Re-examining Jukado, the art of Bruce Tegner

[isshinryuronin]

Are you kidding, Judo is in the Olympics! As far as I know it is still second in participation only to TKD in the Americas, particularly in the USA. They are both getting still competition from Jits and BJJ though.

First of all, MMA, and BJJ was practically unknown in Tegner's time. Secondly, the number of karate schools compared to judo (not counting MMA in which judo is just a part) is at least 10:1. Thirdly, just because an event is in the Olympics doesn't mean it's common amongst the general population

 

[Tony Dismukes]

I had most if not all of Tegner's books when I was young. Looking back, I have two main critiques.

1) He shows techniques in isolation, with no explanation of the concepts, principles, or fundamental skills necessary to make those techniques work.

2) I have serious doubts about whether he was qualified in some of the topics he covered. I know he was a legitimate judoka. but his presentation of Tai Chi, Kung Fu, and Savate do not convince me that he knew what he was talking about regarding those arts. I don't know what level of training he had in Karate, but the available video of him doing Karate doesn't look particularly great. I can't remember what his Aikido book looked like, so I'll refrain from commenting on that.

 

[Same Trick]

Agree, at least to get effective basics.

Probably true. He did not enjoy the reputation many others had in the 1960's and 70's. He had little in the way of a pedigreed lineage, was not on the tournament circuit, and was seen to be a mid-level karate guy who wrote some books. That's how we (the general karate community) saw him. There were many other guys out there at the time such as Norris, Lewis, Wallace, Demura, Yamashita, Urquidez, Parker and so on that easily overshadowed him.

The other martial art pioneering giant named Bruce also did not do the tournament circuit

 

[Same Trick]

This Jukado, as well as other such as Defendo, Combato all probably in one way or another came out of the British Bartisu tradition

 

[E0richt]

I belong to a Facebook group called "Bruce Tegner's Jukado:Modernized Jujitsu System." Mainly because I remember seeing his little booklets on various martial arts at the checkout stands of every grocery store when I was a child (I'm 63 now). The group seemed to have gone missing, and Facebook sent me an automated message and asked me if I wanted to be the admin. Failing that, the group would be archived. So I said yes. I don't know why.

However, I recently came across a copy of Tegner's booklet on Jukado, and purchased it on impulse. It hasn't arrived yet, but in the meantime, I found a copy online at Archive.org as well:

Jukado Self Defense Bruce Tegner : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Self-Defense

archive.org

I started reading his introduction, and I realized that I never really understood what he was trying to do with Jukado. Tegner was a judo player, and I guess a pretty good one from back in the day, or at least that's what I hear. He also trained in various other martial arts, to what extent I do not know. There's really not a lot of information out there about him, although he was a contemporary of early famous martial artists like Gene LeBell, whom he apparently knew.

So from what I am gathering, Tegner was interested in teaching self-defense to average everyday people, only not in a dojo and not in a traditional way. His belief appears to have been that traditional teaching was as unimportant for self-defense purposes as the tea ceremony is for making tea. Certainly, a tea ceremony produces tea, but the tea is no longer the point of the exercise; it's the ceremony that matters. While I do understand that, I'm not sure I agree with it.

I do agree that for pure self-defense (and not sport, not tradition, not esoteric technique), it is possible to teach a person to defend themselves reasonably well in a fairly short period of time, and that doesn't require belts or bowing or even a dojo for that matter. One might say Tegner's beliefs predated MMA and training such as Krav Maga, etc.

I am not sure what I am going to do yet, but I am thinking of examining his book through the eyes of a semi-experienced karate student and part-time instructor. I am far from an expert, but over time I believe I've developed a reasonable eye for effective technique and I've been exposed to many types of martial arts besides my own (isshinryu, 3rd dan).

So we'll see where this goes. But I thought I'd introduce the topic here. I know Tegner has been discussed before, but I wanted to start from scratch with a new thread. Feel free to join in.

This begs a question. Assuming one would like to bring jukado back as a style. What would one need to do? Look at kajukenbo as an example that seems similar as a hybrid martial art. They had to start somewhere as a style before they were recognized?

 

[frank raud]

This Jukado, as well as other such as Defendo, Combato all probably in one way or another came out of the British Bartisu tradition

No,no and also no. The only connection is the combining of various arts, in the case of Jukado. Would you say Kajukenbo is a descendent of Bartitsu? Defendo and Combato are putatively developed by Bill Underwood, with limited source material from Yukio Tani and Taro Miyake.

 

[HighKick]

First of all, MMA, and BJJ was practically unknown in Tegner's time. Secondly, the number of karate schools compared to judo (not counting MMA in which judo is just a part) is at least 10:1. Thirdly, just because an event is in the Olympics doesn't mean it's common amongst the general population

Keep trying Boo.

