Full Metal Jousting
Shane Adams and Full-Contact Jousting
Today’s full-contact sport has its roots in jousting events that have been gaining popularity over the past 30 years. In the 1980s, a small, dedicated group of performers began discussing ways to move jousting beyond choreographed entertainment and back to its physical, extreme-sports roots. Authenticity was key–real armor, real lances and real hits. Medieval armor designs were researched and painstakingly re-created using modern materials (often by hand), solid wood lances were introduced to replace safer, breakaway show lances, new rules and scoring systems were designed and a series of new full-contact tournaments was launched. What began as a small niche community has grown to include more than 200 competitive jousters worldwide.
Leading the charge for the sport’s rebirth has been Canadian-born jouster and trainer Shane Adams. Shane parlayed his childhood love of knights into a career in theatrical jousting. By the 1990s, he began competing in full-contact tournaments and dedicated himself to reviving jousting as a full-contact sport. One of the biggest names in the sport, Shane has founded several competitive tournaments in the United States and Canada, holds 17 international titles and is a former president of the World Championship Jousting Association. Joining Shane are the Full Metal Jousting coaches, who are some of the best in the business. Ripper Moore has been competing in full-contact jousting for more than 11 years and has won four international and two World Championships. Rod Walker was a founder of the International Jousting Association and is considered one of the world’s greatest jousting tacticians.
While today’s full-contact jousting features modern elements, its tactics and methods have their root in the sport’s origins as knightly combat training more than 500 years ago. The state-of-the-art armor featured on Full Metal Jousting uses the most advanced materials, but relies on the same basic design as that used 500 years ago–it’s nearly impossible to improve upon the original. The thrilling moment of de-horsing your opponent is not a new invention–it goes back to the Middle Ages when a knight’s aim was not to kill his enemy, but to capture him and his valuable equipment. And new rules designed to protect the safety of both the jouster and his horse means today’s competitors require a greater mix of strength, agility and accuracy than any show jouster–harkening back to jousting’s heyday as history’s first extreme sport.
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