Weight of Armor

As medieval armored combat star Kelsey Leta trains her trans-femme mentee, Maggie Ryan, for her first professional duel, growing pressures force her to reckon with the cost of protecting the sanctuary she built for femme fighters.

Tucked inside a Nashville strip mall is Nashville Armored Combat (NAC), the nation’s only gender-inclusive medieval armored combat gym. Kelsey Leta and her partner Mick created NAC as a refuge for trans, femme, and gender-expansive athletes in a male-dominated sport. From that, they launched Armored Medieval Martial Arts (AMMA), a rapidly growing league. But the pressure is wearing them down. Maggie Ryan, one of only two trans-femme fighters, found safety at NAC after losing her previous community. Now Kelsey is training her for her first professional fight. The Weight of Armor follows three intertwined stories: Kelsey, battling burnout as she holds her community together; Maggie, pushing her limits to prepare for her first fight; and AMMA, a league growing faster than anyone imagined. It’s a raw, urgent story about carving out space and fighting to keep it.

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