The second week of practice, one of the guys brought loaner armor for me to try on and us. I started talking to a girl who showed me some of it. She fights as well but was sick that night. It helped to have another female show me what went where and how it worked. All of it was leather armor.
The chest armor was ok. Not too heavy or combersome. The arm armor was uncomfortable. I'm not sure how you move in it. The leg/hip armor weighed on my body because I wasn't used to it. I had trouble walking around in it at first. The helmet was the worst. I was told wearing it will help develope my neck muscles due to the weight. But since it's big, it fell down on my head and I had trouble seeing.
I met another guy who took me off to the side, gave me a rattan sword and shield, and was showing me how to move some. It is not hard but much to think about at once. He also hit me a bit. The helmet shots were not bad. One of the body shots twinged a bit, because I didn't have much padding there.
At the end of the night, I couldn't wait to get my own stuff. However armor is not cheap so it does take some time.

But the longer I do this, the more excited I am to have taken the plunge.