by like
the son of a Russian oliguard who was involved in
a way that I can't quite describe because I don't
speak Russian. But let's just say that there's lots of
betting going on, right, okay, and the sportsmanship from the
(16:38):
Russian fighters was good, but the cheating from the organization
was notorious, got it, which is, you guys touched on
that a little bit.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
So you've heard that story about the guy who was
up the win and they were holding his belt through
the ring or whatever they went.
Speaker 9 (16:51):
Joel had the camera up in the stands and he
had a high speed camera. I went through about twenty
thousand pictures and found the first five sent those out
because I'd heard that it happened, and.
Speaker 8 (17:03):
The guy denied it, denied it, denied it.
Speaker 9 (17:05):
So my friend Joel had the fancy camera and I
went up there and went through the pictures. Found the
guy reaching through the fence and holding the Russian fighter up.
And the thing is, the Russian fighters were good enough
to beat us, they didn't have to do that. But
there's sort of this mentality of for not cheating or
not trying hard enough or something like that, which is.
Speaker 6 (17:25):
We have a pillow my living, we have another pillow
my friend my father handed that down. Yeah.
Speaker 9 (17:31):
So yeah, so then that actually started where that started
a fissure, and after that those pictures came out and
there's no denying it because the video of that fight
mysteriously disappeared. It was a new organization, So all the
Western countries minus Russia formed a new organization called the
(17:52):
IMCF for more fair competitions. I fought in that World
Championship and actually won the World Tampionship.
Speaker 6 (18:00):
In the fisher mentioned you are, I didn't do that
in the intro. You are a world champion multiple times
and medals around the world. So who funds this organization?
If that one was funded that way initially? Where does
the prize money come from?
Speaker 9 (18:14):
Well, now it comes from event organizers that want to
sell tickets or merchandise or food or tricky legs. But
there isn't really a ton of prize money. This is
still I was.
Speaker 7 (18:26):
Going to say, what's I was going to say, is it?
Is it a belt, the trophy.
Speaker 6 (18:30):
Late or suggest for the love of a concussion.
Speaker 9 (18:33):
I have made so many tens of dollars I cannot
tell you what dollars.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
Yeah, I've made yeah. No.
Speaker 8 (18:40):
So the largest person I had was on a History Channel.
It was ten K.
Speaker 9 (18:45):
And they had a History Channel series called Night Fight,
and they did a season of it.
Speaker 8 (18:49):
I was on episode seven.
Speaker 6 (18:51):
Ten K. That doesn't even pay for a kevlar jocks.
Speaker 9 (18:54):
Rep No, it would pay for maybe two suits of armor.
Speaker 8 (18:59):
But that's about it.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
Well, that's why. So I was going to ask that, Hey,
it's an investment to do this, but.
Speaker 7 (19:05):
Even where do you where do you go for a
suit of armor? And the other question, I'll throw them
all at your answer and anywhere you want.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
My impression is, if I'm covered in steel, what's what's
hurting me? How how come I'm still getting hurt inside?
Speaker 6 (19:23):
That can? All right?
Speaker 9 (19:25):
Well, to answer your question about injury, it's probably the
same reason why people still get hurt in car accidents.
Nothing is proof against sufficient force, sure you know. So
the seat belts leave a massive bruise that will cover
your whole torso get in a car accident, So it's
the same thing. It's And then the joints in the armor.
(19:48):
The joints in the armor have gaps because you have
to be able to move. So if you want to
hurt somebody the most, you aim for those gaps. You
learn to see your opponent's armor and you learn to
identify their weaknesses based off the armor type. And so
sometimes the shoulders will comes over and leave a gap
right here, so you can hit somebody right in the scapula,
(20:12):
paralyze their arm. Sometimes it will hurt them enough for
them to drop. You hit people in the back of
the legs, just not in the back of the knees.
That's another rule that I skipped over is you cannot
attack the back of the knees.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
You know, this thing has more rules than Nazi rules football.
Speaker 6 (20:27):
I'm swinging a club those football I.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
Think there's no eye gouging. That's about it. Everything else
is on the tip.
Speaker 6 (20:33):
These guys show you get to change. I was joking,
where do you get to change? Where do you buy
the arm backsmith makes it for you?
Speaker 8 (20:40):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 9 (20:41):
There's there's a cottage industry that the internet's really helped with.
And then our first foray overseas really brought a lot
of the Ukrainian and Polish craftsmen to the United States.
