Styles of Combat

There were many different fighting styles in the middle ages, but I’m only going to be covering man to man combat and jousting. Jousting isn’t really a fighting style, it’s more so for entertainment purposes but regardless of its purpose it is still used in a duel type scenario. Jousting is a fight between two mounted knights wearing armour and using lances (a long weapon with a metal point). The objective of a joust is to knock the opponent off of their horse using the lance.  It was often performed in tournaments where knights practice their skills.

http://letsplayhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Jousting1_KarensWhimsyPD.jpg

Man to man combat is a very brutal style of fighting. The battles that were fought often lasted around 20-30 seconds. They preferred using slower more powerful attacks rather than quick less powered attacks. The reason they do this is to put a man down fast and effectively. Someone who is very well armoured won’t be easy to take down when attacking quickly; the strength put into their powerful attacks can injure the opponent much more.