At the age of twenty-one, after becoming California state judo champion, he gave up competition to devote himself to research, course development, teaching, and teacher-training. In the U.S. armed forces Tegnér trained instructors to teach unarmed combat. He also taught military police and coached sport judo teams. From 1952-1967 he operated his own school in Hollywood, Calif. Among his students were many famous actors.

In 1967 Tegnér gave up his school and his teaching and spent his remaining years writing books on various aspects of the martial arts. His books covered a wide range of martial topics. They included sport training, classical training, and self-defense training.

Despite all that Tegnér did in the martial arts he was never really "accepted" by the martial arts community. Perhaps this is due to his approach. Tegnér's books exposed the many myths that exist in the martial arts, myths that many teachers of the arts would rather play upon in order to profit from or build their status from. He stripped much of this away and delivered a far different message. Tegner recognized that much of what was (and still is) being taught was too rigid, too traditional, too impractical and too sportive.

Tegnér knew that to excel in a sport one must be a good athlete. In order for the average person to protect themselves they don't need to be athletes, they need to learn simple methods. Methods that are easy to learn and easy to apply. The complex teachings of the martial arts are just not practical. So with that in mind it's easy to see why Tegnér would not be too popular with the martial arts crowd.

Interestingly enough a few years later a small Chinese man would come along and say much the same thing and the strong traditionists of the martial arts were just as angry at him as they were at Tegnér. However the Chinese man would go on to become a martial arts legend - Bruce Lee.

Tegnér died in the early 80's (I believe) and is now largely forgotten, but his message is as valid and valuable now as it was twenty or thirty years ago. His books are in nearly every public and school library in North America and have been published in several different languages. Tegnér's books cover many aspects of the martial arts including: the sport martial arts; traditional martial arts; and practical methods of self-defense for civilians and for law enforcement.

Dave Walmsley - CANADIAN COMBATO