07-23-2013, 01:16 AM
Hi Guys (Ave!),
New here to RAT, have been reading posts during research for about the past month but finally decided to sign up and pick brains if anyone is able to help me!
I live in Northern Ireland and there seems to be zero Roman reenactment groups, or more interestingly to me, Gladiator reenactment groups.
I come from a sporting background having studied Jujitsu, Taejitsu, Kickboxing and I currently play rugby for a local team, and the Gladiators of Rome have always interested me.
As i like fitness & contact sports, I have been toying with the idea of trying to recreate how ancient gladiators trained. My googling of this subject has not returned anything of worth apart from all the spartacus & 300 workouts! Has anyone found any references as to how they would have really trained along with weapon drills?
I have a vision, that if I can find out some information on how they would have trained (sparring with the rudis, striking a palus aside) I could then start my own group, incorporating authentic training (using modern weights etc if need be) and even possibly going as far as recreating as close as possible the bread they would have ate along with the gruel (except add a bit more protein).
The area of the gladiator has always fascinated me, and I would even go as far as trying to recreate the "Games" as close as possible, especially where the combat is concerned, but of course safely. If anyone could also point me to any UK businesses/websites where I could buy equipment such as the rudis, a heavy shield, and blunted steel gladius's (gladii?) to get me started as I'm not sure of what is good gear and what is crap and would break after a few blows!
I know this might seem ambitious for a beginner, but I do enjoy having a lot of information so i can then research more.
Any help anyone can give me is massively appreciated and I apologise if a thread like this has been similarly covered but I could not find one.
As a side note, do any of the current gladiator reenactment groups (preferably UK) run skills & drills courses in gladiatorial combat? I'm talking like an intense course over say 2-3 weeks that establishes fitness aswell as combat skills?
Again, any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
New here to RAT, have been reading posts during research for about the past month but finally decided to sign up and pick brains if anyone is able to help me!
I live in Northern Ireland and there seems to be zero Roman reenactment groups, or more interestingly to me, Gladiator reenactment groups.
I come from a sporting background having studied Jujitsu, Taejitsu, Kickboxing and I currently play rugby for a local team, and the Gladiators of Rome have always interested me.
As i like fitness & contact sports, I have been toying with the idea of trying to recreate how ancient gladiators trained. My googling of this subject has not returned anything of worth apart from all the spartacus & 300 workouts! Has anyone found any references as to how they would have really trained along with weapon drills?
I have a vision, that if I can find out some information on how they would have trained (sparring with the rudis, striking a palus aside) I could then start my own group, incorporating authentic training (using modern weights etc if need be) and even possibly going as far as recreating as close as possible the bread they would have ate along with the gruel (except add a bit more protein).
The area of the gladiator has always fascinated me, and I would even go as far as trying to recreate the "Games" as close as possible, especially where the combat is concerned, but of course safely. If anyone could also point me to any UK businesses/websites where I could buy equipment such as the rudis, a heavy shield, and blunted steel gladius's (gladii?) to get me started as I'm not sure of what is good gear and what is crap and would break after a few blows!
I know this might seem ambitious for a beginner, but I do enjoy having a lot of information so i can then research more.
Any help anyone can give me is massively appreciated and I apologise if a thread like this has been similarly covered but I could not find one.
As a side note, do any of the current gladiator reenactment groups (preferably UK) run skills & drills courses in gladiatorial combat? I'm talking like an intense course over say 2-3 weeks that establishes fitness aswell as combat skills?
Again, any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
