Renaissance Sports.` By: Elana Keller

Sports and Entertainment. o Many of their sports were more of a competition than anything else. o Some of the sports were: o Archery o Bowling o Dice o Hammer Throwing o Wrestling A type of hammer that would be thrown during hammer throwing tournaments. er+throwing

Jousting. o Jousting was a traditional sport that came out of the middle ages. o It is where two knights were mounted on horses and armed with lances. o They then charged at each other. o The goal was to knock the other knight off his horse. o This was often done in tournaments for knights to practice their skills, show off their abilities and to establish their rank within the community.

Jousting pictures. pictures-pages-photo-jousting-knight- i7159.html d-18/knights-jousting-2.html

Physical Training. o Boys and men spent much of their time practicing and perfecting their fighting skills. o Which included: o Wrestling o Hand to hand combat o Horsemanship o Swordsmanship o They had to be in excellent shape in order to be able to fight well. Their armor was extremely heavy. o Perfecting their fighting skills were like sports to them back then. It would entertain them. o They were more into practicing and getting better for combat and war than they were worried about sports and entertainment. o A lot of their sports and entertainment were based on fighting skills and combat.

Bear & Bull Baiting. o Some of their sports could get very gory. o Bear and Bull baiting was seen as a great sporting and gambling event. o Queen Elizabeth would even watch this gory sport. o Bull baiting was a contest where trained bulldogs would attack tethered bulls. o The bull would be tied in the center of the ring with a rope tied around the root of its horns. o The then would be fastened to a stake with an iron ring in it. The rope was about 15 feet long. o The point of the rope was that the animal was confined to a space of 30 feet in diameter. o The owners of the dogs stood around this circle. Each of the owners would hold their dogs by their ears, and when the sport began, one of the dogs would be let loose. The bull was baited for about an hour. o Bull-Baiting and Bear-Baiting was extremely similar, except that Bull- Baiting was more common in England due to the scarcity and cost of bears.

Works Cited. o knights-jousting.htm o era.org.uk/elizabethan-sports.htm o baiting-2.html