My teammates and many people from the HMB movement know me as John Little. I love this nickname. I was the official John Little of Sherwood Forest for 2 years. At first, I performed at some shows around the country, then I was one of the main characters at a re-enactment in Sherwood Forest which is held every year in the month of May, there I fight off the Sheriff and his men. We practised free-style fighting with Staff, Sword, Axe, Shields etc). I was chosen for the role 7 years ago because of my height of 6 feet 8 inches (203.2 cm). And the name stuck to me, everyone called me John so I remained John Little. Since then I have always been called JL because it suits me.
I will not fight this year due to health issues. I’ll be out of fighting for a couple of years, but I`m planning to support my team the best I can.
As part of a support group I have to be sure that our team have all that they need, such as isotonic drinks, glucose and fruits. Support guys have to make sure that fighter`s armor is correctly fastened. And a very important duty is to help fighters to put on\ take off their armor.
We learned a lot from the HMB World Championship “Battle of the Nations”-2014, held in Trogir, regarding support and we worked hard to perfect our support group. We realized we needed 2 supporters per fighter due to the heat and speed of the rounds between teams, the last thing we needed was a fighter passing out because heat and exhaustion. But that was right in a hot country such as Croatia. Probably, in the Czech Republic it might be cooler.
As a fighter I like “5 vs 5” category, it shows team work. I think that team work is some kind of art and there must be a good coherence between fighters for the team to succeed. I can’t wait to step into the lists and fight side by side with my teammates. Hopefully this will happen in 2016.
Peter Bailey,
health and safety officer of the National Team of UK,
