Obstacle Run in Armour - a short film by Daniel Jaquet 

Grymbaldknight Unless you were an English knight. You fought on foot with the peasants. *shudders*

Alas full plate remained pretty popular on the battlefield until the 1580s, widespread use of guns started before Azincourt. Early guns were very ineffective, and half armours were still very popular into the 18th century and bulletproofed breastplates didn't leave until after the Napoleonic Wars.

Hollywood armor is made of plastic so I think the limitations they try to portray is just the actors trying not to break their costume

@@RockerMarcee96 Yes, full plate armor wasn't widely used itself until the early 1400s, some time after early handcannons and only briefly before even the ancestors to modern handguns and field artillery had made it to the battlefield.

..during the widespread introduction of firearms actually. Firearms appear around 1320, full plate armour around 1400. And the donwfall of plate armour was logistics actually, not firearms: Good plate armour is made to fit; and mass production and the highly dynamic battlefield in the 17th century made it vanish.

The legs need to be nimble for the soldier, due to all the kneeling and other awkward footwork. Most shots are aimed at center mass so armor isn't a big deal there anyway.

I get ya.

It's fine though. Hell just empty a clip in them.

Totally.

True. Also, the first run mainly proves that the soldier is the most used to this type of obstacle race, and the second one proves that the firefighter is the most used to wearing full gear while working. Aside from that, I don't think you can draw any major conclusions from this, except that people who are fit can carry dozens of kilograms of stuff and still do obstacle courses :P

When you have to do a obstacle run to retake the holyland.

When you want to conquer Paris but an obstacle course is in the way

@@fbiagent9666 dude, don't go to Paris unless you have a trained army, you'll get massacred and captured to be tortured to death

It would depend on the knight but on average they would be well trained for battle.

In Ketchikan Alaska, there are streets that are literally staircases, and the test to be a firefighter (at least way back when my uncle did it) involved carrying another candidate wearing full gear up like 50 flights of stairs.

A knight would begin training at the age of 7 in military and political life, intense training likely began in teenage years, he wouldn't be a knight until the age of 21. He'd often have a major head start over modern soldiers and fire fighters. The armour would feel like nothing after having trained in it his entire adult life. I wouldn't downplay the training of the other two, though. All three are far above the average persons endurance and strength, and that's what people misunderstand about medieval armour of that calibur, these men would be hardened from years of training, and it's not as heavy as people have made out. So it must be a shock to many to see how well that guy in full steel harness performed. Most of what people know about that time period is complete pop fiction.

since this is in Switzerland, i would say the knight probably had a similar level of military training as the soldier. but at 34yo it's been a bit since his original training.

I am a firefighter and I was shocked he won because I know how cumbersome the tank is and the bunker gear, keep in mind bunker gear keeps heat out but it also keeps heat in, I guarantee he sweated out a gallon in that suit.

lol the guy in the light armour was running like a fucking robot Hahaha i died, why is he running like that. i get with the heavy armour but without makes no seance.

Probably used to running that way from the armor all the time?

it's the gambeson lol

I thought at least some armies provide armor for their troops nowadays? Like the US army did in Iraq. Ofc, this depends on the level of realism of movies.

Knights had squires and servants and pack horses. The common soldier had to carry their own gear, and so do modern troops. It's not exactly equivalent. While we do use plate, the ceramic kind, even late medieval armor wouldn't stop a bullet not to mention the noise of the metal. Edit: He's running like that because the thick padded gambeson is restricting the movement of his joints.

Yeah I love videos like this actually. It makes you appreciate just how well trained our fire fighters and well...everyone involved here actually is... Dont know what the knight does as his daily profession but ive read from some of the replies here that hes actually 10 years older then the firefighter and the soldier is! Which just makes his times set all the more amazing if you ask me! I probably couldnt beat any of them personally even if I were to go against them in their heavy kit, and I was without any kit at all! Lol. But then again I have astmha so theres that... I also dont have a profesion where im physically active at all. Just sit ony my arse all day :-/

Well the soldier is swiss, so its very likely its not his profession in comparison to the other two. The firefighter is probably professional and the knight has a full plate fit for his body.. i think he wears it a lot otherwise this would be a very expensive staubfänger😂🤷‍♂️

Well said!!

