Medieval Fighting Competition Brings Past Alive

An Easley man is preparing for battle.

Attorney Trey Sutter is hoping to earn a spot on the team that will be representing the USA in the Battle of the Nations, a full contact medieval fighting tournament.

Sutter describes the sport itself “as medieval mixed martial arts” and takes a similar tack to describe the World Competition, held in France in May. 

“It’s the Super Bowl of Western Martial Arts,” Sutter said.

He’ll be traveling to Springfield, Illinois this week to compete in the Nationals. The World Competition will be held in France in May.

Sutter's been involved in Middle Ages history groups for 16-17 years, including the Society for Creative Anachronism, the world’s largest medieval recreation organization.

After seeing a video of the Battle of the Nations last year, Sutter began training for a spot on the US team.

“Last year was the first year that the US Team went,” Sutter said.

Teams and their members have a mixture of job descriptions” in competition, he said.

“You have 5 on 5 events and 21 on 21 events,” Sutter said. “We also have one on one competitions for certain people who have been chosen to represent the international team.”

Those 1 on 1 events are best 2 out of 3 events.

“The first round you use a great sword, also called a two-handed sword,” Sutter said. “The winner is whoever lands the most blows in 90 seconds, so it’s a sprint from the word go.”

The 2nd round is a completion to see who can land three blows on their opponent using a sword and a buckler, a small round shield about the size of a dinner plate.

“If a third round is needed, it’s to see who can land the most blows in 90 seconds with a sword and shield,” Sutter said. “That’s how the scoring is done in the singles competitions.”

The 5 on 5 and 21 on 21 events are scored a little differently.

“The team with the last people standing wins,” Sutter said. “You fight until somebody isn’t standing.”

“You’re down and out if any part of the body touches the ground other than the soles of your feet,” Sutter said. “Any part of me touches the ground, I'm down. My fault, someone else's fault, doesn't matter, I'm down.”

And once you’re out, you don’t leave the field to go sit on a bench.

“At that point, you’re an obstacle on the field,” Sutter said. “You can be quite an effective obstacle, if a teammate can drive someone to trip over you, you can put them down without hitting them.”

Fighters strike blows with swords, shields and an vast array of other weapons.

“Some people fight with polearms and poleaxes,” Sutter said.  “Some people fight with two swords. Anything that allows you to deliver blows, remain on the field and take your opponent to the ground is allowed, within limits.” 

His own choice of weapon isn’t a sword at all.

“Swords cut unarmored people,” Sutter said. “Unless you stab someone in the face or where the armor connects, you generally couldn’t kill a man in armor with a sword.”

His weapon has some major stopping power.

“I use a mace,” Sutter said. “Your opponent takes all that kinetic impact right in the grill. All that impact transfers to the opponent.”

While his opponents' swords weigh more, a sword blow that's not a direct hit will glance off the armor, while all of his opponents' armor is a potential striking surface for Sutter's mace.

He carries a round oval shield on his left arm and it’s not just for protection.

“I believe the shield does more damage than the weapon does,” Sutter said, demonstrating how the shield comes into play during battle.

Using a heavy bag, he demonstrated how he uses his entire body to attack.

Remaining aware of his surroundings is key, as his helmet limits his vision.

“A lot of it's positioning,” Sutter said. “As soon as you get in the clear, look left, right, left, right. Take half a second to see if there's a freight train barreling down on you from nine o'clock. If you see him, you can get out of his way.”

Battle of the Nations requires that armor be within a 50-year period of time from the same region.

“You can't have a 16th-century helmet with a 12th-century set of body armor,” Sutter said.“So you have to do the historical work.”

Sutter makes his own armor, as he has a background in blacksmithing, as do many of Battle of the Nations fighters.

“Working the metal isn’t too unheard of,” he said. 

His armor is made out of spring steel, which is a lighter steel.

“It makes it very strong, very resilient to impact,” Sutter said. “It allows you to have mobility and speed without sacrificing the protection.”

He and his armorer friends make almost all of his own equipment, with the exception of a few key items, such as knee caps and his helmet, or helm. 

“Just about everything else, either metal or leather on me, is all made here in my shop in Easley,” Sutter said.

“I wanted a professional helmet,” he said. “Broken bones can heal but my head’s kind of important.”

Sutter said it takes about 20 minutes to get suited up.

“There are parts of the armor that I can't put on by myself unless I just get incredibly lucky,” Sutter said. “There's buckles in places that are just extremely difficult to reach and the layers and layers and layers of armor make mobility decrease with each layer you put on.”

The fighters help each other out with the armor, Sutter said.

Sutter and fellow competitor Bryan Cannata of Augusta, Georgia, were putting the finishing touches on their gear in preparation for their trip to Springfield later this week.

“Trey and I are competitors on the team – we'll fight tooth and nail to beat each other,” Cannata said. “While we're on one level in competition with each other, we're here to help each other.”

“The ultimate goal is to get both of us on the team and both of us going to France,” Sutter said.

Cannata's favorite weapon is the longsword.

“It's the classic knightly weapon,” he said. “People don't think of knights in shining armor with a blunt weapon – they think of them with swords.”

The group melees show “what battle was about,” in medieval times,” Cannata said. “It's very, very difficult to actually hurt an armored opponent. Armor, the reason they wore all this stuff, is because it's very, very protective. It allows us to hit each other with incredible force and not damage each other.

“As a side effect of that, real medieval battles was about taking a man to the ground, so you could then drive things through the holes, the joints, the soft spots of his armor,” he said.

The singles competitions really give the “skill at arms” a chance to shine through, Cannata continued.

Training and proper armor keep competitors safe.

Sutter’s training regimen focuses on cardio, endurance and strength, as well as repetition of motion in learning how to throw the blows needed to put an armored opponent down. 

“Speed and mobility are as much a part of this as size and strength,” Sutter said.

 Strength and endurance help in a variety of ways, including just walking around in the full armor.

“My first set of armor that I took the field in to Nationals was 115llbs,” Sutter said. “I was probably close to 230 lbs then, so I was probably in the 345 lb range.”

He’s been focused on lightening the load.

“Paring down the equipment’s weight, paring down my own weight,” Sutter said.

This year, 26 countries are fielding teams at the Battle of Nations.

“It’s growing by leaps and bounds,” Sutter said. “Some countries take this very seriously.”

“I'd really like to see the sport grow in this country and develop a following,” Cannata said. “It's the closest you're going to get to actually fighting in a real medieval tournament.”

Russia, he says, gives serious attention to its Battle of Nations team, providing them with housing and a monthly allowance.

“That’s their job,” Sutter said, of the Russian fighters. “They train for this six days a week. There’s a reason the Russian team has won the international championship every year.”

For more about the competition, visit usaknights.org