And it's called mild steel. This stuff has to be
hardened in the same way that swords are quenched.
Speaker 8 (20:56):
You see a sword that's been quenched in the water.
Speaker 9 (20:57):
To harden it, you have to do the whole piece
of armor, right, the whole thing, because if you're if
you wouldn't you you'd risk you risk death.
Speaker 8 (21:07):
Essentially if you don't have your armor.
Speaker 6 (21:10):
I love the chuckle. I love the chuckle. So what's
wrong with you?
Speaker 7 (21:14):
The fact you said you've got to tell your.
Speaker 6 (21:17):
Face so you had you said you had anger issues.
Pardon me, I go to therapy for that rather than
to the blacksmith. You there's something there again, reading your
bio technology consultant, You're educated, you have a regular day job.
Is it? You can't get that kind of endorphin rush
doing anything else in your life? So this is really
(21:39):
really that big a deal because you've been doing a
long time well, is it? You can't get that kind
of endorphin rush doing anything else in your life, So
this is really really that big a deal because you've
(22:01):
been doing a long time.
Speaker 9 (22:02):
Well, I mean yeah, I've been in combat sports a
real long time. And it really just comes down to
a rough childhood with dad that probably shouldn't have been
a dad. If we want to want to bring the
tone of this whole thing down.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
It's actually that is really informative.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
It is informative, and it's really interesting because you probably
heard the intro that Peter and I were doing. I mean,
I I studied some martial arts, but I was really
in it because I was the target of bullies and
I just wanted to be able to, yeah, put up
a little bit. But I would be surprised if someone
who didn't have something that was frightful or fearsome or
(22:48):
in some ways brutal in their childhood. I can't imagine
the average Joe who didn't have that experience being drawn
to something like this. Do you find that the people
that you know who are part of the sport are
they do?
Speaker 5 (23:01):
They have a similar background to you, a similar journey.
Speaker 9 (23:04):
A lot of them do, and in fact, we do
a ton of veteran outreach because it's a very effective
therapeutic activity for people that are trying to master those
adrenaline dumps and deal with these panic attacks that they
have but still follow rules. So our sport provides an
(23:25):
exposure therapy for them, and the camaraderie under duress is
something that they seek and that they don't have in
the civilian life. So there's a huge PTSD contingent of people.
We have several war like bonified war heroes in our group,
and then you find people that were bullied just like
(23:47):
you and I were. But you know, I think humans
have a need for physical combat, and so I think
that there's a component in our psyche that requires some
kind of conflict. And it could be pickleball, it could
be badminton, it could be any of those things. But
I think a lot of the problems we have today
(24:09):
is is there's no outlet for this kind of thing.
Speaker 8 (24:13):
But I found mine.
Speaker 9 (24:14):
It brings me peace, It brings a lot of vets peace,
and it brings a lot of people that have anger
issues peace, so that we can interact in the world
and make it safe for everybody.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
And Simon, is there a considerable participation by women or
is it mostly a male dominated.
Speaker 8 (24:32):
There's a considerable participation by women.
Speaker 9 (24:34):
I think because in part because while we have this
mm a rough and tumble a sport, there isn't that
dude bro douchebag mma. I call them taps bros. There's
a douchebag tap row mentality. So it's more welcoming I think.
(24:55):
So we get some more, we get more participation than
you'd expect.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
You've sort of given an interesting profile for the guys
that participate. Is there a similar profile for the women
or is it just is it surprising what kind of
women get into this.
Speaker 8 (25:09):
You know, I gotta say.
Speaker 9 (25:13):
The women I know personally have some similar experiences, but
it's kind of a subject that you kind of have
to be like.
Speaker 8 (25:20):
So, were you abused as a kid? Is that why
you're here? It's a rough opener.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
You know, it's not a conversation starter.
Speaker 6 (25:28):
Do you ever? So I'm curious you suit up. It's
fifty two hundred pounds, you got the armor on. You
get into that ring once it starts. Does this guy
could hurt you, kill you, break something? Does it get
that amped up where you are just flat out survival?
You've put yourself in a survival situation.
Speaker 9 (25:49):
That's what happens at first, and that's just the result
of inexperience. And what you do is you wind up
dumping out all your adrenaline, spiking your heartbeat and breath
and your toast in thirty seconds. That's and that's just
an experience because a lot of people haven't been hitting
the face of an axe, let alone hit the face
of an axe with a couple of guys holding you
against the rail while another person's punching you.
