Customer Reviews

Essential Anatomy: For Healing and Martial Arts

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was really surprised to see so many negative reviews for this excellent book. I can only imagine that the writers were expecting a book teaching them the art of Pressure Point fighting, and while there is a brief section on both healing and martial arts applications in the book, this work is really about the Meridian and acupoint system of the human body, and it succeeds brilliantly as such. Also to be commended is the author's excellent overview of Western Anatomy and explanations of how Eastern and Western concepts mesh. The book is packed with info, mostly in the form of charts with short explanations. Certainly, you aren't going to learn everything there is to know about TCM, but what a great reference! As an Asian style bodyworker, I love this book. It's the best one I've found yet on Oriental Meridians. It is very straightforward and the Meridan charts are first class. The quality of this book is also first rate: nice stiff pages that read well and will hold up to a lot of pawing and page turning. Buy and study this book to learn the "whats" and "wheres" of TCM. Then find a Master to learn how to apply this wealth of information. This book WILL show you where the points are and how the different points and the meridians affect the body as a whole.

Marc Tedeschi has put a great deal of work into this book as far as assembling all the necessary information for a basis to learn pressure point fighting into one text. His charts are excellent and include all the special points off the meridian lines. It is also nice to have the contrasting Feng Shui charts to display color, emotion, and additional data that does come into play during advanced study. However, his written theory explaining martial application is poor, and the photographs of applications are misleading.

After cross referencing the data provided in the charts, they are completely accurate. I do think that this book is an excellent addition to a studying martial artist's library, but do not expect this book to teach you anything in regards to technique. Buy George Dillman for that. It is a supplemental data source...no more. Technique and teaching should be left to real teachers. I think Tedeschi would agree.

I stumbled across this book last year before it was released and hed to wait to see if my purchase was a good one. Well, it is. This text has the clearest, most comprehensive and understandable charts of the acupoints that i have ever seen. Tedeschi also covers western theories of health and healing also making this book a good basic resource on human anatomy.

The book is structured very well, with the sequence of the charts following the flow of Ki through the meridians. Each of the meridians has a separate chart and a very useful table covering the associated points and other major connections between each meridian.The ying and yang meridians are also cleraly identified.

This book is a great text for identification of and theory surrounding the pressure points. Myself, being a martial artist have recommended it to my instructor and he has also purchased a copy. an excellent book. (It must be said though that any reference text also needs an experienced instructor to support the questions and / or problems encountered by the student.)

I recently purchased the book "Essential Anatomy For Healing and the Martial Arts" by Marc Tedeschi. I had a gift certificate that I receive for Christmas and was browsing through AMAZON.COM looking for some vital point books. I stumbled on this book and took a chance with it. This is a GREAT book of charts. The book is not much more then several very well done charts of the human body. The author divides the book into two sections. The first sections is on Modern Western Medicine (MWM) and in this section there are several charts of the bodies various systems. The second part is the Eastern or TCM view of the body. Each meridian has several great charts with point location and detail. If anyone has seen the book by Felix Mann called " The Atlas of acupuncture: Points and Meridians in Relation to Surface Anatomy", then you will recall some of these charts.

OK, OK....before anyone says this I will beat you to it.........YES! You can get this same information from other sources (Gray's Anatomy, Netter's books, Mann's books,etc. etc.) BUT here it is all in one place at your fingertips

Mr Tedeschi put together an excellent overview of anatomy designed for the martial artist. Covering both eastern and western philosophies the book is filled with clear concise charts and diagrams. This should be required reference material for all those studying the martial arts.

I think that the title is a bit misleading. This book does have lots of good information compiled into one source. The problem is that it is more of an anatomy book than a martial arts resource. There are good illustrations though I do not think that there is enough depth or analysis in the surrounding text. Discussions of meridians and pressure points are more suited to acupressure/acupuncture students than to martial artists who are the target of perhaps 10% of the content. There is almost nothing, for example, about how martial techniques work from a bio-mechanical perspective, nor how applications affect the body medically. If you want a good overview that compares and contrasts Western and Eastern thought it's a decent reference, but if you want an in-depth study suitable for serious martial artists this is probably not your best resource.

Lawrence Kane
Author of Surviving Armed Assaults, The Way of Kata, and Martial Arts Instruction

I am a nidan (2nd degree blackbelt), in Uechi Ryu karate. I have been studying karate for 8 years, and I have been studying the significance of pressure points to the martial arts for 6 years. Even so, this area is still somewhat alien to me. I know pressure points work, but this merridian stuff? I don't know...

That perspective colors my review to the extent that since I don't know the validity of merridians, I can't tell how accurate those sections are... I also can't evaluate the interactions of combining pressure points, since none of my karate partners will let me experiment on them. I don't blame them since I'm not anxious for them to experiment on me, except in a simple way. I do know from experience that pressure points do have significant effect, and from that perspective, this book is very helpful.

There are a few charts that seem too crowded for their size (that's why I give it 4 stars instead of 5), which makes me wish I had larger charts... maybe fold out charts. He does sell such charts and they are on my wish list, and some day I'll buy a set.

I really like the health aspect of the book. Most of the books that I've considered don't cover that very well, if at all.

I also really like that Marc approaches this material from a serious, well rounded approach, unlike most of the "popular press".

I like the books by Marc Tedeschi. He has a clear presentation which gives the impression that he is a level headed intellectual kind of guy, who happens to have lots of experience, knowledge and (probably) skill, in the areas he writes about. I feel comfortable reccomending any of his material... in fact, the purchase I am reviewing today (Essential Anatomy), is my 2nd purchase of this book. This time I bought the book for one of my co-instructors.

BTW - if they ever present this book in a typical book size (4x6 or smaller), don't get it. The charts in this book would lose a lot of their usefullness in a small format... Stay with this size (8x11), for all books in this area, if the charts are significant to you.

BTW#2 - If this book ever comes out in a format suitable for a PDA, I'll probably buy that too. Having good charts available while practicing would be very helpful. (sometimes carrying a PDA is easier than carrying "real" stuff)

The books of Mr. Tedeschi (I'm familiar with 4 titles) are of the highest quality. If you're interested in acupoint charts this title may be something you'll find interesting (nice charts and tables). IF your looking for martial arts information (specifically pressure points) then you may be better served by one of his other books - at least you'll get some martial arts information you might find interesting for the price and essentially the same pressure point information. The book contains 10 pages of information specify directed at the martial arts and its basically the same information in his other titles. I'm rating this solely from martial arts viewpoint.

This is an excellent reference book, nicely laid out, with clean, clear accurate drawings and charts of the TCM meridians and points. Great for martial arts, massage, shiatsu, or anyone else who wants these charts presented clearly and beautifully.

I love this book. It does a great job of explaining anatomy and acupoints/acupressure for both basic healing and martial arts purposes, even for someone like me who does not know a lot about acupuncture.