Not at all. Come in gym clothes. We have loaner gear waiting for you, and we would much rather you learn to move and enjoy yourself first. Buying armour before you have tried it is the most common mistake people make, and we will gladly save you from it.
Wherever you are right now is fine, genuinely. The sport builds fitness faster than a gym does, and turning up regularly matters about ten times more than where you started. We have people at every level of fitness on the roster.
It is a real investment, and most people build theirs up over a year or more, a piece at a time. We will tell you what to buy first so nothing gets wasted, and you can borrow team gear the whole time you are saving.
Yes, and that is a good part of why it is so much fun. It is also marshalled, armour-inspected and rule-bound precisely because the contact is real. You will collect some spectacular bruises, and you will be looked after the whole way.
Almost certainly not. We have fighters either side of forty having a wonderful time out there. Come and see for yourself before you decide the window has closed on you, because it really has not.
Then you will pick the footwork up quickly. Buhurt is a different animal, heavier and closer and a lot more of a scrum, but you are nowhere near starting from zero. Come and feel the difference for yourself.
Soft kit, long before any steel. Gambeson, gloves, knee and elbow, groin protection. It goes under the armour and it is what you will train in for months before you own a single plate.
Recommended soft kit
We keep a running list of the specific pieces we actually recommend, rather than making you guess from a hundred lookalike listings. Ask any of us before you order and we will tell you what fits.
Your first night is free and you do not have to tell us you are coming, though a message helps us have a helm ready in your size. Stand at the edge, watch a few rounds, ask every question you can think of. Everybody here did exactly that.