 

[Same Trick]

No,no and also no. The only connection is the combining of various arts, in the case of Jukado. Would you say Kajukenbo is a descendent of Bartitsu? Defendo and Combato are putatively developed by Bill Underwood, with limited source material from Yukio Tani and Taro Miyake.

I was guessing somethings as - Underwood was British? And there learned from those said Japanese teachers, Barton-Wright invited (his)Japanese teachers to his London school were he taught his Bartitsu.
Underwood settled in Canada and Tegner from Chicago somehow learned about these early MMA .

Anyhow, Mr.Tegner kicking doesn’t look too shabby at all, could very well be on a black belt mag cover -

bruce tegner books - Bing

Intelligent search from Bing makes it easier to quickly find what you’re looking for and rewards you.

cn.bing.com

 

[Tony Dismukes]

Interesting enough, the Jukado name is still being used, although probably not directly connected to Bruce Tegner. Some years back I took classes at Sinclair Community College, in Dayton and they had a Jukado club. I worked out with them a couple of times but never asked if they had a lineage going back to Tegner. I just looked it up online and it seems like they might have come up with the name independently.
Sinclair Jukado alive and kicking at 40

 

[E0richt]

I was guessing somethings as - Underwood was British? And there learned from those said Japanese teachers, Barton-Wright invited (his)Japanese teachers to his London school were he taught his Bartitsu.
Underwood settled in Canada and Tegner from Chicago somehow learned about these early MMA .

Anyhow, Mr.Tegner kicking doesn’t look too shabby at all, could very well be on a black belt mag cover -

bruce tegner books - Bing

Intelligent search from Bing makes it easier to quickly find what you’re looking for and rewards you.

cn.bing.com

I was guessing somethings as - Underwood was British? And there learned from those said Japanese teachers, Barton-Wright invited (his)Japanese teachers to his London school were he taught his Bartitsu.
Underwood settled in Canada and Tegner from Chicago somehow learned about these early MMA .

Anyhow, Mr.Tegner kicking doesn’t look too shabby at all, could very well be on a black belt mag cover -

bruce tegner books - Bing

Intelligent search from Bing makes it easier to quickly find what you’re looking for and rewards you.

cn.bing.com

I have a few old texts on Korean karate and Japanese karate... Pics from tener are very similar in terms of stance and display when comparing similar techniques... I would post but I don't wnt to run afoul of copyright

 

[Buka]

I had most if not all of Tegner's books when I was young. Looking back, I have two main critiques.

1) He shows techniques in isolation, with no explanation of the concepts, principles, or fundamental skills necessary to make those techniques work.

2) I have serious doubts about whether he was qualified in some of the topics he covered. I know he was a legitimate judoka. but his presentation of Tai Chi, Kung Fu, and Savate do not convince me that he knew what he was talking about regarding those arts. I don't know what level of training he had in Karate, but the available video of him doing Karate doesn't look particularly great. I can't remember what his Aikido book looked like, so I'll refrain from commenting on that.

I had a couple of his books as well. I don’t remember them much, I gave them away and didn’t read any of his others.

 

[E0richt]

I had most if not all of Tegner's books when I was young. Looking back, I have two main critiques.

1) He shows techniques in isolation, with no explanation of the concepts, principles, or fundamental skills necessary to make those techniques work.

2) I have serious doubts about whether he was qualified in some of the topics he covered. I know he was a legitimate judoka. but his presentation of Tai Chi, Kung Fu, and Savate do not convince me that he knew what he was talking about regarding those arts. I don't know what level of training he had in Karate, but the available video of him doing Karate doesn't look particularly great. I can't remember what his Aikido book looked like, so I'll refrain from commenting on that.

response to
1) ok... and what principles are we talking about? you throw a knife hand (and he had a few pictures showing how to use but he doesn't show deep stances like others that came later. I am trying to think if there was a book that might have "explained" the principles other than if something should be snapping or driving. He showed possible targets for a technique but I do admit that they did not encompass all of them but later in his books he had a chart that would outline all targets useful for self defense. This is similar to say: The Chuck Norris Karate system which I think also has isolated movements (and that book came out much later than tegners). Hidy ochia was a bit different but also confusing as he would show a technique then show an application of it rather which breaks the flow of the system in some ways... but I would be interested in an example of where this was done better in a manual?

He tended not to believe in karate "stances", He would recommend a "t stance" which is basically a balanced back stance (also used in fencing [is there a connection to jeet kune do? ] ). talks about slide stepping for mobilization and also offers a modified boxer's stance if preferred)....

