If you want to participate in HMB tournaments, be close to like-minded people and win, create your own HMB club and get everything you want. This is exactly what happened with Jake Coles from the UK. Now he is a captain of the Armoured Combat Gloucester (ACG) HMB club based in the city of Gloucester.
Initially, Jake had to create his own club for his own development as an HMB athlete, but in the end it turned out to be something dear and very close to him.
A group of people united by a common idea or striving for a common goal very quickly turns into a well-coordinated mechanism, a real team and even a family. The club grows and develops, life is always boiling inside it. and it is interesting to observe it, there is always something to learn. We have created the HMB club section specifically to tell you about clubs, their development, history, and their recipes for promoting sports to the masses. We are sure that these stories can not only amuse you, but also become a useful tool for learning from experience and establishing contacts.
Today we will tell you about a fairly young club. He turns 4 this month. It started in 2017 with 5 ambitious guys who want battles and victories. How the life of the club developed further and what is the result of its 4-year activity, we asked its founder and captain.
“We started off with a ridiculously small 3x3m training area, a pell and a small workbench all cramped into a tiny little room. Now we have a much larger dedicated training hall with different kinds of pells, lots of soft kit equipment, bigger wooden lists with soft flooring and a decent workshop. We also have access to a field where we have larger outdoor lists as well”.
The start of the club was not easy, but the guys found an opportunity to survive in such conditions, not to lose the desire to train, develop and even grow in numbers of active members.
“We now have 19 armoured fighters, 10 men and 9 women, and a good few soft kit members who are in the process of buying armour. We are now in the last weeks of the second enrollment of our HMB Foundations course – a specifically designed training program for beginners – so we are expecting more new members to join us soon, too”.
According to the captain, the club members mainly concentrate on buhurts, however, they are not allowed to forget about duels. They have a couple of fighters who focus solely on duelling.
It can be said that ACG club spent half of his life in a lockdown associated with COVID-19, but the fighters were not going to let things go by themselves and continued to promote their sport and their club.
“We mainly promote the club online, but we also take part in local parades, history festivals and sports displays. Only in the last two months, we’ve attended three events of such kind – it’s been great to finally get out there after almost 1.5 years of COVID restrictions. Online promotion might be more efficient, but it’s really rewarding to see someone you’ve been speaking to at an event coming through the door for their first session!”
You might get the impression that these guys are exclusively busy with training, fighting and promoting their club. Not at all! They are not only great athletes, but also true friends who love to spend time together.
“We are quite a young club, so are yet to establish some traditions. We do have an annual club’s Christmas party though and we’re having spontaneous BBQs and socials throughout the summer – was good to finally have some fun together in real life after a whole year of Zoom parties! I feel I’d be right to say that we are quite a close-knitted group, so all the tournaments and events we went to together as a team are full of good memories”.
A laudable desire to work on himself and to win led Jake Coles to the fact that now he has his own club, a convenient gym for training and many friends with whom he has a lot in common. We think Jake’s idea to start his own club was brilliant! This story recalled the old truth – if a person has a desire, there will be a thousand opportunities to fulfill it.
And we just have to thank Jake for the interview and wish him and his teammates new victories and interesting fights!
HMBIA News
