According to World History, jousting dates back to the 13th century. It was practiced through the medieval period. Jousting was part of a standard medieval tournament, a series of events where knights put their combat skills on display, not just to entertain crowds, but also with hopes of impressing aristocratic women.
Jousting involves two knights on horseback charging directly at each other while armed with a long wooden weapon known as a lance. Lances measured as much as 12 feet long and were eventually adapted to include a round section that was meant to protect the knight's hand. According to Live Science, as the years went on, lances became blunt as opposed to sharp, but that didn't make the sport completely safe.
In the 1400s, a divider called a tilt was introduced to separate the two horsemen who were reaching a combined speed of as much as 50-60 miles per hour. The tilt kept knights from knee-on-knee injuries as well as dangerous horse-on-horse collisions that used to happen when the event took place in an open field.
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