An Amazing Ten Days in Europe!

This has been an amazing ten days of medieval and European experiences and accomplishments!

First, I and my lady went to Malbork, Poland for the International Medieval Combat Federation world championships. She went as part of the support staff for USA Knights, America's team n the tournament. My reasons for going were twofold: 1) I was producing a documentary of USA Knights at the event, and 2) I was doing the on-air commentary of the action for half of each day on the steaming webcast.

Both experiences were highly rewarding. I had contracted two camera peole, Tadej Znidarcic and Nawojka Cracke, and though I haven't looked through all the footage yet, what I have seen so far is very promising! The video will be called "American Knights." Watch for it at http://www.captainzorikh.com/usaknights2014

Calling the play-by-play of a sports event has been one of my lifelong dreams. Ever since I was listening to Phil Rizzutto on WINS 1010AM radio as Reggie Jackson and Thurman Munson were leading the Yankees to the World Series I wanted to be in the booth calling all the action. But I never could figure out the career path, aside from being a retired professional athlete.

This year, being as I would not be fighting due to my injured knee, I sort of lived up to that carer path, and took my baptism of fire in the booth. I had a few rough patches, not knowing all the fighter' names, for instance, but by the time I was done, people all over were telling me that I did a great job and I really brought something valuable to the broadcast.

I intend to do more of this. It is possible that I might be doing some broadcasts later this year. But I learned from  my mistakes this time. I will be doing a little more homework on the teams and saying "um" a little less often, for starters.

As a result of all this, it appears that I have become a bit of a celebrity in the world of medieval armored combat. When I came across the French team as they were hanging out with the Spanish team and a couple of Poles after a hard day of fighting, when I asked to take a picture with one of them, the next thing you know they were saying "Everyone get together for a picture with Captain Zorikh!"

When this was all done, my lady and I headed down to Prague for a little vacation. We visited the famous astrological clock tower, St. Vitus' cathedral and Prague Castle, the gardens of the Senate, St Charles' Bridge, took a tour to Kuna Hora with its "bone church," silver mine, and high Gothic cathedral and another tour of Konepiste Castle, the home of the lade Archduke Ferdinand, and its magnificent armor and hunting trophy galleries, and another tour about WWII in Prague, saw "La Traviata" at the National Theater and "The Magic Flute" as performed by the National Marionette Theater, dined in some excellent restaurants, did a little shopping at the Battle of the Nations, drank good beer (including the "real Budweiser"), and finished off the week with a river cruise with dinner on the Vlatava.

I shot loads of pictures and video over this trip, and will be posting them on Facebook and YouTube as soon as I can.

Watch This space for more details!

Final report from Battle of the Nations

Polish TV and a local documentary crew interviewed me. I tried to give them the best answers I could regarding why I am doing this, what I thought about the fights, how I would compare SCA combat with this full-contact fighting, if my BJJ experience helped me at all, etc.

Here's the TV show that interviewed me. The segment on the Battle of the Nations starts at 5:10...

Interestingly, it seemed that every interviewer asked why Americans would do this when the United States has no medieval heritage. The stock answer for this is that the majority of Americans come from Europe, and thus do have a medieval heritage. I would also add that Asian-, African-, and even Native American-descended Americans also have some sort of chivalric warrior heritage. There is a sort of universality to the concept of the "warrior elite," just as there is a universally to the hero myth. Medieval entertainments have been very popular in America for decades, as has physically challenging contact sports and martial arts. The Battle of the Nations is a challenging combination of these things, and Americans don't like to back down from a challenge!

My lady joined me in Warsaw the day before the competition began. She helped the team greatly with water bearing and fighter support and helped me by holding the camera to shoot video. She had been unsure about coming to this event. She had wanted to go to Italy, and there was thought that we might do both. But the seriousness of the Battle of the Nations preparations started to make it look like that plan would be unlikely. However, she was won over by the passion and the adventure of this endeavor, and by the end was extremely happy she came.

The team was likewise glad to have her. Her help enabled the fighters to concentrate on their fighting without having to worry about hydration, nutrition, and other aspects of staying alive at an event like this.

Many people on the team told me that I had done very well over the course of the week. In fact, several times I was told that I was awesome, a superhero, and had a pair of brass ones the size of (fill in the blank). That made me feel really good about myself, that this trip, and all the effort was worth it. Here were these guys, most of whom were bigger or stronger or more skilled or tougher or had more badass cred than I, and they were accepting me as one of their own, simply because I was doing what I wanted to do. I wanted to fight. I wanted to fight and not give up. I wanted to have a good time fighting. I wanted to have a good time fighting in front of a lot of people and cameras, and I wanted to have as much fun as possible during this trip, to make people laugh, to entertain them. I wanted to make history. And I wanted to be accepted. I have two words for the result: Mission accomplished.

This was the first time that Americans had competed in an international medieval armored combat competition of this scale. We came as a team and every man fought to their utmost. We all sweated and bled out there, and we came together as a team of Americans. I have never been prouder to be part of something. This is something no one can take way from us.

Battle of the Nations Report part 2

(This is a continuation of the post from a couple of weeks ago about my experiences at the Battle of the Nations)

But I did more that week than just fight.

The team took a trip to the castle at Malbork (Marienbourg), the former fortress of the Teutonic Knights. While I had seen rooms and chambers and furniture and art from the middle ages at museums, it was fascinating to see them in their regional context. There is no real "tourist logic" to a real castle, as there is in the floor plan of a museum. Rooms have multiple entrances and exits to other rooms and hallways and stairs. The deadliness of the defensive architecture is revealed. the opportunity was had to take the seat and stand in the place of honest-to-goodness medieval knights.

We ate good Polish food. One of the best eating experiences was at a roadside restaurant on the way to Malbork. nobody in the place spoke English, and the menus were all in Polish, so we struggled through with a dictionary and trying to figure out what was what based on a few known words ("pierogi," "kielbasa," "hamburger," "feta"). A couple of people just said "I am hungry. Give me food." and got a plate of delicious pierogis. One person found a picture of bacon and eggs on his smartphone and got a kielbasa with scrambled eggs. The hamburger turned out to be a delicious, double-pattie affair with toppings that was a unique and most excellent hamburger experience. The person who recognized the word "feta" got a wonderful salad with delicious, creamy feta cheese (have you ever had creamy feta cheese before? If I ever had I would eat it far more often).

Back in Warsaw we found a bar a couple of blocks away from the hotel at which we were made to feel very welcome. They gave us shots of some sort of cherry wine and became "our bar."

I happened to have my harmonica with me at the event site, and one of the bands on the stage adjacent to the list field happened to be playing some blues n the same key as my harp. I waved my harp at them and they indicated that I could come up and jam with them. The crowd loved it. Cameras clicked and rolled. Unfortunately the team member who had video-recorded the performance on his digital camera had it stolen during the week.

One night several team members and I stayed late at the event site rather than going straight back to the hotel. Many of the other teams were camping out and partying, and we joined them. One of the highlights was the Italian camp, where the Italians were singing, drinking, and making merry well into the night. Then they asked for an American song. I bought them "Swing Low Sweet Chariot for the Hearing Impaired" and how to dance the Maltese Branse, and they loved it! We wound up doing those numbers the next day before the battle and after the closing ceremonies.

(More to come)