“We saw it! The hussars let loose their horses: God, what power! They ran through the smoke and the sound was like that of a thousand blacksmiths beating with a thousand hammers. Jezus Maria! The lances bent forward like stalks of rye driven by a great storm, bent on glory! They crash into the Swedish reiters…Overwhelming them! They sliced without effort through the whole army…”
— Henry Sienkievich ‘Potop’
This is the first post on my new blog….Hi…..I dont even know why im doing a blog really, im nothing special, im certainly nothing out of the ordinary. I am not a tournament winner, I am not a font of knowledge in the Hema World, in truth I am for want of a better term, a nobody, and I guess that is why I’m doing this,
So who Am I?
Well to Put it simply Im the Fat Hussar.
Why the Fat Hussar?
This is a slightly more complicated question I guess. We all have to be called something after all. the main reason for it is three fold.
- I am primarily a sabre fencer I prefer curved sabres at that so similar to hussar weaponry (I do also fence longsword and hoping to start Sidesword, I have more of a background in sabre from having done some sport fencing in my youth but more of this at a later date)
- When I left university I wanted to join the army, Specifically the Kings Royal Hussars (though I didn’t join in the end)
- Im fat. No point lying about it I am probably 6st overweight (84lbs for american readers 38kg for Metric users). this is thanks to a more recent life without sport or sufficient exercise and a love of food.
All in all these three reasons got me to come up with the fat hussar.
That still doesnt tell us much about you….
okay fine. My name is Mat, I am 33 years old married with one child. I was born in the north west of England and am an archaeologist by training, graduating with an undergraduate degree in 2007 though this is no longer what I do as a profession.
I have always loved weaponry, not really surprising as the sun of a military aviation enthusiast I grew up around airshows and the suchlike which always had reenactors or demonstrators with their period or replica weapons, between that and family trips to museums to look at the relics of the past, which was fuelled even more by my love of these trips as I grew, I was never going to escape a love of historical arms and armour.
Coupled with this was a love of sport, even as a youngster, I started playing cricket aged 5 and was pretty good until i let my teenage years get in the way of keeping it going futher, I also enjoyed rugby in the winter and it was this that led to my university days of playing American football while I was there to get that love of contact and physicality. But my real stroke of luck was my friend Sue getting me into fencing, She fenced foil at a different university and got me to go along to my universities club and try it out, this eventually led our coach to putting a sabre in my hand and so began this winding journey that ends up here.
The real surprise from all this I guess is that it took me so long to actually turn these different but overlapping loves into a combined interest in the practice of Hema I guess but why it took so long is a story for another time.
as of writing this blog post I am about 6 weeks into actively persuing hema seriously and that time has been split pretty evenly between Longsword, which i suck at. And Sabre. Which i suck slightly less at as I can apply some of the things I learnd as a sabre sport fencer. and I will say one thing about it. I love it. everything about it, the people, the intellectual side of studying source material and of course the physical side of sparring and training. This is what has spurred me to writing this nonsense you are reading, I want to share this joyful new thing I have found.
why should we care?
Short answer is you probably shouldn’t. There are better blogs by better people out there to read, as I said im nothing special I am a beginner fencer who knows how to read historical texts thanks to a degree I no longer use. That isn’t the basis for any level of authority. But my aim with this blog is not to be an authority, but rather to give an insight as a beginning Hemaist (or Hema enthusiast, or whatever we call ourselves, see I dont even know that, I told you not to listen to me…) and the trials and tribulations that will arise as such. Hopefully if you are just starting out this will help you with some of the things you are feeling or experiencing, or if you are thinking of starting it will encourage you to try. Or even if you are an experienced Hema fencer, or a coach, maybe I can give you an insight into the thought processes of those nervous beginners at your club or competition.
What I will say is that If you do stick with me I will be honest in everything I write, I will never lie on this blog, as what would that accomplish, what you will read will be my genuine and honest opinions on whatever topic I am talking about.
I will also try to keep it light hearted and easy to understand. I am not a professional writer nor am I a professional swordsman or athlete, so this will always be through the lens of an overweight amateur just doing his best.
okay maybe we care but what should we expect.
Stuff. basically.
I intend this blog to show every aspect of my experiences.
So I will write about training, sparring and my sessions with my club (who will remain nameless as I attend a couple of different ones and I dont want to generalise or pick on people who are doing a really good job)
my equipment and do reviews as and when I have something interesting to write about it (good and bad I told you honesty matters),
I intend to do tournaments so I will write reviews of these as and when.
Fitness and how the fat hussar is trying to become the slightly thinner hussar and what I find beneficial in relation to specific sword fitness.
book reviews and my opinions on treatises and hema books from the perspective of a beginner and how they impact me or how I find them informative (or not)
In conclusion
so…..thats my plan, hopefully I have piqued your interest enough to hang around for my next post at least where I may actually talk about Hema a bit.
Bye for now.
The Fat Hussar.
The Fat Hussar 
Hello! I saw your post on the WMA reddit and figured I’d come take a look. Reading through it struck me that you’re after a couple of things here: having fun, and getting fit in the process. I think HEMA and WMA are definitely a great way to have fun (and go broke buying equipment 😀 ). I mostly came here to recommend something else as well. My wife and I have been eating a ketogenic diet the last few months and I am back at the waist size I had when I got married. Though I love HEMA, smacking people with swords never quite had the impact (oh ouch, bad pun) on me that changing my diet did. Anyway, just throwing my 2 cents in here. I really hope this journey goes well for you. I’m across the pond over in California, but who knows, perhaps someday we’ll get to cross swords across a fight ring.
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