During the Renaissance era there have been findings of board games such as Baggamon, Chess, Card games, and even dice games. Dice would be made out of bone, stone, or wood. During the tournaments Jousting, and swordplay took place during the time of tournaments. Jousting consisted of two knights, warriors who rode horses, with lances, which were made of wood, and charged each other. one point would be given if a man were to break the lance between the torso and the neck, two points if they broke the lance on his head, and three points were awarded if the man knowcked the other knight off his horse. when doing this the knight was awarded not only three points, but his horse, and that round of jousting was over.
"Hostory Channel"
"The History of the Medieval Lance evolved over the era. The forerunner of the Medieval Lance was the spear. The spear was a favoured weapon of the Normans as can be seen from scenes from the Bayeux tapestry depicting the 1066 Battle of Hastings. The spear was carried by Normans who fought on horseback. At this point of Medieval history the English did not have a cavalry. Their skills in horsemanship and this type of warfare developed after the Norman invasion. And history saw the spear develop into the Medieval Lance. Tournaments were introduced from France to England in the 12th Century and the lance was strongly featured in these Medieval games."source
Tournaments provided a means for knights to practice warfare and build their strength in times of peace. Tournaments were essentially mock battles with audiences. The audience was usually made up of "fair damsels". This was another way in which a knight was expected to act chivalrous. The tournaments had different rules that had to be followed. They were judged by umpires that watched for dishonest play. Tournaments were usually fought between either two people or two teams. If two people fought a tournament, it was usually by jousting. The two knights would gallop across the playing field at each other. They carried long, blunt poles and shields. The objective was to knock the other person out of his saddle. Team play was conducted with fierce mock combat between two bands of fighters. They fought with wooden or blunted weapons so as to reduce the risk of getting hurt. However, this was often not the case. Many people did get hurt or die by accident.
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At 1st tournaments were unorganized and many people died within the tournament, but There were also events in sword and mace fighting, where the combatants fought on foot, but the joust was the event that gained a contestant the most glory. It was also the most popular event for spectators.
Knights could make a fortune from jousting. Since early times, they were entitled to keep the armour and horses of their vanquished opponents. These were usually ransomed back to the former owner and the victor could thus amass a considerable fortune.
Squires could also 'win their spurs' and be knighted if they acquitted themselves well at a tournament.
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"Accuracy was also an important factor and squires practised "Running at the Rings" where the lance was aimed at a target in the shape of a ring - these rings were obviously much smaller to lance than a man and this skill was therefore difficult to master.source
Skill in using Medieval weapons was dependent on weapon practise. The Quintain was used for training in the use of the Medieval Lance. A quintain enabled target practise with a lance. This idea was 'borrowed' from the Romans.
The First Stage of training - A Page would start to acquire the skills required of a Knight by practising the skills of tilting a lance against the quintain. At first a target was erected and the Page would mount a wooden 'horse' on wheels holding a lance. The wooden horse would be pulled along by two other pages towards the target and the page would aim the lance.
The second stage of training - As the apprentice Knights, the squires, acquired the skills of horsemanship they would practise against a shield and dummy which were suspended from a swinging pole. The shield was hit by a charging squire and his objective was to avoid the rotating arms and not get knocked from the saddle. The dummy was often made to look realistic by portraying symbols of the knights current enemy. A dummy would be designed to look like a Saracen, for example, during the period of the crusades.
Weapons practise - Fully fledged knights would also practise at the quintain to ensure their skills using the lance were in peak condition and that their bodies remained fit and agile in preparation for his role as a fighter."
Sports in the medieval ages were pretty much tournaments. They didnt play "sports" as we would call them today. They were tournaments with a little more practices, such as mace fights, sword fights, and archery. in fact archery was so important that lower class people were required by law to practice archery, and this is why.
"Archery was not just one of the Medieval sports of the Middle Ages. Lower Class men were required to practise archery by law! The first Medieval Archery Law was passed in 1252 when all Englishmen between the age of 15 to 60 years old were ordered, by Law, to equip themselves with a bow and arrows. The areas designated for archery training during the Medieval period of the Middle Ages were called the Butts. The power of the longbow was so great that at the Battle of Crecy, in 1346, the French army was decimated. It is estimated that nearly 2000 French knights and soldiers were killed by the longbow arrows. The English lost just 50 men. This explains why Archery Laws were passed and why training at the Butts was so important and included as one of the most important Medieval sports in the Middle Ages!source
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But there were in fact some sports that we would call sports such as
Archery - Archery contests were especially popular
Bowls
Colf - the ancestor of Golf ( a sport for the nobles)
Gameball - a simple football game
Hammer-throwing
Hurling or Shinty - a similar game to hockey
Horseshoes - throwing horseshoes at a target
Jousting at Tournaments
Quarter-staff contests
Skittles - an ancestor of modern ten-pin bowling
Stoolball - an ancestor of Cricket
Wrestling
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So as you can see, there were little sports played back then, the main thing was jousting. That is how knights proved themselves, how they could get either very rich or very poor, and especially how they trained for war.
