ABOUT BUDO DOJO
CLASSICAL BUDO DOJO
Offering:
1. Olympic-style competitive judo (everyone welcome, regardless of national affiliation)
2. Classical Judo (includes atemi waza and non-sport self-defense application)
3. Kata Instruction/clinics
4. Ju-Jitsu (Budoshin-ryu; affiliated with Professor George Kirby’s American Ju-Jitsu Association (AJA); all styles welcome)
PRACTICE
SUNDAYS
1:00 PM until 4:00 PM
South Central Tae Kwon Doe School
230 S. Potomac St.
Waynesboro, PA
POC: TODD PRYOR (SHODAN)
(717) 794-1313
Email
DOJO MAILING ADDRESS:
GORDON P. BURGETT, JR. (SANDAN)
1031 CENTERVILLE RD.,
NEWVILLE, PA 17241
Instructor: Reginald Lee Heefner
Weekdays by arrangement with POC
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
USJA COACH MAGAZINE SEPT 1999
PROFILE OF A JUDO LEADER
Reginald Heefner began training in Judo and Shotokan Karate at the Chambersburg, PA YMCA in 1962. When its sole karate instructor was drafted, Reggie continued with Judo studies under William S. Stadnicki, a Kododan Godan on a temporary civilian assignment with the government at Letterkenny Army Depot. At the time, Reggie was a member of the Armed Forces Judo Association branch of the Judo Blackbelt Federation. Later, Reggie began training at the Harrisburg Judokai, a 52 mile drive from home, first under Warren Stumpf, then later, Pete Kanoff and Charles Cavrich. In his first shiai ever, Reggie won first place in the AAU East Coast Judo Championships, a tournament described by his first Coach at the Harrisburg Judokai as a “beginner’s tournament”. He subsequently continued to place first in all major tournaments in not only Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia areas, but also as far as Reading, PA.
In 1968, Reggie and his father, Theodore C. Heefner, Jr., formed the Chambersburg YMCA Judo Club, where Reggie started teaching as well as competing. In fact, he ended up teaching his father Judo (who was promoted to Sankyu by Batsugun during a shiai at Ishikawa’s dojo in Philidelphia, PA). In 1970, Reggie and John C. Ford, taught self-defense classes at Wilson College for Women; Reggie also continued to teach at the Chambersburg YMCA while helping to form classes at Waynesboro, PA and Scotland School for Veterans Children in Scotland, PA, under the leadership of Roger Pryor.
After winning the Pennsylvania State Championship several years in a row, Reggie participated in the 1972 Olympic Trials in Philidelphia; he reached the height of his competitive career when he lost in the final match at the 1976 Olympic trials to Joe Bost, who made the Olympic Team with that win, which left Reggie to be the Alternate to the 1976 Olympic Judo Team. He also competed in Mexico City for the U.S. International Judo Team, with Charles Palmer as Coach. In 1984, ’85, ’86, ’87, and later in ’89, Reggie trained at the Kodokan in Japan, as well as at various police dojo throughout Japan. While in Japan, he was also promoted to Gokyu by the son of the founder of Aikido, and completed training in Aikido Shochu Geiko in July ’89 under the direction of the grandson of the founder of Aikido at the Tokyo Aikido Hombu.
Reggie was tested for Shodan and Nidan directly by Jim Bregman at Bregman’s Judo and Karate Center in Suitland, MD in ’73 and ’74 respectively. He was promoted to Sandan by Charles Cavrich and Phil Porter, then later, went to Camp Bushido, where he was honored at the Founders’ Day Banquet as being one of the first Life Members of the USJA. By this time, the Chambersburg, PA club had been developed to nearly 150 members.
Reggie has been characterized by leaders of all the major Judo Associations )and some of their offshoots) as one of the best Judo technicians in the United States, which Reggie attributes tot he strong influence of Jim Bregman, Donn Draeger, and Charles Cavrich, Takehiko Ishikawa, and Jimmy Takemori. He was promoted to Godan in 1994.
Reggie speaks Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, and Arabic, and taught translation/interpretation courses for the Military Intelligence School at Fort Huachuca, AZ. In 1998, Reggie served as a demonstration partner and interpreter for M. Masashi Matsumoto, a teacher sent by the Japanese Ministry of Education to Meade Middle School, Fort Meade, MD.
Reggie was promoted to Rokudan in Ju-Jitsu in October of 1999. He was promoted to Rokudan in Judo in October of 2000. Reggie is the instructor of the current club, Classical Budo Dojo, in Waynesboro, PA.
HOME
MEMBERS
