Inclusivity – The Climb #896

Friday 6th August 2021

Today has been a good, if not an entirely productive day. Unlike earlier in the week when I wasn’t sure what had caused my drop in productivity, I can today attribute it to sword-fighting, AKA HEMA.

I’ve missed HEMA during the pandemic… and I haven’t. The fact I couldn’t train or spar didn’t so much put me off, but put me off for the time being. At the start of the pandemic I had all these big plans of how I’d keep HEMA going, but I had to prioritize my health, and as such my HEMA took a bit of a slide.

And now, I’m overweight (partly from illness, partly from lack of exercise), and the magnitude of work I need to do to get myself back into fighting shape is… a bit daunting. I can do it, but unfortunately those around me have no impulse control and I have very little.

Fightcamp is my big return and whilst I’m looking forward to it, I have anxieties. A friend of mine just went away to a Geocaching event and both her and her husband caught covid. OK, so having been double jabbed I’m unlikely to die but I do worry about long covid, especially on someone whose health has been really bad over the last year.

But… I miss the people. I went through a strange phase in HEMA, and I’m sure it was caused by a micro concussion, where I didn’t want to be very long at HEMA events. I would go, do my tournament and then leave. It was like this bizarre mini-depression.

Having that gap away from it, has done me some good as whilst there’s still part of me that thinks just to turn up for my workshop and then leave… there’s a bigger part of me that wants to see everyone and spend time with them.

So Fightcamp for me is a bit of a soft launch. I’m in no condition to spar just yet (and wouldn’t fit into my kit even if I wanted to) but it marks the start of the move to normalcy.

I’d like to be back sparring by the new year. That gives me a bit of time, although I fear I need to make some drastic changes to my current eating arrangements. But it hasn’t stopped me picking back up with the community again. There’s been HEMA drama this week, and getting involved has, aside from the ‘gossip breaking up the week’, led to me being asked to help start a working group on diversity and inclusion.

It’ll sound stupid, but after a year of not seeing anyone, just to be involved again feels so welcoming. The people on the committee are super nice people as well and I know most of them. Not only do I try and do something that might aid UK HEMA, but I get to interact with fencers again.

There’s a lot the team would like to do, and I think some of it is impossible, but I reckon even if we create a code of conduct template, that could be massively beneficial for clubs.

Best of all, I’m involved in HEMA again. After my tournament depression and subsequent pandemic, to be in the thick of something feels so good.

So yeah. I got words done but not anything above average. I got tasks done but not the big ones. But I did get to feel included… and weirdly in a diversity and inclusion team.