Mary Heiny seminar in Kingston
by Michael Connor

Mary Heiny Sensei making a point with Oleg Gorfinkel

In July, about 20 of us attended a seminar taught by Mary Heiny Sensei in Kingston. It was a great seminar and a wonderful weekend in many different ways. That Shugyo Dojo was so strongly represented there should be "blamed" on Peter Chin.

On the mat, Heiny Sensei created a very low-key, co-operative atmosphere. Her focus was on drawing the attacker's energy into our own space and controlling it from there, rather than entering the attacker's space powerfully and conquering his or her centre. For those of us who attended both this seminar and our own seminar with Donovan Waite Sensei the contrast between the two approaches was remarkable.

In the first session, Heiny Sensei had us meeting uke with our own bodies out of balance so that the flow of the attack would allow us to come back into centeredness with the technique. As she demonstrated, Heiny Sensei stressed that aikido could be seen as the process of "self-correction" on many different levels.

Mary Heiny Sensei doing sankyo on Stefan Barton

Moving around the mat, Heiny Sensei stressed the importance of feeling the technique fully as uke. When groups fell into big-show, bang-the-mat, beat-your-chest breakfalling she tended to interrupt them and bring them back to the technique at hand. She encouraged us as ukes to experience the application of the techniques to the greatest possible extent, while still staying in the comfort zone. This meant feeling the flow of our attack being redirected by the technique in an active way, rather than anticipating the technique and getting ourselves set to jump away from it. Progress to higher levels of aikido, she explained, depends on our ability as uke to sense the connection with nage, feel the way in which this connection shifted as the two bodies interact and respond to these changes.

When Fran Sensei returned to teaching in August, her focus on rowing exercises made it possible for those of us who had been to the Kingston seminar to work once again with some of the things we had seen and felt in Kingston.

This seminar set out to bring together students from different dojos and styles of aikido. Practicing with each new person, you were aware that they might easily be an Aikikai 4th dan or a confused kyu rank from another style. There were lots of hakamas and neat-o coloured belts. This tended to keep people focused on the techniques. Unlike other seminars, where the instructor's own students put on a display of ukemi, Heiny Sensei made it a point to demonstrate with as many of the participants as possible. "O.K. who hasn't demonstrated yet? Put up your hands," she said at one point—and she meant it. Heiny Sensei's tutelage alone was well worth the sixty dollar registration fee. But the seminar also provided great breakfast buffets, lunches catered on site and crate after crate of ice-cold juice. It was hot, humid, and the air on the mat was very still. Beet-red and sweat-soaked, at every break, we emptied cooler after cooler of juice. Thankfully, the organizers just kept filling them up. There was also a great dinner arranged by the seminar Saturday night.

We would do well to think about incorporating into our own future seminars all those things that made the Kingston seminar such a great experience. Dennis Burr, Celia Ravenboer and the other organizers deserve our congratulations on the way they put this seminar together.

Now let's turn our attention to Peter Chin. In the spring Peter travelled to a seminar taught by our own Sensei in Montreal. When he returned his "seminar" enthusiasm was contagious. Quite a few of us would have gone to Kingston anyway. But having Pete encourage, inform, cajole and even nag everybody to go was really positive. Peter also developed a rapport with people in Kingston—by e-mail at first. (He and Celia Ravenboer amused themselves with cyber-bowing contests.) This led to him being the unofficial travel and accommodation coordinator for the seminar. Most of us were happy to let Pete and, in Kingston, Celia go to the trouble of making arrangements for us. It was very good of you Pete, thanks! When and where is our next road trip?


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