Speaker 8 (26:10):
In the ribs all at the same time. So it's
an experience. But then a.
Speaker 7 (26:16):
Second, I just got to digest what you just said
for a second. Okay, that gives that gives new meaning.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
It's my favorite thing, and my favorite quote from any
fighter I ever heard still belongs to Mike Tyson when
he was being interviewed before the fight and the interviewer said, well,
you know, so and so has a plan. He studied
your tapes and he has a plan for how to
defeat you in the ring. And Tyson goes, yeah, everybody
has a plan till they get hit in the face.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
Right.
Speaker 6 (26:43):
Yeah, it's true, but what you just described is so frightening.
But you so with wisdom. You get some wisdom and
some some strategy once you've done it.
Speaker 8 (26:55):
Yes, once you realize that the armor really works.
Speaker 5 (26:59):
You know.
Speaker 9 (26:59):
It's one of the problems is that we've been we've
been taught by movies that armor can just be stabbed
through with guys and played. If you've ever seen a
movie where a person was writing plate armor and he
was stabbed and it went through him, that's never happened.
Speaker 8 (27:16):
Ever, I guess I would. I would bet a dollar
it had never happened back then. Either, So Hard, So Hard.
Speaker 6 (27:25):
This was a Monty Python movie. It would be cut
to a deceased warrior from the fourteen hundreds, going.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
Difference.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
So you're saying that a hardened steel breastplate always be
it's a hardened steel sword on the edge, on the edge.
Speaker 8 (27:42):
The slash.
Speaker 9 (27:43):
Do you ever see a medieval combat or in some
of the movies they're actually trying to do a better
job where they take the sword and use it like
a staff. Yeah, there's a point here. Yeah, they hit
him with the pommel there. That point was the most
dangerous part. So the idea was to batter or grapple
or stun the guy with the pommel or the base
(28:04):
of the sword, and when he was stunned or maneuvered
in such a way, you would get the point in
his armpit or underneath his helmet here, or any in
his face, anything, and use that point.
Speaker 5 (28:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (28:17):
You never ever would slash an.
Speaker 9 (28:20):
Edge of a sword against armor if you could help it,
because it wouldn't do and it wouldn't do anything.
Speaker 8 (28:26):
That's what axes and pole hammers are for.
Speaker 5 (28:29):
Of course, of course that's where's my pollhound. He's telling
me stuff. I know, Dade, how.
Speaker 6 (28:33):
Many fights can you do in a day at a tournament?
Speaker 9 (28:36):
You can do sometimes ten twenty thirty. It really depends.
It's the bracketing system, so it depends on how many
people enter. But at the World Championships, for example, it's
four days.
Speaker 6 (28:49):
Dude, and they have doctors. I guess right there. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 9 (28:52):
In fact, my friend as the team doctor in twenty
twelve attack, he reattached somebody's pinky finger tip.
Speaker 8 (29:00):
You know, got got nipped off.
Speaker 9 (29:02):
Use an arm brace to brace my leg because I
got hit in the calf with an illegal Russian mace
turned out to be twice as heavy as what was
allowed and uh smashed my calf, So he.
Speaker 6 (29:16):
Be fair.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
I think, uh, you know, for authenticity, the doctor should
only be able to apply me devil medicine, Leachers, leeches, yeah,
little leeches, and you know, I don't know what else.
Speaker 6 (29:28):
Potions we're going to do it. By the way, if
you had the bet on one of us, yeah, who
do you think looking at like looking at us, if
we were all suited up, who would be the guy.
Speaker 5 (29:37):
To I'll tell you you can't tell.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
Sitting here, Peter's got about a foot of height over me.
Speaker 5 (29:40):
I'll give you that.
Speaker 9 (29:42):
Well, you know you said that, you Jason, you said
that you had martial arts background, so you know the
center of gravity.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
And I was a.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
College fencer, Peter, So careful, be careful who you throw
your gauntlet down too.
Speaker 6 (29:55):
I've run away from so many people who threatened me.
I'm very fair.
Speaker 9 (29:58):
Here's the thing is that is that when he was
talking about no hesitation, remember when he's talking about his
story about the traffic thing.
Speaker 8 (30:05):
Yeah, so in martial arts you're taught some respect and restraint, right, Yes,
you run up against the guy that has no hesitation.
Personal yes, first wins first.
Speaker 6 (30:17):
There you go.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
There's a there's an unwritten martial arts that says crazy
beats good.
