Essential Anatomy: For Healing and Martial Arts

If you study pressure point defense, and have a good understanding this book is a great add on. If you are a beginner wait till you have a good basic understanding or you’ll be lost.

This book is hands down the best reference book I've found for Eastern energetic theory that's not a straight up acupuncture school text. The title has been called misleading...considering that it's called "Essential ANATOMY..." I think it's pretty straightforward. It is an excellent resource for why certain pressure points work and their local Eastern and Western anatomy. It has excellent comparisons between Eastern and Western thought and theory. It is not a book of martial arts techniques. Tedeschi has plenty of those, and this one is a cross-reference, not a direct technical manual. So if you're at all interested in "meta-martial arts", this book is amazing; if you're looking to actively learn new strikes or blocks or anything like that, better go with one of his other books (the "Art of..." series seems to be good, although I don't have any of them myself.)

I have not started to read the book yet, but from what I've leafed through I really liked it.

This book is a rare gem! Interestingly, as a black belt myself, I have known of Mark Tedeschi through the martial arts circuits. Little did I realize that he had put together such a wonderful book about healing, also. Perhaps most people don't think of black belts as being healers, but I've always believed that black belts have an obligation to give back to their communities. I have not personally participated in any dramatic, life-saving emergencies, but I have used many of the ideas and concepts provided in this book to help and assist others with a variety of small injuries. I'm hoping to expand my awareness of these important Oriental concepts with this book to assist more people as often as I can.

This is a wonderful book: it has many helpful and beautiful illustrations for both Western and Eastern perspective, is to the point and without new-agey posturing and chest-thumping that is so endemic in the discussion of Internal Martial Arts. The book is at exactly the right level for people like me: semi-serious Bagua Zhang practitioners with a lay interest in TCM. Tedeschi also gives personal insights and experience as a martial artist, but this is done quietly and unassumingly.You will return to this book often.....

very important information for anyone who is interested in their health and knowing the opponents weaknesses when having to overcome a miscreant.

The charts presented in this book are very clear. They are nice and large, color-coded, very easy to see. And there are lots of them in both simpler and more complex layouts. For those concerned about whether the martial applications discussed in the book are valid or not, that section of the book is very short and whether you like that section or not, it doesn't detract at all from the value of the many, many large and clear charts that are presented throughout the rest of the book. Nicely done.

This book is simple, clear, concise and easy to carry. It outlines the basics of channels and points and adds some different elements in that help shape it into a great eclectic reference