Im Jahre 1981 rief Peter Subic gemeinsam mit Toni Strumbel die Sommerschule in Portoroz/Slowenien ins Leben, an der viele erfolgreiche Judoka aus Deutschland teilnahmen und dort mit den starken Slowenen und auch anderen Nationen begeistert trainierten - für einige eine unvergessliche und tolle Zeit!
In memoriam Peter Šubic (1938 - 2017), an excellent judoist, sport worker, pedagogue and great friend has left us in December. I will not start by pathetically ascertaining that nobody in the Slovenian Judo Association even considered that Peter’s time will run out so fast, as he was always the synonym for optimism, always in a good mood and always carrying a smile on his face. We were aware of his health issues, and yet, the news that he is no longer amongst us, hit us like lighting from a clear sky and threw a veil of deep sorrow across all of us who knew him. Next year he would have celebrated a big anniversary, for he would have reached the big 80. However, let’s keep in mind that he left as a winner: he dared to express his beliefs as long as he was alive! His personal appearance contradicted the stereotype amongst the young. As he responded in one of his interviews (one he gave in 1972) he was drawn to judo by its effectiveness and dynamics and the fact that it is found appealing by so many youth who would otherwise waste their lives.
Words found in various media articles reveal that he begun training judo in 1952. In 1964 he passed his master's exam, and he spent years teaching martial arts at the Faculty of Sport. He also held a number of mandates as the president of the coaching committee at the Slovenian Judo Association, where he educated amateurs as well as professionals. During the first decades of Slovenian judo he was the only one in Slovenia to obtain the title high judo coach. In 1981 he, together with his friend Tone Štrumbelj, a Slovene living in Germany, an international judo judge and a great coaching enthusiast, revived the Slovene summer judo school in Portorož, which soon grew into an international sporting success. Later on the school moved to Isola, where it still operates successfully under the guidance of Franc Očko.
Peter and I knew each other for forty years. It was under his mentorship that I passed my first coaching exam, and in the years that followed we often cooperated, most commonly educating experts and professionals. It would be wrong if I failed to take this opportunity to mention that Peter was amongst the first supporters of the idea of modernising the Slovenian Judo Association in 1993, when we were laying the foundations that led to today’s success of Slovenian judo. At the time I mentioned the idea for the need of greater ambition and a cadre restructuration of the Slovenian Judo Association to him. His response was: »I tackle everything with greatest seriousness. I am all in.« And with the cooperation of numerous clubs and individuals we managed to create the success story we know today. That was what Peter Šubic was like. Open, concrete, diligent, enthusiastic, honourable and with an enormous heart. As such he singlehandedly prepared and ran numerous actions and events which contributed to the popularisation of judo in Slovenia.
However, Peter did not leave empty handed. He has left behind an exceptional heritage in the field of expert literature and numerous unforgettable memories linked to our extremely successful work oriented to benefit Slovenian judo. If some coaches, his generational fellow travellers, are considered to be the doyens of the beginnings of Slovenian judo sport in the international space, than Peter is undoubtedly the doyen in the field of expert literature, which numerous aficionados of this Olympic sport discipline used to improve ourselves as athletes, students or coaches. He is the author of important books and expert manuals: Judo: trening moči (Judo: strength training, 1994), Judo: metodika (Judo: methodology, 1969), Judo: tehnika, Judo: Taktika (Judo: technique, Judo: tactics, 1978), as well as numerous expert manuals and teaching plans for educating professionals in the field of judo and martial arts.
Peter lived the theory that he had been spreading since the very beginnings of his coaching. He believed that regular exercise of the body and mind not only makes you live longer, but it also enables you to live a life full of ideas until the very last day of your life. Thus I would not say he died, I would prefer to say he performed his final exercise in life.
Life is a game. Peter, we had the opportunity to play a part of this game together, and we have made it. Thank you.
Vlado Čuš, VI. dan