Very well put. There are also different types of plate armor for different uses (and from different regions and time periods). Light field plate for foot soldiers is very easy to move around in. I did it myself for years. It does slow your movement and make you tired, but no more than other gear (as the video shows). Heavy armor for horseback (jousting armor - perhaps other mounted combat as well) is a different story. The breastplates, pauldrons and helms for that are really thick to protect from the full impact of a charging blow. Knights that get knocked off horses in that armor don't have an easy time getting up.

@@michaelbreuker4170 Having said that though... jousting armour is intentionally thicker and heavier than regular armour (including usual cavalry armour), fit for the tournament situation. (Just stating the obvious here, to prevent someone getting the idea all cavalry armour was like jousting armour.)

@@Heroesflorian Well, I guess in jousting they cared more about a flawless victory than a good movility.

This, every suit of armor was hand made EXACTLY to the body of its owner. Thus every joint was in the exact right place to not interfere with their movement hardly at all. But if another person were to wear it, even a guy a single inch taller or shorter, everything would be on the wrong spots and would bind them up horribly. About the worse they suffered was how high they could lift the arms over their heads at the very limit, and the very extremes of range of movement. Knights HAD to be able to effectively fight in these things otherwise they would have bloody well died. So this isn't something they were going to faff about with. Good armor was a difference of life and death and they made sure it was just so. IMO MAny of the myths about armor being restrictive is much more modern people (victorians in particular were terrible about this) trying on old armor suits and, given it wasn't made for THEIR exact body, found them to be terribly restrictive. They then made a whole series of very ignorant and arrogant assumptions based on these ill advised "experiments." Thankfully modern archeologists are actually career professional researchers, and not bored noblemen entertaining themselves for dinner party bragging rights. Fun fact Victorian English Noble-class "archeologists" are where the myth of the "white knight" came from. See in parlance "white" meant the grey-white color of bare steel. They assumed that they 1000 times over polished medieval relics they had laying around where how actual military armor from the middle ages was. Reality was nearly ALL medieval armor was either blued (heat treating steel to form a protective blue-black oxide layer), or painted any manner of colors suiting a knight's taste or coat of arms. This not only protected from rust, but permitted a knight to only further show off his style and status on the battlefield in front of all his fellow knight buddies. Which of course even in war, fashion was VERY important. Thus the "black knight" (bluing steel gives it a blue-black color) was very common among cheaper suits of armor worn by low-status knights or mercenaries who couldn't afford fancy things like extensive painted artwork or engraved gold inlays on their armor.

I've seen him in other videos -- and my guess is both. He is very fit, and that armor is a brilliant piece of technology (the full manufacturing process for which we're still trying to reconstruct).

Well I can’t speak for training prior but knights armour is designed to be ask protective as possible with as little hindrance to mobility as possible essentially making plate armour a second skin. He probably had that suit custom fitted for him and if not then that’s a lucky buy because it seems to fit him well.

@@samuelbarham8483what are you talking about? We know fully well how the suits of armor are made. They were definitly feats of artifice of the time, as each suit was custom made for the wearer; but its not like its some long lost ancient spacer tech from a lost civilisation😂We could recreate suits suits of actuall full plate today just fine! Infact, people do that just fine as part of their hobby! Its called HEMA. Or Historicall European Martial Arts. And as part of that they have tournaments of fully grown men wearing full plate thwacking eachother in the head with actually historically accurate weapons like poleaxes and such. Its a joy to see actually! Gives you a bit more of a gruesome sight then what fighting between 2 knights would be like then compared to Hollywood movies... Which make no sense from an armour perspective.... Il spoil you how most knights died though. Toppled over and exhausted and stabbed through the kinks in their armor or the visor of their helmet with a dagger. With most of his armor mostly intact.

It allowed for more mobility for limbs that human body can have.

Yep, got to be careful though, a person can over-heat real easy that way. In an NBC suit it's pure hell too.

You say? I haven't got to run fortunately in that suit but I have watched some guys do a 10 km run in one of those. The ones who finished it spent a week in hospital after that because they were so extremely dehydrated. You could literally pour the water out of them. Oh and yeah it was done in the middle of the summer, no clouds, no shadows, close to 40°C

the knight's visor is the least breath restricting, because it does not filter or dose air, it just lets the outside air in.

With their weapons too. it makes a hugeee difference.

