100 Round HEMA event report.

[Thorsteinn]

So remember this?

"On September 11, 2014, a 100-man weapon fight will be held in Prague. I will be fighting against 17 A-class fighters from different disciplines who will rotate and start from the beginning for 100 rounds. Each round will last 2 minutes. I will be the man facing opponents for 100 rounds. Each round will last two minutes. So the whole process will take 200 minutes meaning 3 hours and 20 minutes. We will fight full contact with training weapons using modern historical fencing equipment. All strikes are also allowed including kicks, wrestling and throws."

Well here is the after-action report from the fighter himself:
http://www.moshtaghkhorasani.com/razmafzar/events/19-100-man-weapon-fight-prague-czech-republic/

And here is the report from some of his opponents written in Czech then again in English with video at the bottom:
http://www.digladior.cz/2014/09/15/100-man-weapon-fight/

[Sir James A]

"He has been practicing professional historical swordsmanship since 1975."

What? Were the manuscripts even public at that time?

[Sir Brian]

I watched most of the videos and read several opinions and accounts. I completely understand the reasoning behind his experiment and the answers he was looking for and I truly commend him for his courage and dedication to his studies. I do not agree with much of the criticisms I have read generated in the other various communities of HEMA, SCA, BOTN, etc which nearly all were erroneously originated from their biased perspectives.

No the only criticism I will provide was his failure to adequately prepare for the ‘experiment’. By preparation I mean incorporating a group of individuals to assist him in the experience that fully understood the objectives and all had a clear understanding of the boundaries or safeguards.

It was an intriguing and ambitious concept, just poorly planned and executed. I am grateful that he was not grievously and permanently injured and sincerely hope that he will be more prudent in his future endeavors. 

[Ian]

Are there any 'before' reports available?  Why did he do this?  What was his preparation?  What were the rules if any?

The whole thing seems incredibly flawed from the beginning.  There's no physical way to fight capable opponents for 3 hrs straight without serious concessions, so I question what he was trying to get out of this or prove?  Without any of the background information I can't really say if this was a well-intentioned experiment gone wrong, or a whole lot of naivety gone really wrong.

[Sir James A]

Are there any 'before' reports available?  Why did he do this?  What was his preparation?  What were the rules if any?

The whole thing seems incredibly flawed from the beginning.  There's no physical way to fight capable opponents for 3 hrs straight without serious concessions, so I question what he was trying to get out of this or prove?  Without any of the background information I can't really say if this was a well-intentioned experiment gone wrong, or a whole lot of naivety gone really wrong.

He wants to be the new Chuck Norris.

(I seriously have no idea, though)

[Ian]

Greg Mele wrote an article on the whole thing that explains the idea and the aftermath.  It starts about half-way through:

http://www.chicagoswordplayguild.com/longpoint-and-missing-the-point

My thoughts after reading that and the two other aftermath articles:

 Having read that, I feel that the Doctor's entire premise was flawed from the get go and I can't help but think there was a tinge of naivety involved in the whole event itself. The idea that a man can fight full contact (whatever your definition of that is) for 3 hrs and 20 minutes sustained with no breaks is completely ludicrous. The world's best full contact mixed martial arts fighters with the most incredible conditioning short of being Naval Special Warfare are exhausted after 3x5 minute rounds with breaks in between each.

The only way to go for 3 hrs and 20 minutes requires so much artificiality and concession in the rules for safety that it stops being about testing the capacity of human endurance, and more about finding a way to make it last that long within the bounds of human endurance.

Moving beyond the fact that I think the whole idea is unrealistic, assuming you still want to make an artificial scenario to not really test the limits of human endurance in a martial setting, you've at least got to do the proper prep work. It should have been much more organized with trusted competitors that he knew and worked with. If that was impossible when things start to go south you have to know when to pull the plug. There were a lot red flags as he arrived, as he discussed the weapon and rule changes, and as he started the first few rounds that he should have realized early this wasn't what he signed up for.

It's a shame the way it played out, but with the premise of the whole thing and the way it was going, I don't see it playing out any other way.

[Thorsteinn]

Ian pretty much summed up my thoughts on the matter. It could have been done but it felt like he was fuzzy on the 5 W's of the endeavor and seemed to wing it without an appreciation,m despite experience, of what he was getting into. How a guy who did , which has a Kumite tradition, thought it would be less than it was is weird.

I know a guy who did a 1500 fight challenge at Pennsic, but it wasn't done all in one day, and it was just to prove that he could do 1500 fights in 2 weeks at age 50. Not sure if he got all 1500 but he did get close. His was clear with what the rules & equipment were, he did invite all comers, and he wore more armor not less. He was not in the best way when he was done and he'd spent most of a year beforehand preparing.

Like I said on Facebook: I don't doubt the Doctors balls & courage, not at all especially given what he endured within just the first fight, but I do doubt his wisdom & preparedness.