Aikido: Principles and Techniques
Mary Heiny Sensei's first video!
review by John McNabb

To my knowledge, this is the first professional video of Mary Heiny Sensei, 6^th dan. This video demonstrates quite clearly the style of teaching for which she is so well known and loved. She covers many of the major groups of techniques, while emphasizing important principles such as:

• as nage, you move first, drawing uke into your space;
• focus on the connection between your centre and your partner's centre; project a tight beam of energy;
• aggression is self-destructive; it opens you up to your own destruction;
• be balanced, grounded, open, accepting;
• sense your partner's movement; don't be too formulaic.

Heiny Sensei describes her own experiences in aikido. She tells how a friend "dragged" her to an aikido demonstration, and the strong effect it had on her:

"It just literally blew my mind. I had the sensation that my mind blew out the top of my head, hung over me like the particles of a sandstorm... I could tell that he [O-Sensei] had some understanding of the nature of reality that was completely beyond anything I had ever even had a hint existed."

And so Heiny Sensei prepared to study aikido. In 1968, she was in Tokyo, studying with a great many of O-Sensei's senior students. After practicing five hours a day for one and a half years, she visited Hikitsuchi Sensei's dojo in Shingu, where she was "wiped out" in the first 10-15 minutes of class. They practiced vigorously, without rest breaks. They punched her when she was "open", and they showed her that she was open a lot.

Heiny Sensei puts it in perspective by describing to us her own learning experiences.

Heiny Sensei gives us a special opportunity to connect with her experiences by telling us what it was like for her when she was a student. Many teachers focus only on teaching what they know now, but Heiny Sensei puts it in perspective by describing to us her own learning experiences. She learned ukemi the hard way, by being thrown and getting "trashed". She learned about her openings When she was repeatedly punched. She also learned the necessity of having a strong connection with her practice partners; they didn't allow her the chance to be nage until she developed that strong connection.

The focal point in this video for me was undoubtedly the segment on kaeshiwaza (reversals). Heiny Sensei describes it this way:

"It's not just a matter of agreeing beforehand that the person who attacks will ultimately end up doing the technique, but it is the ultimate expression of your training to observe the tsuki, or the openings of your partner, and your ability to read through your own body what is happening to your partner's body."

This is where all Mary Heiny's teachings come together, where all the practice will lead us, to the spontaneous movements we see from masters in aikido. When Heiny Sensei attacks and is led into a technique, she finds an opening, and reverses the technique, bringing her partner down in some unrehearsed way. She explains that kaeshiwaza is not about resisting your partner's technique, but taking an opportunity when it is there.

Though this video is not meant to be an encyclopedia of techniques, it clearly shows techniques that beginners and advanced aikidoists alike can benefit from. Heiny Sensei explains the meaning behind the movement as she demonstrates and really integrates the two throughout.


Back to Articles   Newsletter Archives

Main Page

Copyright © 1997-1998 Aikido Shugyo Dojo