Speaker 6 (30:22):
Thank you, Simon, thank you.
Speaker 9 (30:24):
So I would say, if you guys fight, you better,
you better hit Jason really quick or you're done.
Speaker 5 (30:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (30:30):
Yeah, so Simon, before we go, can you just show
us a couple of your weapons and maybe club your
dog to death or do something that we can so
we can see see.
Speaker 8 (30:38):
I'm a cat guy. I have two cats.
Speaker 6 (30:39):
Club the cats to death. I'm kidding, Peter, Peter, please
go ahead, all.
Speaker 8 (30:44):
Right here, this one, here, oh boy, this one, oh
my god, has a pretty unique story.
Speaker 9 (30:51):
Yeah you see my can you see my?
Speaker 8 (30:54):
My face on there. Can you see that?
Speaker 5 (30:57):
Is it on the blade itself?
Speaker 6 (30:59):
We see?
Speaker 5 (30:59):
Oh yeah, now we can.
Speaker 6 (31:02):
Weapon.
Speaker 9 (31:03):
Oh yeah, so this part was inside my skull. I
got my skull fractured, my helmet got pulled off my head,
and I got hit with this exact weapon in the
head and it took a piece of bone and put
it through my brain about half a centimeter.
Speaker 5 (31:22):
That explains so much, right, So, uh.
Speaker 9 (31:28):
I recovered and UH won the pole Arm Championship of
the United States six months later.
Speaker 8 (31:34):
But then my friends found the guy who did it.
Speaker 9 (31:38):
Uh, he's a Canadian and bought this from him and
remade the weapon. And this is the original blade and
that is why there's a laser at you. Maybe it
says skull crusher. Can you see it says skull This
is the piece right there.
Speaker 6 (31:58):
It was in your head. Yeah, so that's a special special.
Speaker 7 (32:03):
Yeah sentimental, man, you don't know what happened here.
Speaker 6 (32:06):
And by the way, in my yard is a car
that hit me when I was ten.
Speaker 8 (32:10):
Wow, now I use it to beat the crap out
of other people.
Speaker 5 (32:13):
Okay, well boy swept.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
Oh my god.
Speaker 9 (32:17):
These are yeah, these are all, these are all, these
are all weapons that we can use you see they're blunt.
Speaker 5 (32:24):
Yeah, oh sure, yes, harmless, But I.
Speaker 8 (32:27):
Mean you can still get something.
Speaker 9 (32:29):
I've gotten something called pressure cut where it'll hit your
armor so hard that will explode the skin underneath and
actually make a cut through the armor and not actually
penetrate the.
Speaker 6 (32:38):
Weapon he's holding up. Now, if you don't have video,
the grim Reaper would go too big.
Speaker 5 (32:43):
Over here.
Speaker 6 (32:44):
You could use that to do a field of grain,
to get the whole field done. My gosh, oh my god,
how big are you? By the way, how tall? And
how would you about? Six? Two?
Speaker 8 (32:53):
About two thirty I mean to eighty to three hundred
pounds depending on eight.
Speaker 6 (33:00):
Oh yeah, whoa.
Speaker 8 (33:01):
I grew up on a farm, you know.
Speaker 9 (33:03):
So people asking us, so, how do you hit so
hard that you can drop anybody with an axe no
matter where you hit him, And uh, I just say, well,
you got to be shoveling doing man's work by the
time you're eight.
Speaker 6 (33:15):
That's the name of my book, Shoveling doing man's work.
That's my that's my bio. Well, thank you, thank you
so much for being on. Simon Baron, Joseph Donner Black
is the way is that the website you look under
Joseph Donner back or do you look on Simon.
Speaker 9 (33:30):
Simon rock You know in the sport we don't do
any of the role playing stuff. We just like to
beat each other up and then have beers and hugs afterwards.
Speaker 6 (33:37):
Simon, thank you, Simon.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
We wish you well out there for the for the
you know, watch thy back.
Speaker 7 (33:46):
Yeah, if I had a lut I'd play it. Thank
you a pleasure. That So what the actual health is
just what's amazing to me. And this always happens with
our show. We try and find something that truly makes
(34:09):
it go really no really that exists.
Speaker 6 (34:11):
On the planet I know exactly. Hopefully, hopefully it's fascinating.
