At Vernon Vanguard, the first thing you notice is the armor and the weapons. But it doesn’t take long to realize the real draw is the camaraderie. Teammates help each other tighten straps and fasten buckles on medieval armor that can weigh 50 to 70 pounds.
“This may not be for everybody, but it might be for you, and if it is for you, it will change your life,” said Dakota Miller, a top-ranked fighter in Armored MMA and the team captain.
The Columbus, Indiana-based armored combat team competes in buhurt, a full-contact combat sport in which fighters wear medieval-style armor and weapons and compete in melee, dual and pro-fight-style matches.
That invitation is part of the team’s culture. Members make it a priority to get people into armor as soon as they can. The team purchases extra armor so people can try it before making the expensive purchase of an entire kit. Miller said that because the team wants to see the sport grow, everyone is helpful to newcomers.
“The saying is, ‘Buhurt is love,’” said Henri Condes.
“That looks like my kind of chaos: controlled and consensual violence,” said Condes, a Marine veteran. The sport began as an outlet but became something deeper. After leaving the Marine Corps, he said adjusting to civilian life was difficult without the community he once had.
“I don’t miss the circus, but I miss the clowns,” he said.
“It’s almost like when you beat a dog enough to teach it to be violent, you’re ingrained in violence — kill or be killed — and I didn’t like that version of myself, and buhurt is kind of healing that,” Condes said.
He described armored combat as “therapy” because the intensity reminds him of his training, without the fear of seriously hurting anyone.
Ryan Senkow came to the sport with a different story. He described years of bullying and trauma that left him distrustful of men and living with mental health issues, including self-harm and suicidal thoughts.
“The community is really helpful for people to deal with their demons,” Senkow said, “because it’s being around a healthy group of people where you can feel like you can be yourself.”
“A fighter is a fighter” is the motto Senkow lives by.
“I don’t care who they are or what they are,” he said.
He uses that mindset to create an atmosphere of acceptance in the sport — one that he said he has not found in many other sports clubs. “It’s just a bunch of dudes and gals — he’s, she’s, they’s and gays — hitting each other with medieval weapons, in medieval armor,” Senkow said.
Senkow recalled playing rugby for months before getting injured.
“When I came back, no one remembered me,” he said. “I think my biggest nightmare as a kid was having a dream that was just no one’s there, and no one’s thinking about me.”
Now, he said, “That’s not the case. I don’t get that nightmare anymore.”
“One thing I would like to say about our team, and the sport itself, is that it has saved a lot of lives — it’s just such a positive community. We were all just a bunch of weirdos growing up. We were black sheep in our herd, and now we are a herd of black sheep,” Senkow said.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Vernon Vanguard: Forging community through armored combat
Reporting by Travis LaCoss, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Travis LaCoss, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
