If you have had an experience with Mary that you found profound, funny, or illuminating, please share it with us by sending email to Garth Jones.
'Be a Beachball'
Garth Jones
I first met Mary in the spring of 1997. I had recently tested for shodan and my posture was very forward. It felt strong to me, powerful, but little did I know. Mary took one look at me and began, in her gentle but relentless way, to get me to stand up straight. At first I didn't have any idea what she was talking about, but as time went on and we met at various seminars the nature of the problem began to become apparent. I say slowly because I felt good on the mat. Most of the time my partners met the floor pretty easily. Of course I had no idea what was going on when the technique didn't work.
A few years later I was taking a private lesson with Mary during one of her visits to Pittsburgh and I finally felt ready to acknowledge that my aikido had to fundamentally change. We were working on some technique or another (probably iriminage) but really the topic was, as always, posture. Mary told me, as she had many times before, to open my chest, feel the power of the technique through my back and my partner's back, and to settle back and drop my weight. I couldn't put all that together and I was a bit frustrated. I remember asking, "How do I do all that? I understand it intellectually, but how do I make it all come together?"
Mary looked at me intently and said, without a pause, "Be a beachball."
Huh? I didn't say anything, but that's what I thought. Ever since then, whenever I felt myself leaning forward into a technique and falling back into bad posture habits I hear Mary's voice telling me to be a beachball. Over the last few years I have come to have some idea of what she was talking about. So if you have trouble settling your center and connecting with your partner just think of Mary and 'Be a Beachball!'