2008 Woodie Awards
Medieval combat club forms
Melissa Chadbourne
Issue date: 7/3/08 Section: News
A new club forming on campus hopes to revive the fighting art of UCF's namesake Knights.
The Knights Melee club is led by senior Jon Wolfe, 22, and will focus on the study of medieval combat. Wolfe said the club will begin by working with longswords, eventually progressing into swords and bucklers, daggers, unarmed combat and other facets of medieval warfare.
"It's a very large portion of history," Wolfe said. "Warfare was one of the most defining things of the medieval period. It's just a large part of history that's really gone overlooked. I'm trying to change that."
The club's focus will not be on reenacting the lifestyles of the medieval period, but accurately recreating the techniques used on the battlefield. Wolfe says some students think the club will be a live action role-play, but he stresses it is definitely not a LARP.
"It's the actual combative techniques that have been brought back and reinterpreted and reconstructed," Wolfe said.
Besides a few curious looks from passing students as they practice, Wolfe says the overall reaction to the club has been positive. The Knights Melee Facebook group has 23 members, but so far official membership is still low.
"A lot of people just kind of freak out and think that's so awesome, I have to do that," Wolfe said. "But just due to scheduling conflicts so far it hasn't been a big influx of people."
Junior Michael Vaughan, 20, is the second member of Knights Melee, and is training with Wolfe to learn the techniques and assist with instruction when the club begins, hopefully in the fall semester.
"It has been a lot more scholarly pursuit than I thought it would be, because it requires a much more physical effort to learn and study than I was expecting," Vaughan said. "I was expecting that I would just pick it up and it would be like any sports book, you know, here's how to kick a soccer ball - OK, I'm just going to go kick 50 soccer balls. When it gets to this level of real physical combat and learning techniques that are endlessly in variation, it really takes a lot of effort."
The Knights Melee club is led by senior Jon Wolfe, 22, and will focus on the study of medieval combat. Wolfe said the club will begin by working with longswords, eventually progressing into swords and bucklers, daggers, unarmed combat and other facets of medieval warfare.
"It's a very large portion of history," Wolfe said. "Warfare was one of the most defining things of the medieval period. It's just a large part of history that's really gone overlooked. I'm trying to change that."
The club's focus will not be on reenacting the lifestyles of the medieval period, but accurately recreating the techniques used on the battlefield. Wolfe says some students think the club will be a live action role-play, but he stresses it is definitely not a LARP.
"It's the actual combative techniques that have been brought back and reinterpreted and reconstructed," Wolfe said.
Besides a few curious looks from passing students as they practice, Wolfe says the overall reaction to the club has been positive. The Knights Melee Facebook group has 23 members, but so far official membership is still low.
"A lot of people just kind of freak out and think that's so awesome, I have to do that," Wolfe said. "But just due to scheduling conflicts so far it hasn't been a big influx of people."
Junior Michael Vaughan, 20, is the second member of Knights Melee, and is training with Wolfe to learn the techniques and assist with instruction when the club begins, hopefully in the fall semester.
"It has been a lot more scholarly pursuit than I thought it would be, because it requires a much more physical effort to learn and study than I was expecting," Vaughan said. "I was expecting that I would just pick it up and it would be like any sports book, you know, here's how to kick a soccer ball - OK, I'm just going to go kick 50 soccer balls. When it gets to this level of real physical combat and learning techniques that are endlessly in variation, it really takes a lot of effort."