Hopefully we can have some humor to it. Yeah, but
you get into the reason behind. And when he was
talking about the anger issue and the vest again, we
always said with this show we were try and do
everything positive and not being negative because there's enough division
in the world. But I guess there's a percentage of
the population that has to control their anger, their victreol
(34:34):
and have an outlet for it. When he said the
PTSD thing it soldiers and this helps them. We can't
relate to that because of how violent. That is, and
I think, is this therapeutic? It's so foreign to me.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
You know, I hear what he was saying about using
it as a kind of a therapy for things like PTSD,
but I don't know how to say this, so it
doesn't sound like I'm being a smart ass. But he
had a blade in his head. The guy who wielded
that blade. Does that not give him more PTSD? I
(35:09):
mean in a sport.
Speaker 6 (35:11):
But because it's it's it's you're both agreed to the format.
You both agreed to the thing. What I wonder about,
and I didn't get to ask him, it is, so
you're a human being. You're fighting me in MMA. I'm
watching you, I'm seeing you. I'm hurting you. But we're
doing our thing.
Speaker 5 (35:25):
Right.
Speaker 6 (35:26):
As soon as I put on a face mass an advisor, I'm.
Speaker 5 (35:30):
Just the thing.
Speaker 6 (35:30):
It's now it's you're dehumanizing a person. I wonder what
that feels like, because now you're fighting a concept, you're
not fighting a person. There's no humanity there.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
Well that now you're describing modern warfare where the combatants never.
Speaker 6 (35:44):
So that I wonder the element there if that dehumanizes
again in PTSD, If I kill you accidentally if I
did something horrible to you. But then again, I guess
both if you did it with an agreement, yeah, I
guess you know. It's I don't know, it's hard to
wrap your head harder, but it is increasing and more
and more people are there's.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
This whole romance of medieval things. If this didn't have
a medieval flavor to it, you got these are just
people beating the cross wooden spoon from the kitchen and
they hit it. But there's this romance to medieval things,
which I gotta tell you, I don't understand.
Speaker 6 (36:20):
No, because there was an odor then, they didn't have bathroom.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Nobody who lived in the medieval times was going, these
are the best possible time.
Speaker 6 (36:26):
Fin the way you wiped yourself with that act. They
didn't have toilet paper yet.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
But I mean, we go to these Renaissance fairs, we
go to the I was in Ireland recently and there's
there's one castle that is it's almost like not's very
farm it. It looks they have actors playing exactly what
life would have.
Speaker 5 (36:43):
Been, and you go, this is Puaint on a good day.
But how many good days were there?
Speaker 6 (36:49):
I think medieval fighting came up. There's no bathroom, there
was no antibiotics. It's everything smelled you to take. I
think they wanted to die. That's why the.
Speaker 5 (36:57):
Fighter absolutely right.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
And honestly, bathing bathing in medieval times it was maybe
a three time a year by.
Speaker 6 (37:06):
The moon, by the lunar moon.
Speaker 7 (37:08):
Yeah you wash up, you know, because it's spring. But
it's it was not pleasant.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
And even when I go, I took the kids, you know,
when they were young, to medieval times here in La
where you have dinner and there's there's a show and
it's shousting. It's nights, you know, playing and everybody, everybody
knowing it is sworn to one night and you're you're
rooting for your knight. And the menu is a piece
of brisket, a chicken leg, a bowl of soup and
(37:37):
some ale. No, no napkins, no for aware. No, you're
eating with your hands and guys are down there whacking.
And you know, I am the blue Knight route for me.
I don't care how a loud I root they picked.
Speaker 5 (37:50):
Green is gonna win a different experience. It's and I'm going.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
And the boys were like, this is great, this is great,
and I went, this is.
Speaker 6 (37:57):
Nuts it is, but takes it another the medieval fighting.
I'm so glad we had him a champion him, but
it is fascinating and I still don't. This is one
of those where it ended the interview in it and
I still don't. He explained it.
Speaker 4 (38:10):
You can't because, like I said, my son, Noah, he
went down and tried this in southern California one time.
He knows nothing about it other than he saw it online.
He goes down a bunch of guys, hell fellow, well met,
that's fantastic.
Speaker 5 (38:22):
They give him some armor, some loner armor.
Speaker 6 (38:25):
It's like bowling shoes in the back.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
I mean talk about a gap in the armpit. The
gap in the armpit was his head. And he's and
they give him a weapon and he's out there with
no training, no nothing, no lead up. Who knows if
the guy he's playing with has done this one thousand
times and he gets he has a scar on his
shin that is never going over.