Yeah a soldier carrying the weapons and ammo is going to carry about 1.5 times as much as everyone else.

This joke deserves more love!

But only with heavy turnament armor(sorry for my english)

LOL!!

@Jimmie Toyne - Near the end of jousting, the armor was so effective that designers had to develop breakaway shields in an attempt to maintain audience interest. It was entirely for the show, not combat.

@Jimmie Toyne No, the "crane them on their horse" was pure Hollywood. And most of the idea of armor being cumbersome is from people who either "thought" it was and never tested their assumption, or people who tried on armor that wasn't quite the right fit for them.

since this whole video is creative commons you can use that song yourself.

That's just some light gambeson on his torso. It's basically medieval padding.

Exactly, so why is he running so strangely?

Metal armor doesn't flex well

He was running like that before he put the armor on.

Because gambeson restrict a lot of movement already, you can't flex well.

Jesus Christ be praised

Hey, Warhorse Studio's come to see us!

God speed, Warhorse Studios

I bow down in honor of your presence

Want to make a little wager on the grand tourney

you are right. However, there is no intent of proving anything here. That's a public engagement project for a museum exhibition. The goal was to see if the results of the three runners were close enough to claim an armour is not that heavy to wear compared to a firefighter and a soldier.

other issue with that is you need to train in the gear a bit And that the harness (if made properly) is like 10 thousand dollars plus so you need to find a guy who already has one really

not really. You can get one of these handcrafted and fitted for about 6000 Dollars ;) (Which obviously is still very much)

the issue with that is to be effective the armor has to fit you would have to find three participants with very similar body types accustomed to all three similarly. another issue is a lack of gear on the knights armor equipped participant. overall I really liked this test

You could make the argument that the same person would get increasingly competent the more laps he runs.

Exactly what i was thinking, the knight armor is very well distributed, but a soldiers outfit for instance has some heavy parts where the body has to adjust posture to keep balance.

A modern soldier's rig is designed to distribute the load from its back on to the harness around his body and primarily on the hips. However the harness can only do so much when the bag weights 33% of your body mass with just normal gear. it can get up to 50% more than standard in long road march that last days. A knight's armor have the advantage that its like the harness disturbing it well but without the bag throwing off the center of mass. I was surprised the firefighter did that well, I thought it would be the least well distributed and the least balanced. Well I guess you need a good design if you are trying to move around in a burning building.

But the soldier can keep up the pace for a lot longer than the firefighter and probably the knight too he won’t suffer as much for the heat

@@neurofiedyamato8763 and that weight distribution is completely busted when the soldier has a soft kevlar flak vest underneath the uniform as is common in most conscription based armed forces that will prioritize other gear over 1'000'000+ plate carriers and ×2 of that number of ceramic/steel body armor inserts. Because those kevlar vests are essentially half inch thick thigh length brigandine, but too stiff to cinch tight with a belt to transfer any weight to the hips, and thus, all the gear not carried in pants pockets still ends up on the shoulders...

@@Dantick09 no he won't last much longer. Modern soldier kit will still make most people sweat by weight alone until the ambient temperature goes to single digits Celcius.

modern armor might use different materials, but the shapes and attachment design haven't changed terribly much for centuries, since there are only so many ways you can design armor that maximizes both protection and mobility. why change something that still works?

the knight wore Sneakers not a fair representation of how fast a real night would have been

It would have been really unsafe to do in period leather soled shoes. A sneaker and a 15th century low show weighs about the same anyway.

The thing here is that the 'knight' has not walked in leather shoes all his life. If he had, he'd be as fast in them as in sneakers

The knights heart rate was higher than the others…..heat issues for sure.

The pit itself was pretty dang shallow. I've seen 7 foot deep ones on obstacle courses. But they're not meant to be traversable without teamwork.

Your own physical fitness is one thing, but weight distribution is important also. I remember some guys who were in some ways more fit than I was, but because they wouldn't pack/-distribute all the gear they had to carry as well as I did they would falter while marching for long distances - I even had to carry one guy's backpack on an endurance test march in addition to my full kit because it was really taking its toll on him with all the other gear that he was pretty damn unevenly carrying: sometimes it is not possible to have everything perfectly balanced, but you better make sure that the weight is distributed as evenly as possible.

