Pretty cool-The real steel though, is the real deal. These guys prolly cry about their gear getting dented or tarnished.

We've got some guys here in Japan that do this. They usually come every year to the Scottish Highland Games festival in Chiba and they'll even let you put on the gear and try it out yourself (though for the noobs they use padded wooded weapons rather than metal for obvious reasons). I'll admit though the guys in this video are way better and a bit more... overzealous than the guys we usually see here.

Most of the weapons are made to stab through armor. Probably why we saw no stabbing motions. All that steel armor does a good job protecting against the way that these fighters attack. Clearly they are trying hard to not draw blood.

That and they're not protecting the edges of their blades.

But yeah, this kind of brutal sword fighting gave way to fencing because as the armor progressed, they moved to a stabbing motion more than a hacking motion.

However, that's SERIOUSLY gatta hurt.

So, how do they figure out a winner?