Speaker 6 (38:48):
Let's go, let's go to mister google him.
Speaker 7 (38:51):
Yes, David, welcome David.
Speaker 6 (38:54):
What are you so fascinating? Right?
Speaker 7 (38:55):
It's hard to understand squire google him?
Speaker 5 (38:59):
What say?
Speaker 6 (39:02):
And dragons?
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (39:04):
Ever had just lost control and smacked the guy across
from you.
Speaker 10 (39:08):
Well sometimes you know, the dice are flying, man, you know,
you should wear goggles.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Listen.
Speaker 10 (39:17):
I it's very interesting, right because he was before he
came on camera, he and I were talking and you know,
he was a way back D and D guy, and
he then obviously got into the LARPing, which is basically
live action D and D and then looking for the
more extreme thing. Now he has axes and and and
they hit each other so and.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Injury.
Speaker 10 (39:43):
Yeah, yeah, it was quite poignant from my perspective when
he was talking about the folks coming back.
Speaker 6 (39:50):
From battle that are not able to.
Speaker 10 (39:52):
Find that, and they're in this they are able to
so you know, I wish them. Well, it's really brutal.
Speaker 6 (39:59):
I really do.
Speaker 10 (40:01):
For people who are interested in understanding how brutal this is.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
These guys with these full on axes that.
Speaker 10 (40:07):
Are blunted as we are, no sharp edges, but there's
still axes that are wailing away and it's amazing.
Speaker 6 (40:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (40:14):
Only seven pounds though, only seven pounds, yeah.
Speaker 6 (40:18):
For the legal ones, for the legal ones, the guys
who are taking in the fifteen pounders, you know, yeah,
the check guys, you have to so what's your takeaway
before we wrap your well, A.
Speaker 10 (40:27):
Couple of things. Number One, i'd be a long bowman.
I think, you know, far away, yeah, right through the armor.
Number Two, you guys were pushing some myths, some medieval myths.
Speaker 5 (40:37):
Really.
Speaker 6 (40:38):
Oh okay, let's hear.
Speaker 10 (40:40):
Bathing, while not as common as we have today, was
actually very common in the Middle Ages and medieval times,
the Dark Ages, some people refer to it. Washing of
hands and face were a daily routine, a part of
eating and socializing. There would be a weekly house type
(41:00):
of situation for the full body or going to the
river or something like that.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
While there was eating with the hands.
Speaker 10 (41:07):
You would wash your hands beforehand, you'd wash your face beforehand.
There were utensils, there were knives, there were spoons, there were.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Not forks for most of the time.
Speaker 10 (41:17):
But it was not the king was not grabbing the
come on, come on, Henry the eighth, he's grabbing the
turkey leg. No turkeys, No turkeys, large chicken, large large chicken. Yeah, yeah,
no turkeys, no turkeys. Also another one that I thought
(41:38):
was interesting and a lot of what we're talking about,
like Renaissance fairis you know, the Renaissance is not medieval times.
Speaker 5 (41:45):
Right, the Roman Empire.
Speaker 10 (41:47):
Falls, there's a state of confusion, which is the Middle
Ages the time we're speaking of, and then the Renaissance
comes where they sort of get.
Speaker 6 (41:55):
It back together.
Speaker 10 (41:58):
It's a little history history, and again this is another
sort of a lot of our understanding of what the
Middle Ages were like as based on things that came
much much later, like the whole idea of dungeons and
torture devices, you know, in these dungeons and all of that.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Most of that did not exist. In fact, it was an.
Speaker 10 (42:21):
Invention created in eighteen nineteen by Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe
Like It Is Not, which is obviously way, way, way
way after the Middle Ages, which were from four to
seventy six a d. Through about at about fourteen hundred,
(42:43):
so that's sort of the time period work.
Speaker 6 (42:44):
So in that period you'd say, I am going to
torture you, but I have to wait several hundred years
years to where the.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Irony made and these sorts of things.
Speaker 10 (42:53):
They didn't exist, They did not exist at the time,
and really a lot of it was was fiction. It
never really existed in the way that it's presented in
some of these castles that you might visit.
Speaker 6 (43:05):
So it was years before they said, we got four
ropes and four horses, what do you want to do?
And I go, I don't know, I have no idea,
and then draw quarters.
Speaker 4 (43:11):
I find it hard to believe that they didn't have
a methodology for brutality during the medieval times.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
They just probably kill you. I mean they were just.
