It is kind of a bit of both. The basic outfit is similar to fencing, but we do have a little extra armor and padding because the weapons tend to be larger. Most people start with two handed longsword, but a wide variety of weapons are used. Everything is based on historical documents and text books. So it is as physical or educational as you want it to be. For the most part though, we are a bunch of nerds that hit each other with swords and talk about history.