[arethuza]

I can recommend the book "The Time-traveller's Guide to Medieval England" - it mentions the amount of military training that both knights and commoners were expected to perform. Basically a knight was trained from a very early age to fight - no way would an average 21st century male be able to compete in skill or strength.

Even for commeners they were still often legally required to spend a significant amount of time working on their marshal skills - mainly archery.

http://www.amazon.com/Time-Travelers-Guide-Medieval-England/...

e.g. Here in Scotland there was a time that games like golf and football were officially banned as they were seen to distract men away from military training for the wars with England.

[Simucal]

Thanks for the book suggestion, I just purchased it. I had been looking to read a book about Medieval times but hadn't taken the time to find out what one to read. The reviews look promising.