The knight barely lost and was 1.5x the age of the other guys. Put a 20 year old in the knight suit like the firefighter and soldier were and it would probably win

Not really. Just regular people doing their job, just like a knight or a police officer or a soldier or paramedic. They're doing jobs that can be scary and are important but they're not superheroes.

@@minotaurmikeftwmike7712 the knight still had heat issues his heat rate was the highest. plus if the knight was in actually full gear with enclosed helmet and metal shoes it would be tougher on speed and endurance.

Costs him the race, I demand a rematch !

Good thing he was wearing a helmet.

Expected that to happen! :D Had it happen to myself when wearing my sallet. Lovely video indeed!

**Stunned**

@Michael Cote That way the knight is at a huge advantage. While the soldier and the fireman get smashed and die instantly, the knight survives much longer, even though the weight of the horse crushes him.

@@chinesepowerl9525 The soldier gets smashed by the jeep and the fireman gets smashed by the fire engine. I never said that the knight survives. I only said that he survives much longer than the other 2 (which die instantly). You failed really badly at reading. Also plate armor was not made of iron, it was made of steel. And a sword wielded by another person on foot can't even pierce plate armor with a thrust, let alone cut though it.

This is all a joke

@@chinesepowerl9525 Sigh.... everything you just said is false

@Michael Cote yeah, like what a dumb comment

The same one would not be as familiar with two other kinds of gear. They used people who were used to the equipment.

They could have taken a random guy with a good physical condition, he would be unfamiliar with three types of stuff ;)

Thats why they make them run with light gear and you can see there are only 3sec between them

It would be interesting to have three separate runs where each contestant tried all three types of gear.

The only issue with that is that a suit of plate armor has to be perfectly customized for the user, and since steel doesn't stretch and bend like fabric does it'll be almost impossible for anyone but the owner to move around in unless they had the exact same dimensions. And making a suit of armor for each is out of the question since a suit of full plate costs as much as a car and takes over a year for a skilled blacksmith to make.

Some corrections: Knight armor protects you from all man powered slashing and piercing attacks full stop. A sword slash will never go through the armor, a spear or sword thrust will never go through the armor. It even did a decent job at making Warhammer hits to the head survivable, not 100% of the time mind you. But your chances were higher than normal. The only ways to kill a knight are to either crush their armor, overpower their armor with something stronger than any human could do on their own, find the few gaps in their armor and stab there, or wrestle them to the ground rip open their visor and stab them in the face. More Knights died to being wrestled to the ground by a swarm of lesser soldiers than by anything else

I think there would be concern with traction and potential injury from slipping while clearing some of the obstacles

^exactly why he should be wearing them instead of sneakers.

Daniel said that he didn't wear them because he isn't used to such shoes. Traction isn't a problem with those, just the fact that they are very uncomfortable to people not used to them.

Sabatons weren't always worn by knights, especially the knights of England. When you are on foot there is no need for sabatons.

Knights would have servants carry their stuff and only equip the armour before a fight

Knight's were primarily a heavy shock cavalry.

Yes…the knights heart rate was up even with a open helmet..metal just heats you up..

Gustavthemagician and this is a modern reproduction by people who basically have little experience with armour compared to medieval armourers, at least they don't know the trade secrets and the exact nuances of engineering behind them. The antique armours that were tested by Bashford Dean in the 1920s were put on a guy who it only mostly fit on, better mobility than what Daniel in the video has. As for how it would actually fare in combat. In the middle ages nobody had to do these things. Formation warfare ruled the day and armour protected against common threats well enough to be able to continue fighting even after taking in multiple hits even if the first strike would have killed you. Then came guns and... Armour was still good enough to provide this kind of protection for roughly 350 years after that only cavalry wore it because they could then wait closer to charge also it protects against bayonets. (first handheld guns appear in the 1320-30s in Europe)

This armor is based off an existing extant piece and has been replicated down to as many details as possible. I'm not saying most re-enactors know what they're doing, because they don't. Doesn't mean that each and every one of them is clueless. This armor is as good as it is going to get, maybe with the exception of the harnesses owned by Tobias Capwell

***** it says in the video. Hes 34 years old

The point is he was 10 years older than the other two.

34 year old nerd who wears this as a hobby (basically by definition) vs peak performance early 20s professionals in their standard gear. Just look how he runs in light gear. If this man was athletic he would probably win the heavy gear test by 20s.

