His HMB journey started in 2015 thanks to Facebook. Stephen Slater saw the FB post of his friend and was interested:
“Tim was fighting for HMB Australia at BoTN 2015. I watched videos and was hooked straight away!”
He decided to join this sport and was successful. He managed to enter the HMB Australia team and fought for Australia 3 in Prague.
“My First BotN 2016 was in Prague, what can I say. It was amazing. Getting to meet many people from different nations, everyone was very friendly and welcoming. Waiting under the tunnel to enter the list was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I have goosebumps thinking about it. Also Prague is a beautiful place and I hope to travel there again one day.”
After the event the Australian team were heading to Denmark for another HMB event. And that’s where our story begins.
“We were told that there will be a marshal training course at this event. Australia at this time had no Marshals. I knew that Australia needed a trained Marshal, so after thinking about it, I decided to take part in this course and passed the test under Knight Marshal Maciej Reihl. Why did I make the decision to become a marshal? I love to fight so much but I knew I would never be a Great fighter. But I knew I could be a great marshal. Now I am the Head Marshal of Australia and the whole Australasian Region”, said Stephen.
Being the Head Marshal of Australia he is doing a lot to attract new people in HMB sport and involves training and recruiting marshals and he enjoys this part of the work very much. Also, according to him, being the Australasian Head Marshal is more about helping other nations’ Marshals and to make sure that there is a high level of marshaling in the region. He also helps them with any rules enquiries or disputes they have, he watches their tournament videos and gives them feedback. As a Head marshal of the Australasian Region he loves watching the trainee Marshals grow and become HMBIA certificated marshals.
Being an HMB Marshal, Stephen is willing to improve his skills and to get more and more experience. He therefore wants to have the experience of marshaling at different tournaments and there are few of them that wants to work at:
“There are many places I would love to work. I would love to revisit the Dynamo Cup in Moscow again, and, of course, Buhurt Prime. The high level of fighting at both these events helps grow you as a Marshal. You need to be switched on all time’, states the Australian marshal.
Stephen Slater actively has worked as a marshal at different national and international HMB events for many years, but every time he feels the same entering the lists:
“At the start of the event you feel excited, but as a Marshal you must remain calm and focused. We are here to do a job. You must try to remove feeling as best as possible. You need to be able to speak to fighters and Captains with a clear head and calm tone. The fighters on the lists are full of adrenalin, you need to be able to speak with them calmly. You always have to keep the fighters safe and not to get in their way, but you have to let them compete within the rules”.
In his everyday life Stephen has a lot of different hobbies, he loves other sports like Rugby, football,martial arts, but HMB is something special for him. Stephen truly loves what he does and does his best to improve skills every day. He sees the goal ahead and goes to it:
“My ultimate goal is to become the HMBIA Knight Marshal. Training under all the Knight Marshal at each BotN has been fantastic. I have learnt many things from each of them. One day I hope to join their ranks”, said Stephen.
We hope that the story of the talented, experienced, passionate about his work and purposeful Marshal Stephen Slater from Australia will inspire everyone who works to develop HMB sports in their countries. We are sure that all the goals set for ourselves are achievable and we sincerely wish Stephen and all our readers to achieve their goals.
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