Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #188405 in Books
• Published on: 1992-07-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 223 pages

Review
Listed as "recommended for young adults" in the American Library Association Booklist. -- American Library Association Booklist

About the Author
BRUCE TEGNER is a world-renowned authority, teacher and writer in the field of the martial arts. His many books on specialties of weaponless fighting skills for sport, fitness, and self-defense constitute a virtual library. They have been used by schools, clubs, individuals, recreation centers, and law enforcement training academies throughout the world

Customer Reviews

Purists hate this author, but he writes for a non-expert population
This guy is a seminal martial arts teacher.

I have purist martial arts expert buddies who sneer at him because his technique isn't the same as the technique taught in their styles. Or because he doesn't teach obviously vicious and death-dealing techniques.

Well, too bad!

What they don't understand is that Tegner was writing to a civilian population in a relatively safe, law abiding world, where most guys were going to deal, at worst, with some bullying and a challenge to "take it outside". He was not, in this book, preparing guys to be commandos or inner-city cops.

Tegner knew that most of the people who read his books were not going to spend ten or twenty years in a dojo learning techniques that had only some application to the real world.

Tegner was a serious judo guy. He'd studied all his life. And judo guys aren't sissies; they call it the gentle way, but when a judo guy hits you with the biggest weapon around (the planet Earth) it doesn't feel very gentle. And you can get seriously hurt in judo if you aren't lucky.

He'd also studied broadly, and had a good knowledge of what techniques were available for hand to hand combat of all sorts.

He made intelligent choices in techniques that laymen without a lot of time or energy to spend on training could practice some and improve their chances of surviving a fight.

If you are a beginner to martial arts and want to read an author who has balanced ease of study, length of practice, and likelihood that the techniques will send you to Sing Sing after the fistfight, this is a perfectly good place to start.

Bear in mind that no book can teach you to fight, and that you'll need to practice with a partner and on a bag. Also bear in mind that the laws of self defense differ from one to another jurisdiction.

In any case, buying all the Tegner books there are and reviewing the sorts of tricks he teaches is a perfectly good way to begin a study of self defense.

And I give this guy five stars partly because of the cost to technique ratio!

Great Self-Defense Manual
This was one of the first books on self-defense and the martial arts I owned as a child, and being able to find this in print again was exciting. Bruce Tegner remains one of the best authors in the area of self-defense, and this book offers a wealth of information to the reader. Filled with pictures and practical tips, this is an excellent self-study course, or can be used in conjunction with an existing martial arts program.

Great Companion to Combat Hapkido class
Learning Martial Arts requires a good teacher and fellow students to practice with. Especially so, in martial arts like Aikido, Jujitsu, Hapkido etc. where trapping, grappling and throws are involved.
While no book can replace a teacher and participation in a class, this book is an excellent companion if you are taking any of the afore-mentioned martial arts classes.
This book does not provide you with lessons in history and philosophy of jujitsu. If that's what you are looking for try other books.
This one gives you the stuff you need to know and use - plain and simple.