Tomáš Gajdošík,
fighter of “SKSKBP” club,
fighter of the National Team of Czech Republic

… Concerning his way to HMB sport

My way to HMB was quite the same as other guys from our team had. I had been engaged in medieval reenactment for about 10 years, so when I heard about HMB as a full contact armor fighting I wanted to try it. When I met with the guys from our team I decided they were good allies, so I continued my training and bought equipment for Historical Medieval Battle.

Contact fighting means life for me! I’ve been always engaged in some contact sports and I always liked armor. I have been practising contact fighting for 2 years.

… Concerning his armor and weapons

I have European armor (Visby type) dating back to the late 14th century. I chose this armor because I was able to make it mainly by myself .Anyone can process leather and small steel parts having necessary tools :). I use falchion and iron buckler. I like falchion because it is short but has some weight and I use bucker because I can hit with this type of shield quite hard and still have my hand quite free.

… Concerning sports in general

I had been practising contact karate for 6 years, as well as Musado and little bit of Judo. It helped me a lot at the beginning and I still use experience from those sports, especially while I am kicking or trying to bring someone down during a clinch. But now I am not doing any sports, because I don’t have so much time working, studying and training for HMB.

… Concerning his combat techniques and features

I don’t think I have some, and even if I have, I won’t tell :).

… Concerning qualities needed by any HMB fighter

I think that stamina and physical strength are in the forefront, you can’t even think about fighting without them because of specifics of medieval armor. Armor is mainly heavy and it’s hard to breathe in closed helmets. Another quality is willingness to fight really hard, with no fear of pain, and have fighting as a passion.

… Concerning trainings and tournament preparations

Mainly, I check armor and repair it if it was damaged. We have trainings the whole year round, not only before tournaments and they are mostly the same. Before tournaments I try to give my body enough rest, so there is no hard exercising.

… Concerning the season of 2014

We had quite a bad luck after “Battle of the Nations”-2014. Prague team decided to reconstruct our training place and we had to leave it. So, I didn’t like the period after the Championship as we had no trainings for 4 months and lost much of our shape.

… Concerning his favorite category

I really like “5 vs 5”, sadly didn’t try “21 vs 21” but hope to do that in 2015. We will have enough fighters for that. I see difference in numbers and tactics for each category.

… Concerning the National Team

The HMB movement in the Czech Republic started after “Battle of the Nations”-2012, when one of our friends from medieval reenactment, Jakub Vácha, saw HMB on live and started making a team here in the Czech Republic. The National Team debuted in France in 2013, I was part of Czech-1 team for “5 vs 5”.

… Concerning “Battle of the Nations”-2014

I decided to train harder :). I am quite satisfied, but we had an opportunity to be at least 3 positions better.

… Wishes to beginners

I would tell them to stay in fighting, train hard and don’t think about bruises, because body heals but experience stays.

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