Fightcamp 2021 – The Climb #910

Friday 20th August 2021

Today has been weird. Today there has been people in my general vicinity and it’s been emotionally draining.

I’m glad that the first people I ran into were the two other instructors from School of the Sword.

“Hugging?” asked my friend Fran.

“What’s hugging?” I asked, thinking she was talking something HEMA related and forgetting that there was this thing we used to do.

My other friend, Emilia, is an expert on Covid… like, such an expert that she’s on the nightly news. And to think we all asked her what use it was studying viruses in bats. Showed us!

BUT she knows the science and has been my go to source during the pandemic for Covid advice. SO having her there and not having her panic was greatly reassuring in getting over those initial nerves. Yeah, I’ve been double-jabbed and so am unlikely now to die, but I still do not want covid. Plus my support bubble doesn’t get their second jab until next week, so I need to be careful for them.

But having Emilia calm, made me calm, and as a result things felt like normal… WHICH WAS WEIRD!

Anything before the pandemic feels like a half forgotten movie. The last 18 months have been this strange period where life was put on pause but the clock kept ticking… so things that were 3 years ago, feel like last year.. Except they also don’t feel real because they were from a time when we could mingle.

Fightcamp is held on an airsoft range and so is pretty self-contained. It felt like a social bubble for 200. Of course, I panic that out of 200 people someone might bring Covid in and give to us all. I’ll test myself again on Sunday night before going to my support bubble but if I do test positive, I still have to find a way to return the car and cancel our day out on Monday.

The best thing was that everyone is in the same boat… wanting to be back to normal but worrying whether we should or not. Seeing Emilia there and calm, relaxed my nerves considerably… although I got these weird flashes from time to time where I felt I should distance myself as too many people were around.

My big thing today was my workshop. I had Fran go over it, and she said it was good. It seemed to go well as well. It can be so difficult to find something that will suit a range of abilities so I went super simple and very niche. Everyone said at the end they found it really useful, so hopefully I’ll be asked to teach again. One of the best things about HEMA is the teaching. I did Romania a few years ago as an assistant, but I’d like to travel again.

Of course, the first thing to do is get myself back in shape. As I said there seem to be two sorts of HEMA people: those that lost a load of weight during the pandemic, and those that gained. I hate the former.

I doubt I’ll spar this weekend, even without a jacket (I can’t fit in it). I’d rather focus on the social aspect and reconnecting with people I’ve not seen in ages. It certainly motivates me not only to get back to competition fitness but also get the local Swindon school progressing. That won’t be until 2022, but hopefully by then, days of normality like today will be more commonplace.