Building Camaraderie Through Combat: LAS Students' Journey to Finland

In February, selected students from the LAS Padded Combat Club ventured to Finland to attend a competition training camp. These students delved deep into the realm of padded combat, or as it’s known in Finland, “Pehmomielkailu,” and enjoyed learning more about a craft they have been honing since the start of the year! This summer, our students were delighted to attend another trip to Finland, to an event called Sotahuuto in Ikaalinen. Our student team was one of the youngest there, and landed 8th place out of 21 teams, an impressive achievement! 

Padded Combat is a fun sport that simulates handheld combat (but with padded gear and armor) and is a fun way to get involved in live-action role play games. The sport is not only about skill, but also about teamwork, camaraderie, and communication. Our students had a fantastic time engaging with this sport and exploring this beautiful part of the world. They would not have been introduced to this fun sport without their dedicated trainer, Travis Finneran '05, who is an LAS faculty member and alumni. His enjoyment and appreciation of this sport keeps it alive in our community, and our students love learning new skills from different countries!

The students on the trip were placed in key positions and dedicated to the combat for several hours a day throughout the weekend. Our students represented their school with pride, being major contributors to the construction of the camp for 74 people, as well as performing both admirably and honorably on the field. Even more impressive was their honorable mention for the best international team in the Saturday evening 7vs7 competition, beating out the English team comprised of fighters aged 20 to 30 years old. 

The entirety of their team and the Sotahuuto Organization are extremely proud of their involvement and for achieveing the record for the most international group to ever take the field at Sotahuuto. We really look forward to our students’ participation next year and into the future!