Country in numbers – the story of Switzerland
Everybody knows Switzerland as beautiful and peaceful country with kind and smiling people. But every member of HMB movement knows that there are tough guys with steel weapon in this country! HMBIA News decided to find out about development of HMB sport in this country. So we asked Franco Bianchetti, captain of the National Team of this country for the interview to find out about Switzerland in numbers. Let’s get to know Switzerland closer!
– When did the HMB start in Switzerland? How was it?
Me and another fighter went to HMB World Championship “Battle of the Nations”-2013 in France for the first time, we wanted to learn more about “Battle of the Nations” and of course we wanted to fight. I was fighting in Argentina team and the other guy was fighting in Italy team. On our way back home, we took the decision to start something in Switzerland. At the very beginning we was organizing our club in Ticino Canton, we had almost no fighters but still we could train and make some advertising in whole country, slowly we met new people interested to start full contact fight and in 2014 we had our first Swiss team, with fighters from different Cantons. I can say it was difficult to develop our movement, but motivation was, and still is, very high!
– How many Clubs are there in Switzerland?
At the moment we have 6 clubs, all in different Cantons. Some other fighters are without club, but still active.
– How many fighters are in clubs in general?
Of all the 6 clubs, only one can build a 8 fighters team. All other clubs have less than 8 full equipped fighters.
– How many certificated national and international marshals do you have?
We don’t have any marshal in Switzerland, for now.
-Are there any kind of rivalry between clubs?
Not really, the goal is to get more fighters in every club, especially in small ones, plus we are not so much fighters in total, rivalry between us would be something negative for the movement in Switzerland. Of course during trainings and fights, there is rivalry, everyone wants to win, is normal.
-How do you evaluate the qualification level of fighters in your country? Could you please describe with some examples?
We don’t really have qualifications, simply because we don’t have 200 fighters to select. We check the level of every fighter, stamina, skills, teamwork etc and see who is good and who need to work more. The club that have a full 8 fighters team in “5 vs 5″ category usually is self-organized, they are strong and well working, but in case they need some reserve, we need to know who can fight with them. For all the others since it will be a mixed team, we need to see who is good enough to be in such a team, because mixed team from different regions is usually difficult to organize, fighters don’t know each other, that’s what we check during our “qualifications”
– How many tournaments have been held in 2017?
In Switzerland we had our first tournament in September 2017, it was a test to see if it was possible. We had fighters and teams from Italy and France other than locals, it went very well and this year we want to organize it again, but bigger!
– Do you have particularly strong outstanding fighters? Could you tell about them?
We do have few very strong fighters that are difficult to get down, they are tall and strong, like towers. Usually they work well with some runners, is very nice to see such collaboration on the list. In addition, we have some not so tall nor big fighters that are still difficult to take down, maybe not so strong but resistant.
– What was new in the HMB movement in Switzerland last year?
For sure, the creation of our first international tournament, that was an important step, and of course the creation of 2 new clubs.
– Do fighters treat HMB as a hobby or as a serious kind of sports and try to earn skills as much as possible?
In general I can say our fighters are well dedicated to the sport, it is not just a hobby with friends. Constant trainings, visit tournaments abroad, motivation and dedication is a sign that fighters really consider this sport as something important.
– What are the tasks for developing HMB for the nearest future?
We are working to build a Swiss Federation, which will definitely develop everything here. Find someone interested on marshalling would also help the local movement a lot, and of course we are trying to organize more tournaments here.
As we can see, HMB sport is popular in Switzerland and develop with a good pace. National team of Swiss take part in the “Battle of the Natons” during 3 years and they never planning to stop. So HMBIA News will be waiting for the fights of the Swiss team on the list of the HMB World Championship “Battle of the Nations”-2018 in Rome.
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