Remembering Bruce Tegner
If I asked you to name a man who was one of the first to teach Asian Martial arts to westerners, took the mysticism out of the martial arts and condescended several systems into his own practical self defense system, disposing of the “chaff” of traditional Asian martial arts, who would you name? You might say, that’s easy, Bruce Lee. Well, you would be wrong, at least in this case. While Lee is often credited with making martial arts effective again, years before Lee liberated the west from Classical Karate another man blazed that trail. Almost 20 years before anyone ever heard of Lee, Bruce Tegner took the mystery out of oriental martial arts and made them accessible to the average westerner. He was a prolific writer whose breadth of knowledge was staggering. He also was a pioneer in the field of practical self defence.
According to the Biographies written in his books, Bruce Tegner was “born in to the martial arts” in October 1929. He first studied Judo under his parents and later under legends like Kuwushima. By 1949 he was the California State Judo Champion. Along the way he also studied other martial arts such as Karate and Aikido as well as several weapon arts. He taught actors such as Rick Nelson and James Coburn, and choreographed movie fights scenes. He even taught various units in the armed forces.
Unfortunately Bruce Tegner has been all but forgotten. His numerous books can only be found in Second hand book shops and very few people can name the art he founded: Jukado. This is even more tragic because Bruce Tegner’s self Defence methods are some of the best ever; simple, efficient and effective.
One of Bruce’s main contributions to self defence was that he dispelled a lot of the myths about the martial arts and brought realism to the fore again. One of these myths was the myth of the “Black Belt as a superman”. In his book Bruce Tegner’s Complete Book of Self-Defence he wrote, “Contrary to popular belief, the first black belts were not deadly killers; they were skilled sportsman.” He was, of course, referring to Jigoro Kano implementing the use of colored belts for Judo, primarily a sport and means of physical education. He continues: “The myth of the black belt has spread widely and many people are convinced that the wearer of a black belt has super-human powers, that only a clack belt qualifies a teacher of self defence… and so on through a long list of erroneous information about belt ranking.”
He also dispelled the myth that only athletes should practice the martial arts. In fact, he challenged the widely held (at the time) fact that martial arts required athleticism. Who, he asked, is more vulnerable to assault – a little old lady or a strong young athlete? As a result, his self defence method relied very little on strength and athleticism.
Bruce also loved to keep it simple. Rather than have an answer for every attack he taught a few simple moves that the defender could adapt to many different situations. Bob Rosenbaum, one of Bruce Tegner’s Jukado Black belts explains, “[He told us] there are no pat answers… [and that] the most important weapon we have is the mind.”
He was also one of the first to teach principles that could be adapted rather than static rules. Bob Rosenbaum gives an example one of Tegner’s theories, “go to the immediate danger”: “[When attacked with a] standing rear naked choke, don’t first try to strike the attacker but first try to control and negate the choke by grabbing the arm and pulling it in and down, giving yourself time to counter the choke, only then do you counter strike your attacker.”
As is common for ground breakers, Tegner was badmouthed by his more traditional counter parts. They complained he was too commercial yet Bob maintains the atmosphere was that of a family or home. Bob even describes Bruce as a “father figure”. I don’t think you can ask for much more than that. Tegner was also blasted for teaching celebrities such as James Coburn or Rick Nelson. When Tegner presented Nelson with a black belt the fallout was staggering. Bob thinks Nelson (and Bruce) was unfairly criticized. “Bruce had all his test requirements down in writing,” Bob remembers, “Ricky Nelson was given no special treatment on his testing, [and he] took 2 private lessons per week after the school closed for the night… Rick would not make the world forget Mike Stone or Chuck Norris, but was a good black belt for that era.”
All and all Bruce Tegner was a driving force for the Martial Arts in the 50’s and 60’s and unfortunately if rarely remembered. When he is remembered, he is often derided for being to simplistic, or “good for beginners but very basic”. Yet, those were his greatest strengths; he knew that the people that needed his help were beginners. He knew that simple effective techniques that could be easily adapted for a multitude of scenarios were what worked. He also knew that self defence and the martial arts should be available to everyone. The result was dozens of books which gave many people their first look at the martial arts.
Bruce Tegner was a pioneer, he was a trailblazer and a person who really deserves a hell of a lot more respect than he gets. He led the way for innovators like Bruce Lee and Ed Parker. He introduced many people to various systems of martial arts and his self defence system is just as relevant today as it was back then. Mainly though Bruce Tegner deserved to be remembered.