31.01.2021
SLOVARM was not SLOVARM from the beginning. In its initial years, the magazine was called Slovenský Armwrestling. After three years of publication, I came up with a proposal for renaming it. Slovenský Armwrestling seemed too complicated to me. It needed a punchier name, a single word that says it all. Therefore, I combined two words from the original name into one, and the name SLOVARM was born. From that moment (1998), the magazine was published under this name.
As I mentioned in previous articles, the decision to publish a magazine was made at the European Championships in Moscow in 1995. I confess, when I undertook it, I had no idea what I was getting into. I didn't see any pitfalls or problems. I only saw a challenge, an empty media space that our successful sport deserved. And most importantly, it was an era without the internet, without the possibility of sharing information almost instantly; everything was spread in paper form. Another reason, which was extremely important, was the archival reason. The ability to summarize information and results in one place had invaluable value for future generations of armwrestlers and perhaps other sports fans as well. Based on good relations, we agreed that all issues of the SLOVARM magazine would be stored in the archives of Matica Slovenská in Martin.
After returning from Moscow, I threw myself into preparing the first edition to turn the promise into reality. I confess, I had no experience with writing a newspaper, graphic design, layout, and other activities that were necessary to master so that SLOVARM would look decent. Likewise, the technical possibilities on which the preparation and the actual printing of the magazine depended were limited. However, that did not discourage me. Although the first pieces looked terrifying from today's perspective, I was happy that I could write and inform. We made the magazine on our knees, printed it on a tiny printer, and duplicated it on a copier at the secretariat. But what pride it was when I could send out the first issue.
Technical possibilities improved over the years. This was caused both by the development in the availability of higher-quality software and the print quality of financially accessible printers.
The graphics also changed significantly during those ten years. The first issues were in A5 format, black and white, and the photos in them looked more like inkblots. Before the European Championships in Poprad, we decided to improve the quality of the magazine. We bought a color printer and no longer duplicated the magazine on the copier at the secretariat. The quality of photographs also changed. After the arrival of digital cameras, scanning was no longer necessary, and furthermore, the number of shots was not limited by the number of frames on a film.
As the technical possibilities changed, so did the quality we offered. Gradually, we changed not only the format from an A5 booklet to standard A4, but we also added color pages. Due to financial constraints, we could only print the cover and the inside of the magazine in color, but even that completely changed the quality of SLOVARM. The quality of duplicating machines, in turn, meant that even black-and-white photos no longer looked like inkblots.
In terms of content, Slovarm focused on news from competitions, training camps of national representatives, results service, information from meetings of the executive committee and SAPR conferences. Additionally, I tried to diversify the content with various regular or irregular columns such as "Three Times with Germánus," in which I introduced our most successful representative, or "Cooking with...," in which our best athletes shared their diet during preparation for competitions.
A special part consisted of the information service, where we published the calendar of events, the composition of national teams, competition results, the current standings of the SNLP, and so on.
The magazine was an ideal space for introducing successful representatives, referees, and officials. I specifically focused on introducing referees and coaches to highlight that sport is not just about athletes, but also many people around them who contribute to the athlete's preparation, the organization of competitions, or the actual operation of the association.
For me, a special part of each issue was the editorial. It was a place where I could react to current events in our armwrestling family. To praise, but also to point out situations that I perceived as negative and felt the need to name. I remember how I always waited for the president's reaction to the editorial. And I also remember that those few words I wrote there often led to long and stimulating discussions.
The front page was very important, at least from my perspective. Especially with new technical possibilities, I wanted it to be not just an information source, but primarily a presentation tool. Gradually, photos of our most successful armwrestlers appeared on the cover. Of course, J. Germánus appeared on the cover most often. Despite the fact that he was our most successful armwrestler at that time, I tried to have our other successful representatives appear on the front page as well, to show that our successes are not just about one athlete.
I will say openly that when I started, I had naive ideas about one thing. I assumed that contributions from clubs would just pour into the secretariat. That everyone would use the opportunity to inform about events in the regions. That they would compete over whose contribution would be published. The opposite was true. Most of the work throughout the entire publication of the magazine was on my shoulders. I am very grateful for the support and contributions written by the president of SAPR, who was the only regular correspondent. And so it was natural that there were only two sets of initials under the articles -mič- and -mač-.
The year 2005. The year when the publication of SLOVARM magazine was terminated. As in many things, however, several circumstances played a role in this.
The first was a coincidence. In the summer of that year, I had already written the entire second issue of the 2005 volume, and it was ready for printing and duplication. Before I managed to print the issue, a storm broke out one summer evening and... with thunder and lightning, it fried the disk with everything on it. Besides the new issue of Slovarm, all the photos, all the work... just everything! A catastrophe. It didn't break me. I slowly started writing again. But I never finished it. To this day, I have 12 pages saved that were supposed to be part of Slovarm 2/34.
In addition to the bad luck with the fried disk, my workload during the implementation of new projects at my job also contributed to the constant delay in finishing the overall thirty-fourth issue. I haven't mentioned that my involvement in SAPR was voluntary from day one, and I dedicated myself to it in my free time and during vacations. There was less and less time for writing. And not just for writing. A large portion of time was taken up by the graphic design of individual pages. It was hours of work. In contrast, publishing an article on the website was simple and fast. And most importantly, it reached the readers immediately.
We (SAPR) had a website since 1996, but it was used minimally for current news. That changed in 2005. Articles on the web gradually increased; I added the results service and photo galleries to them. The last issue of SLOVARM thus remained unfinished. Although the move to the online environment would have happened sooner or later anyway, that June lightning accelerated the entire transition.
It has been sixteen years since the last, thirty-third issue of SLOVARM was published. Despite those sixteen years, SLOVARM remains in my heart to this day. I gave it a lot, just as "it" gave a lot to me. And I hope to many of you as well.