@@bpnelson7 not with enclosed helmet and metal shoes.

Greg Ward well knights wore what were essentially slippers under their sabatons, so a sneaker isnt far off.

Authentic boots would have given him a HUGE hindrance since they have either smooth leather soles or little steel spikes. Spikes grip on grass but not on anything else, while leather can sort of grip on stone but slips on everything else. The test's purpose seems to be to compare the weight they bear and how it affects mobility, and giving the other two rubber soles while leaving the knight with no grip would tip the scales a bit much. Besides, both firefighter and soldier boots do a superb job of absorbing impact and getting grip on all surfaces, so the sneakers aren't really an advantage as much as just an equalizer.

shoes sucked back then

Johannes Liechtenauer Shoes did suck back then, rubber is way better than any material you had back in the medieval or renaissance era.

Johannes Liechtenauer had the course been on grass I'd say a smooth-sole would be a hindrance. The sand and gravel would be enough grip that non-hobnailed boots should be ok. It does appear dry enough. The rubber soles are superior, though I'd doubt they grant a significant performance advantage.

Romano Coombs I mean there is Berserk, where at least 3 people get dismembered every 2 pages. But really, the misconceptiom that samurai armor was more mobile than knight's armor is bullshit. Sucks that more people don't realize this.

"Edgelord"? Now you're being an idiot. Shounen is a genre that is often about conveying positive messages. It doesn't even try to be edgy for fuck's sake. It's probably the least edgy genre you can find. Fuck, even shoujo characters tend to be edgier then shounen characters. "Such manga often portray challenges to the protagonist's abilities, skills, and maturity, stressing self-perfection, austere self-discipline, sacrifice in the cause of duty, and honorable service to society, community, family, and friends." -wikipedia

Nick Ta:I've seen a video if it and the samurai was more mobile, but it was very slight. Basically he could do full jumping jacks but the knight could only do like 90% of a jumping jack arm movement.

ARMOR MOVE LIKE BUTTER KATANA CUT LIKE RAZOR BLADE

Burg Bass through hardened steel with a slashing weapon good luck

Depends on the time period? 15th Century plate armor would pretty reliably stop the pistols, carbines & even muskets of it's time... Only heavy arquebuses could reliably penetrate it. those were purposefully overbuilt to pierce armor & were so heavy they needed to be shot from a Y-rest...

The Mongols..😂😂😂

​@@lehtju4waif5ahk49 Cap.

​@@easyalpha1not even near what I was asking.

@@josh_the_alien sorry..if the knights armor is strong enough..it will protect. For the lead ball to penetrate the armor..it would have to be close to the power of a canon..with enough gun powder… Basically good steel plated amor is a bullet proof suit..but the down side..it’s gets hot wearing it….

all three are sans weapon. a rifle, sword, and fireaxe are all fairly similar weight. further Knights generally just carried lance, sword, and shield.. but once dismounted from a horse, usually dropped the shield and lance because you can't use a lance on foot, and the shield was not designed to be used on foot either.. it was overlarge and shaped to protect a mounted rider's legs and body which made it hard to use on foot. most movies use inaccurate shields to avoid this issue. so for a test of dismounted mobility, this is a pretty good set up in the video.

glitterboy2098 rifle weights the most actually.

The soldier having most routine and was already hampered by numerous packages the knight had most to lose. Unless the firefighter started to pull a hose.

A rifle is usually 4-6 kg, maybe even less. A sword is about 1-2.5 kg depending on quite a few things, but if we are talking about knights from this era(as the one in the video), you could say about 2 kg.

***** actually, longsword weights from 850 grams ( museum source) to 1.8 kg ( longsword manual source). Anything aboce that is a greatsword.

Probably, a major problem in the military is arthritis currently due to the ungodly loads a soldier has to carry. The maximum combat loads in the US Navy as of 2006 was around 134 lbs of gear carried into firefights, for marches this load could have been up to 200 lbs. Close to a third of all this weight is supposedly batteries for all the equipment.

Where the hell do you see an assault rifle?

Inigo Montoya the assault rifle was on the side of the backpack. You can see it when they are gearing up.

