Self-Defense Nerve Centers and Pressure Points for Karate, Jujitsu and Atemi-Waza

by Bruce Tegner

Stories about mysterious techniques involving nerve centers and pressure have been around for centuries. Here, Bruce Tegner evaluates the myth and legend behind the so-called "deadly" blows and the "secrets" of the fighting arts in terms of acceptable scientific evidence and the reality of human anatomy.
This practical guide is addressed to the student or teacher of self-defense or any style of martial arts.

Genres: Martial Arts

124 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1978

About the author

Bruce Tegner is a specialist in self-defense and sport forms of weaponless fighting. He is regarded to had been one of America's outstanding authority, teacher and innovator in this field.

He was, literally, born to the teaching of unarmed fighting skills; both his parents were professional teachers of judo and jiu-jitsu and they began to train him when he was two years old. Until he was eight years old, his mother and father taught him fundamentals; after that, he was instructed by Oriental and European experts.

In a field where most individuals study only one phase of work, Mr. Tegner's background is unusual. His education covered many aspects of the various kinds of weaponless fighting and included instruction in sword and stick fighting, as well. Before he gave up competitive judo, he became the California state judo champion. He holds black belts in judo and karate.

Altough Bruce Tegner was trained in the traditional style of karate, he introduced innovations and modernizations as soon as he began to teach. He separated and distinguished between sport and self-defense aspects of karate; he changed the method of teaching and he made both self-defense and sport karate more appropriate for present day use.

Reviews

[Steve Scott]

Tegner was roundly criticized in his day for his books on martial arts. This one wasn't so bad, however. While it had a number of things I disagree with, it was an ambitious attempt to show what he thought would and wouldn't be effective as a self defense technique.

I give it a low rating because I thought some of his observations were off base (suggesting, for instance, that karate didn't throw low line kicks), but at times he was spot on (busting the myths of the "death touch" and the like--he was a skeptic before it was popular). I think it's worth reading, however. I wouldn't spend a whole lot of money on it, though…get it used or at a library or book sale. Or borrow it.

[Caleb Malcom]

If you know nothing about martial arts read this book. Otherwise move onto something else.

[Стивиян Стоянов]

Very well written. Information can be understood at first hand. Very useful at any stage of your life.

[Hermann Bayer]

With the perspective of what we know about karate in 2025, this book is not a good read in my opinion. It, however, needs to be understood in the historic context it was written. At that time, in the mid-1960s, karate was known in the West almost exclusively in its Japanized karate-do form, as a version that the mainland pilfered from its province Okinawa, changing its purpose from self-defense into character-building and sports. Such a conception of karate explains how the author places it into the range of other martial arts (p. 15), carrying the common misconceptions at that time that karate does not include low kicks, holds, locks, grappling, or throws. Instead, sports-karate was born, and a self-defense art became a fine art. Only later American servicemen learned about classic Okinawan karate, where training must prepare you to spontaneously accept an unpredictable task as it is thrown at you, including all those forgotten/neglected techniques. Now the karate world split into the three variations of classic Okinawan karate-jutsu, Japanized karate-do, and sports-karate. This book refers basically to the latter two conceptions and not to the genuine self-protection version. That, in combination with the fact that the title is misleading (the author does not present pressure points and nerve-centers but the commonly known target areas for karate punches and kicks), explains my rating.

[M]

.... hahaha mrnihil, remember this? :)