Speaker 6 (43:23):
Killing play with you. You need writers, like a writer's room. Guys,
what are we thinking here? What were your ideas?
Speaker 5 (43:29):
Let me tell you.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
I think there was a I think there was some shenanigans.
I don't I don't think so. Walter Scott, out of
nowhere said I got I'm tying it.
Speaker 6 (43:40):
I'm tying you to a chair and we'll take hours
to figure out what to do with you to make
you talk. I don't know what to do to make
them talk.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
What are they going to say? What do you want
me to say?
Speaker 6 (43:51):
I mean, you know that's David Yours come through, man,
Thank you God. I still don't believe the washing thing.
Thank you, David.
Speaker 5 (43:58):
May the gods sing the to of Valhalla and beyond so.
Speaker 7 (44:04):
You know what's wear After he was like, you know,
like you know, I work with the improvised Shakespeare company.
Speaker 5 (44:09):
I know how to do this crap. You good, good
for you, Good for your.
Speaker 11 (44:11):
Little little slug because I'm gonna producing them up Broadway
later in the he is boring me, he's going long.
Speaker 7 (44:22):
Okay, now I know why I'm gonna buy amazon a
scaff I'll buy the thing from him that it was
implanted in the head.
Speaker 4 (44:27):
Yeah, and then laser your face on. That's the kind
of lovely momento.
Speaker 6 (44:32):
And I we got a gift for you. O.
Speaker 5 (44:33):
Yeah, my laser's face on. A piece of his face
was on it. Why do you have to augment?
Speaker 6 (44:38):
If you're a real man, you would have left it
in your skull and around, looked around and hung your laundry.
Speaker 4 (44:42):
And let me tell you, see you walk, You walk
into a renaissance in your head. In your head, you're
the one that's right, the one that is psychological war.
Speaker 6 (44:52):
For listening, everybody, thank you for watching. And I hope
we've cleared up committing with times for everyone else. The yeah,
and if you want to fight, good bye.
Speaker 3 (45:04):
Really as another episode, if really no really comes to
a close.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
I know you're wondering.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
What are some more of the world's most dangerous sports well,
we'll leap into that answer in a moment, but first
let's thank our guests, Simon Roorick. You can follow Simon
on his website Simon Roorick dot com. On Instagram he
is at Simon Rourick. On ax he is at Simon
Our Inventor, and on YouTube he is at Axemaster. Find
all pertinent links in our show notes, our little show
(45:30):
hangs out on Instagram, TikTok YouTube, and threads at Really
No Really podcast, And of course you can share your
thoughts and feedback with us online.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
At reallynoreally dot com.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
If you have a really some amazing factor story that
boggles your mind, share it with us and if we
use it, we will send you a little gift. Nothing
life changing, obviously, but it's the thought that counts. Check
out our full episodes on YouTube, hit that subscribe button
and take that bell. So here updated when we release
new videos and episodes, which we do eat Tuesday, so
(46:01):
listen and follow us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
And now, what are some of the other most dangerous
sports in the world.
Speaker 3 (46:10):
Well, American football, in European or Australian rugby make the cut.
Concussions and spinal injuries occur frequently, and there are occasional deaths.
Bull Riding is more than a tad dangerous. Falling from
a bucking bulldozer and being stopped by eighteen hundred pounds
of angry bull is no picnic. Out of every thousand rides,
thirty two and in death or injury. Big waves surfing
(46:32):
has washed its share of broken bodies and fatalities to
the shore. Approximately ten big wave surfers die annually. Skydiving
obviously has a downside if the shoot doesn't open properly,
but even if it does, strokes and heart attacks have
claimed several victims on the way down. Statistically, one in
every two hundred thousand jumpers aren't alive on landing. Horse riding, racing,
(46:53):
and show jumping are the most common cause of sports
related traumatic brain injuries in the United States, and surprising
lead cheerleading studies show that cheerleading is the single most
dangerous sport for female athletes, with a number of serious
injuries and fatalities annually. In fact, on average, one cheerleader
has died every year since nineteen ninety one, and that's
(47:14):
in America alone, which is why I'm sticking with foosball
and pong. I mean, look, it's great to be a winner,
but living is cool too, no.
Speaker 5 (47:28):
Feeling.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
It really is a production of iHeartRadio and Blase Entertainment.
Hosts And Creators
Peter Tilden
Jason Alexander
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com