we are not. We are here in Germany, in Trier, the "Second Rome" of the ancient times and

just a part of the Italian gladiator school called Ars Dimicandi and we are here the German

school. We have trained about fifteen years in Gladiator fighting and we are not a re-enactment

group. We are fighting real. To be a gladiator means to me to learn the real way of fighting.

If you stand in the arena, in the sand, the guy on the other side, he's not more your

friend. He's your enemy. You have to focus and you have to fight for glory. After the

show, you take together beer but in the fight we are enemies. I use this kind of sport because

I came from a fighting sport. I did twelve years in kickboxing. It's the same style but

here you fight with weapons and you fight for a philosophy. We try to train like the

original gladiators did, five to six days a week, and up to twelve to fourteen hours.

And, in the ancient times, people were fighting for his lives. If they fight twenty times

per year, in the arena, he is fighting three or four times for his life. Most of the people

don't get older than thirty. Many many people die in the first year. Gladiator means "sword

man, sword fighter." It's nothing specialized. It just means there's a man with a sword...he's

a gladiator.

We have a gladiator camp two times a year. It's only one day to learn.

"Go go go! Come on! You be too slow! Come on, come on! Let's go!"

Boot camp is not like Mickey Mouse. You have a hard training. When you have the helmet

on, you have the feeling that you don't get any air. You breath like this. When you do

it five times, and use the secuto helmet, you don't get any other air other than these

two holes. And when you come back after the third time you just go... Imagine. You have

to train what you train now, fifteen seconds, twenty seconds, thirty seconds...again, again,

again... when you fight four minutes, it's really really hard. It's called conditioning.

We need a lot of conditioning. We need a lot of strength. And we need a lot of weapon skills.

We switched Frederic into provocateur class, and he has the protection on the heart. We

have protection on the weapon arm like most of the gladiators have and we have protection

on the legs that's most time in front. And this arm is going out here, against the....yes.

The important things are safe but he don't need much more protection so that means he

can go very very fast in the sand, in the sun and into the fight. And also he can fight

long.

Okay, so this class they are running fast... like this... and the shield is not used for

protection, it is used like a sword. You use it like a fist, you push...but my goal is

not the shield, it is the head. That's why many many gladiators are found in the graveyard

with damage to the skull and the heads. Because this is my goal. You can try it with me now

together.

"Harder, harder!"

[laughter]

Gladiators, they are not just used for the arena, they were used for fighting in the war. Because they were

really good at fighting man to man.

Okay, secuto class have just a small dagger, and he goes close, close, close... come on

now, it's my turn, and the other guy, runs runs runs... that's why the people like it.

Okay.

But if you like, you can come here and really learn gladiator fighting...but you need to

stay two or three years. Twenty fights to call yourself a gladiator and one hundred

fights to call yourself a veteran, that means you will be

a teacher.