Attila Horváth (4. Dan)

      In 1992, as a 13-years old teenager, I enrolled in the former Šamorín karate club Relax. Róbert Sebestyén was my first karate Instructor and after leaving the country, Zoltán Móricz took over the leadership of our group of trainees. Until nowadays, I am keeping positive memories of both of them. When training in this club, it was the first time I met Sensei Milan Karafa who treated the classes with big details, as was his custom. Later, his classes passed onto Sensei Ján Longa who led us to the competitive form of karate. Herein, I would like to mention the founder of the karate club- Rezső Krajcsovics- whom I had not met personally, since I joined the club only after his decease. Later on, the first karate club in Šamorín terminated its activities.

      After a one-year break, Milan Karafa returned to Šamorín and opened an affiliated club to his Karafa Dojo club seated in Orechová Potôň, so I was able to get back to my karate practising. The Sensei´s classes suited me the best, because he strove to achieve the most perfect performance of the techniques and their combinations without any compromises and to the utmost details. Such a method of karate practising revealed some disadvantages even in those times stemming from the fact that a lot of people did not manage to work hard and subsequently left the club. Due to his other activities, Sensei entrusted me with the leadership of the Šamorín club branch after a couple of years. In the last period of his life, he came back to Šamorín, and as his assistant, I instructed the group of beginners. Our cooperation was terminated by his tragic decease.
      After the Sensei´s passing away I realized I did not want to lose all the knowledge I gained from him, therefore, I established the Horváth Attila Karate /School of Martial Arts in Šamorín/ in the cooperation with other two club members and with the support of Sensei Ján Longa. However, the cooperation finished in an early stage, because our ideas about club activities did not match together in very basic principles. In the first year of the club functioning, I had a feeling that the competitive form of karate is not the kind I want to focus on, since it is too far away from Sensei Karafa´s teaching and it would mean a step back for me, as for the technical side of the matter. At that time, I met Sensei Michal Šlachtovský for the first time. He attracted my attention with his relaxed and soft techniques through which he was able to produce an enormous strength without any extra waste energy, and to defeat much bigger rivals, in terms of physical preconditions. Following a couple of demonstration classes, and a small talk, we agreed on our mutual cooperation, because I found out this form of karate to be the one I have always been searching for, and in a certain manner, Sensei Karafa had striven for it (as I discovered only after a few months), but, on the contrary, he had no opportunities to receive the original information on the traditional Okinawa karate. The first classes with Sensei Šlachtovský were embarrassing for me, because I found the most basic techniques to be challenging in their traditional form. I have perceived the importance of correct breathing and relaxing techniques, learned to follow each and every basic movement, and come to the conclusion that there are many years ahead from me to grasp it. I have discovered very quickly this training method never to become a mass issue, since our Western culture is based on fast and superficial achievement of results, and a majority of people is not interested in hard work on themselves, because it is easier to live in illusions and superficiality. Despite all of this, I am convinced the way I have chosen is the right one, and it represents the right and original martial art titled KARATE.