How can I learn combat pressure point striking? Part 2

Years ago, when I got my first computer with internet access, I searched the net, typing in all the key words used for striking points in all of the martial arts. Words like, Dim Mak, Pressure Point, Vital Point, Poison Hand, pressure point striking and so on. At that time there were few web sites with very little if any information. Some of these web sites contained mostly partial lists of pressure points, with out pictures or drawings and very little if any commentary. The instructional value of these web sites were poor at best. This was about the same time Black Belt Magazine started to feature pressure point articles in the mid 80’s

A side note on all martial arts magazine publications. Although, for the beginner, the articles are entertaining, they were not produced for informational purposes. These martial arts publications are produced for the purpose of stirring up interest in the martial arts which would stir up sales for the martial arts industry. All information found is partial at best. The articles are too short to reveal complete information. That is and was the new bottom line for the martial arts industry and it’s soul purpose, at that time and that’s okay. But if you are looking for pertinent information, have your wallet ready. You will be buying more magazines, books and equipment. Product sales is the primary directive… Ha it’s America right!

After the first volley of pressure points articles, George Dillman slowly became a headliner within martial arts magazines. With controversial press pro’s and con‘s, some depicting him as the antichrist of the science of pressure point and others a modern pressure point pioneer. Which started him on the creation of a product line with an advertising program which encompassed the creation of the top hitting pressure point web site on the internet highway. The Dillman web site offered no real info on the site about pressure point striking but did offer several tapes instead. And what followed was very interesting. One by one, web sites popped up out of nowhere with claims to provide instructional tapes on the art of striking the points. In about seven years 12 others claiming to be Masters, produced tapes and like Dillman’s tapes, put them up for sale on the internet. Still there were no web sites at the time offering information on pressure points striking.

After the first volley of pressure point articles, George Dillman slowly became a headliner within martial arts magazines. With controversial press pro’s and con‘s, some depicting him as the antichrist of the science of pressure points and others a modern pressure point pioneer. This started him on the creation of a product line with an advertising program which encompassed the creation of the top hitting pressure point web site on the internet highway. The Dillman web site offered no real info on the site about pressure point striking but did offer several tapes instead. And what followed was very interesting. One by one, web sites popped up out of nowhere with claims to provide instructional tapes on the art of striking the points. In about seven years 12 others claiming to be Masters, produced tapes and like Dillman’s tapes, put them up for sale on the internet. Still there were no good web sites at the time offering information on pressure points striking.

At the same time, a few of my students slowly talked me into creating a web site of my own. About two years later I start a site named Ichi Ryu it had some simple articles and three meridians with usable pressure points, written simply for basic understanding. My web site counter went nuts. All of my students, talked to me about making some tapes of our own and blow the other tapes out of the water. But I declined for the reasons that I felt the full knowledge was too dangerous for public access and that it may fall in to the wrong hands. But I would continue with the web site. More interesting things started to happen. First some of the very same instructors who created these former tapes would e-mail me with threats of all types. Even some of the biggest names in the business. My students and I would read these e-mails and laugh about them. One wife of a major player in the tape industry, accused me of steeling from her husbands interests. The next thing that happened is Some instructors would copy the pages of my site and create their own web site using my pages! I e-mailed them to thank them for using the pages as correct information but many of them became afraid and e-mailed me back to insure me that they would take the pages off there web site immediately. I would e-mail them back and reassure them that it was alright to use those pages because they did have my name at the top of the page and that I thought it was only putting my name out there and that was a good thing. But almost all of them were afraid of something or other, because many erased the pages from there sites. After all of this, with all the deceit involved with these people, I got pretty disgusted with it and dropped my web site all together.

After a few years I became curious about what was on the web these days. It was the same old sales pitch, for the most part except for one guy in the soft martial art community who did it better than I did, named Master Erle Montaigue from Australia. He at the time offered a free down load of all the meridians and their pressure points with a great break down. He also offered Tai Chi type pressure point tapes as well. He offered free information on the site and gave his personal e-mail address as well. I thought this guy is hiding nothing! He was disclosing all, in great detail. All except the weapons used to strike the points. So I e-mail him and we talked and exchange gifts (as true master and student do), and talked for about a year or so on pressure point striking.

But in the hard styles like karate, I found no web site that gave freely, the meridians and their points showing what they do and how they worked. Master Montaigue and I talked about it from time to time and how the meridians and points are the same but the way Tai Chi works the points and the methods and hand forms are vastly different than the harder systems like Karate.

Later I decided to start a new web site with the focus on hard style systems all though I have been instructed in soft style systems as well.

Today most of the martial arts web sites use the web mostly as a sales tool rather than an instructional tool to teach their art forms, The web sites today reflect the same viewpoint. What viewpoint? Industry rather than art.

To answer to the question, What about the internet, can I learn pressure point striking from them?

The answer is NO, not really, but with some sites you may find some helpful information. Not even my web site can fully teach you how to use the points in a combat situation… well not yet! But I’m working on it! On the web today some are worth a look, and you can pick up some info here and there, but for the most part, it can’t be done through the web or the books that are available today.

But, what about the variety of tapes and DVD’s available? Is it possible to learn how to strike the pressure points from a tape or a series of tapes? We will look at that in depth next!

Articles in this series
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4