Although Medieval Combat has been in South Africa for more than 12 years, the HMB format arrived in South Africa about 5 years ago and still continues its development. HMB athletes of this country are interested in sport and are willing to participate in as many tournaments as possible. Currently in South Africa there are 22 armoured fighters (6 women and 16 men) and 6 clubs.
Last year Julian Angelozzi took part in the 10th anniversary HMB World Championship Battle of the Nations in Serbia and told HMBIA News about the process of the sport dev
elopment in South Africa.
“The Battle of the Nations 2019 for me was a watershed moment in really understanding the standard of fighting practices in HMBIA and I realised that we had to evolve our training in SA to get in line. As such we are now sharing the training through various platforms including video and training plans and using global resources such as the Ukolov`s videos. We are inviting international fighters to come train us and were going to invite Marcin Waszkielis to lead the fighting workshop, but had to cancel the visit due to the COVID 19 pandemic lockdown”.
The next major HMB tournament will be the Arnold Classic in September but it depends on how the lockdown is lifted. SA fighters are planning to participate in this event as every single fight is an opportunity to gain experience. Also HMB representatives are trying to get HMBIA certified marshals to support their events, so they can train local marshals and fighters.
There are several difficulties that SA faces in the aspect of HMB development. Such as economical reasons – they have weak currency and it makes importing armour very difficult. Also due to the low number of fighters in our country it is difficult to get other countries’ teams to come to take part in local tournaments.
However it is a solid group committed to growing the sport and developing their skill to be able to compete at an international level.
“Personally I would like to take part in one of the training camps and then bring the learnings back to share. We have unique opportunities in SA such as Zulu stick fighting which gives us an opportunity to connect with other Martial sports and learn techniques outside of the norm. SA medieval combat is on the rise, and we are loving the journey!”
HMBIA editorial office is also glad that South Africa chose the HMB way and sure that soon they will have a lot of followers. Let’s hope together that soon we will meet South African teams on the lists of HMB tournaments all over the globe.
HMBIA News