2) Actually, he was certified in jiu jitsu (spelling?) and judo... he did get some training in shito ryu but that was to help expand shito ryu karate into US. Later they tried to get him to only teach karate (i.e. give up the judo, jiu jitsu) and he didn't put up with that and resigned.... however, he went on to produce books on just "karate" (no style)... You can actually see him doing some high kicks in his earlier books and they do look a bit awkward due to not being flexible enough (my opinion as he would come up on the ball of his foot as he was trying to do a high kick)....
as far as kung fu, tai chi, savate he wasnt showing how the techniques were applied due to him not having enough training in that system. He had others show it so I don't know what you mean exactly. One also has to remember he was doing it first.... the first time is always hardest (similar to wright brothers building the first plane compared to now having ultra light aircraft available)

One thing I would be interested to learn more about is that he says in his background that he was in the military and worked as an instructor in unarmed fighting techniques (essentially military combatives). I would like that fleshed out a bit as his books do tend to have that "combatives" feel to them (at least the "complete book of self defense" does).

 

[frank raud]

One thing I would be interested to learn more about is that he says in his background that he was in the military and worked as an instructor in unarmed fighting techniques (essentially military combatives). I would like that fleshed out a bit as his books do tend to have that "combatives" feel to them (at least the "complete book of self defense" does).

Los Angeles evening news March 24 1949 This article says he was teaching National Guard Reserves in 1949. I'll paw through some books and see what else is there.

 

[Same Trick]

I think we been spoiled by videos of everything and has begun to rate the old picture books from a video perspective

 

[E0richt]

I think we been spoiled by videos of everything and has begun to rate the old picture books from a video perspective

I agree... there are videos of every style that can be bought though one can find youtube videos that have "classes" as a result of covid lockdown.

oh and the book that was used in the karate kid:
"Mastering karate" by Mas Oyama...

there was one error with my post concerning savate:
there are 2 books written by Bruce on savate. The earlier one does have him showing the techniques and appears to be before savate was really organized. The techniques seem to be a bit more street oriented and he was wearing sweat clothes (workout clothes) and tennis shoes.

the later book had savateurs with tights and I think when they had colored rankings for skill level.
and they demonstrated the techniques.

My personal opinion is that the earlier book was better.

 

[Taiji Rebel]

As a child these two books were the first to arrive in my martial arts library:

#

 

[E0richt]

As a child these two books were the first to arrive in my martial arts library:

View attachment 32814#

View attachment 32815

there were a slew of books that he wrote... some were evolutions on karate and karate self defense.
there was a book covering belt degrees and the rules on how one gets a rank.
there was a book on "black belt" techniques for judo, karate, jukado (a thin book but showed homemade equipment for training... one example was a padded stick that was used for blocking / parrying practice)
there was an book on exercises for judo and karate which used a bag for throwing (nowadays a heavy bag (not hanging) could be used similarly. Could even put a keikogi belt around the heavy bag to simulate arms for a shoulder throw...

one piece of equipment that was included in his later books on karate, self defense and jukado was a rubber ball attached to a rope that could be adjusted for height where one uses techniques to hit the ball in combination... I believe its a good practice (especially since I am training alone)... one still needs a heavy bag or makiwara to use power (the only way to see if a technique "works"). more care is needed for the makiwara as I have overdone it which doesn't bother me at the time but later a normal day to day movement will give me some soreness.

he only includes kata for the sport section of his books but if you look at the application photos there is enough of them to actually string them together as a kata. I supplement them with shotokan kata and there are some kata from ashihara / enshin that are a bit more fighting based.

The only real thing I am missing is some sparring which I haven't solved that as of yet (not that I haven't done sparring before... just that it is not a common occurrence lately)

 

[Tony Dismukes]

ok... and what principles are we talking about?

• Body mechanics for power generation
• Distance management (and the timing which is intertwined with distance)
• Structure
• Setups
• Controlling lines of attack
• The necessity of breaking an opponent's structure before applying a lock or throw
• Hand fighting for the superior grips which allow you to break an opponent's structure

... and so on. Basically all the necessary components for making the techniques he showed from being at all effective.

as far as kung fu, tai chi, savate he wasnt showing how the techniques were applied due to him not having enough training in that system. He had others show it so I don't know what you mean exactly.

I had actually forgotten that he didn't demo the techniques in his Kung Fu and Savate books. I had the edition of his Savate book with his picture on the cover, so that probably clouded my memory.

But my point still stands - if he didn't know enough to show the moves, then how was he qualified to write about them? And if he was just acting as stenographer for the folks who did demonstrate the techniques, then why didn't those individuals get at least co-author if not primary author credit?