CyberAceGames Actually, when the full equipment test begin, no rifle in side backpack for soldier. Even if the test with weapons too, it's will not make a big difference for knight and firefighter cause' most sword or axe only weight less than 1.2 kg and 2.5 kg. Soldier is more on disadvantage with most rifle weight around 3 - 5 kg with loaded magazine.

The knight's sword would've been holstered at the hip, which wouldn't have affected his performance. And a typical longsword only weighs around 2-3lbs

Mein Kneger the firefighter would have struggled though, the irons are heavy and don’t usually have holsters

*peasent to watch

*✞DEUS✞VULT✞*

marinescu0511 You can't even spell it properly.

Ninjaananas That was part of the joke, brainiac

Ninjaananas r/woooooosh

That's one of the many compromise chosen. My medieval shoes are realised in an informed experimental archaeological way, including a very thin sole. If I was wearing these daily, I could have run with it. That's sadly not the case. You can see how the ground is on the images, I chose not to wear them to prevent injury while jumping on stones. It's not about avoiding to slip.

I just wanted to wake some controversy. Plus it's been a month since, calm down.

Phil C So do soldiers and firefighters, but that just proofs that the gears only slow them down, not to make them immobile.

Correct, that was planned, but left out (forgotten the day of the race, like the proper undergarment going under the helmet). There are always things that doesn't go as planned;)

Yeah I can imagine that, there is always something that doesn't go according to plan. Still good job :)!

Full Contact Medieval Battles im sure its not 2.5 kg

Shrekas 2 riveted steel male aventail has proximate weight about 1,5 - 2 kg, weight of padded liner depends on how much it is stuffed + steel rondels as additional neck protection. but you have full right to dissagre with me I'm okey with that :) or explain to me why you dissagre I'm full open to polite discusion :).

Not all knights wore them AFAIK. Poorer folks would make do with a thick woolen scarf.

Was surprised too. Because he had some baggage to manage while running. But i was not that surprised. Firefighters are actually more dedicated in what they are doing than soldiers. (I.... have a Thesis why this may be.... :) )

Kyo Yamato Knights in full suit of armour do not use shields and I didn't see any rifle on the soldier or fire axe on fire fighter either.

Rifle weighs more than just about any weapon a knight would have used

Except maybe a War hammer.

Kyo Yamato War hammers aren't that heavy. It's the distribution of weight that differs in a sword and a war hammer

Well I have a warhammer replica that's about 5lbs, how much does a rifle weigh?

knight wins because DEUS VULT

You never wanna run with a closed visor. Ever It gets hot like an oven in there. Very little breathability.

Firefighter will win hands down, he's got great visibility through transparent visor, but the main thing is that he is oversupplied with the fresh air, while other two have to breathe for themselves.

It actually is. The swiss military is a militia and we do not have a budget as high as other professional armies like the US Army or the french army. The consequence is that we train with shitty gear (the rifle being the only good quality equipment). as an infantry-guy this is quite annoying, tho I suspect they keep the good stuff locked up somewhere

Yeah I noticed your webbing is like 1990s style (compared to the newer gear). Cool SIG rifle, but not in 7.62mm anymore?

In the army we get 5.6mm. But you can also shoot with 5.56mm

You are right. However, there is no intent of proving anything here. That's a public engagement project for a museum exhibition. The goal was to see if the results of the three runners were close enough to claim that an armour is not that heavy to wear compared to a firefighter and a soldier. We are fully aware of the limits of the test. Haven't you read the disclaimer at the end?

Vigil Seimur which was the point of it all, not to compare but to show that plate armor didn't hinder you that much, and is comparable in weight to what you see on modern service men and women

He still done very well for being 10 years older.

People in a sports setting generally peak physically around their 30s.

Shygalsadie Not to mention that the weight of plate armour is distributed much better than the other two.

Multiple servants... Basically a whole private logistics team

he had the lighter gear and the most flexible one of course he won boots dont play such a big role just a minor one

Plate armor (with padding underneath) doesnt allow for much of cooling too. Even in snowy winter you can do a short run and feel warm for quite a time after it, padding is not cooling down easily.

eh, plate sabatons actually weigh in around the same as modern running shoes, a couple hundred grams, and the historical shoes they are paired with are practically leather socks. So really the only thing modern shoes provide over historical ones is the lower chance of injury for those who aren't used to historical footwear.