This is an oldy but goody from Master Moran on the use of Naihanchi kata pressure points and self defense.

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The top rated tapes and DVD’s on the market today have pros as well as cons, which we will explore together to see what they have and what they lack. As many of you already know many of them are a complete waste of time as well as money. Others have value in differing ways. We will look deeply in to the instructional video market, to deduce what they display and what they do not display as well as their worth, as far as teaching ability in the use of pressure point striking.  I must confess, that I have not seen all the film footage out there, but I have viewed all the major band names, so lets go.

Much like the old 35mm films, the modern tape and DVD‘s, for the most part, may express a certain quality of an instructors ability, but teach you very little on how you can transform the points in to your own fighting technique. I receive many complaints on pressure point DVDs and tapes The top complaint is I don’t understand it or it’s to complicated. There can only be four possible reasons for this.

1. They only know a fraction of the total knowledge involved with the point they are demonstrating.
2. They do not wish to really teach you all about the point being demonstrated.
3. They know the points but are poor instructors.
4. Poor script planning, ( film without plans).

Fore instance, Mr. Dillman’s strongest attributes are his showman ship, charismatic personality, and business sense. In his younger years he was a good competitor and a skilled showman. Dillman is anything but boring! Which is a great help in selling a fair amount of products.

In the late 80’s George Dillman was one of the first to pioneer pressure point exploration which created revival to rediscovering pressure point striking and place it back into the martial arts community using articles published in several martial arts magazines. These articles were criticized by many traditional martial arts instructors as frivolous an inaccurate portraits of there art. Dillman’s whole idea and purpose, by way of negative criticism, causing cross talk, created a market for his product. Dillman was in fact a marketing genius, for his creed for his marketing strategy must have been, to create negative press, which brought public attention to him and his style of pressure point arts.

Dillman, who was not a top ranking martial artist at the time, received world wide attention by way of this negative press. Thus interest was created and Dillman released the first Pressure Point tape, which was a hit. Dillman’s first tape was called, “Hidden moves in form’s”. This first tape was not well planned in its production. With a lot of criss cross ideas and view points. It is a home style video preformed in one signal shooting, without use of freeze frames and tends to be confusing by nature because there is so much information coming at you all at once. This first tape contains some of the basic uses of pressure points in the arms to be used in blocking. It was revolutionary for the time because most karate schools did not know or teach that these pressure points were the targets to be aimed for when the arm is used for an attack. It also shows one or two grappling techniques using pressure points. It also teaches about what a pressure ppoint is, and how they work on a basic level. There are inaccurate teachings in the first Dillman tape. One of the pressure points he shows is located one inch behind the center of the back of the elbow, which he calls a push point. Dillman teaches that this pressure point can not be hit that it must be rubbed. This is totally incorrect, this pressure point SI # 8 and TW # 10 cross one on top of another, if the elbow is slightly bent it can not be hit straight on with out using additional techniques. One is to use a method to straighten out the arm, locking the elbow by way of a shift stance, or within the strike. There is a quick retraction which will straighten the arm or the combination of the two.

Dillman also talks about what he calls the “three quarter punch”. This is a traditional Okinawa center line punch which is common in Okinawa kata. This punch turns only three quarters of the way around rather than a full turn when it is traditionally shot from waist level. You will see this type of usage in the old 35 mm footage of  kata shot in Okinawa. But Dillman, in this first video, brings the reason why it is in original kata and why it is excluded from modern kata. If you have the opportunity to see some of this old 35mm footage you will see the punch in many kata from many systems. Also see, (footage by, Master Toshiaki Gillespie and Master Tadashi Yamashita).

The tape ends there. It is my opinion that this first tape is Mr. Dillman’s best tape out of all of Dillman’s tapes to date. Dillman’s second tape demonstrates his views of analysis of bunkai of kata practiced in many Okinawa systems. Ron Richard demonstrates the kata first then Dillman demo’s the pressure points within it. After the first two movements, the analysis gets vague and is hard to follow. It did show many common locks and blocks and one or two strikes in that poor quality home movie style which he used in all five tapes in this series that you would have learned already in any good school.

Tape # 3, contains some pressure point kata and simple hand forms found in the five basic kata.  This tape is for the beginner who knows little on the topic and teaches a lot and is worth watching. There are some mistakes, but for the beginner it’s a good starter tape.

Tape # 4, He is addressing the unknown! For the first time, Dillman challenges all karate schools to answer the question “What do stances mean to kata?”. An absolute unknown to most schools even today! I will also add that with out a complete understanding of stances and foot work, you will find that your martial arts training will be useless in combat! Dillman hints upon the basics of this little known subject on tape #4 as well as demonstrating many minor pressure points of the feet and legs and the proper way to access them. As I commend him for the above, I do not subscribe to his belief or teachings on pressure points enhancing joint and arm lock techniques. Locks are simply using the weakness inherent in the all joint mobility against the attacker and has nothing to do with a true pressure point. Even some of the points shown in the foot by Dillman are not true pressure points. For example, the point between the metatarsals of the little toe and the next larger toe in the area of GB #41 Dillman demonstrates with a stomping technique found in some kata. It is impossible to reach GB #41 with the heel of the foot! In reality you would be bending the metatarsal with the heel and with a pointed weapon like the toe or the thumb you would be spreading the metatarsals apart which is what is causing your attacker pain. But this tape is a revolutionary tape none the less.

In tape # 5, which shows how to restore energy to and attacked pressure points using the hands. It is also a good tape to watch for that reason, and I feel that every instructor and every student must learn all these techniques first  before practicing any pressure point striking for your own protection, and master them. These techniques are basic and trivial and are the lesst you should know. Traditionally true restoration of energy would be done with needles or a blunt hair pin used to hold the hair in place, in the orient. Dillman has created a good starter tape. All the following video tapes in the series steadily decline into demo tapes and have little to no instructional value at all! The seminar tapes and DVD’s are of course fun to watch but teach very little and lack the proper camera usage to show you the buyer how to do them. It is also my opinion that these pressure points done as shown on these tapes and DVD’s although they K.O a man at rest, will not work in a combat situation, for several reasons. I will discuss these reason in another article. Because it is a common thread in almost all the instructional videos on the market to date. The Dillman series,in my opionion, although they teach many basics are really created to draw people to the Dillman seminars. They create interest but are shallow as far as teaching ability. This is the very reason why you are still looking for answer!  Many of the Dillman clones follow these patterns in there DVD productions, for the same reasons as Dillman’s productions.

The Dillman Clones

You know who they are, you seen some of there DVD’s, and in the end, you are just as lost as you were before. After Dillman’s book, tape, and seminar revolution, The Dillman clones appeared on the scene. Most of these clones were instructed at least in part by Mr. Dillman himself. After following him around for years, they started to make there own video tapes and DVD series and then demonstrating pressure points at their own seminars. Dillman has a cult following in which people would follow Dillman from seminar to seminar to learn more about his method. Some even held seminars for Dillman, priced at $50.00 a head, with a minimum, of fifty heads. Do the math $ 2,500.00 per two hour seminar Plus tapes, DVD’s, patches, private lessons and so on. Pretty good money for two hours work. Dillman had the martial arts world by the Cocaly’s  and many clones figured out how needy the martial arts world was for this knowledge and that a lot of money could be made. So many of those followers became Dillman Clones, doing just what Dillman himself did. This philosophy is what keeps the money rolling in! These clone’s  do what Dillman did all with a little twist of there own. Like Dillman, they are confusing and in the end the knowledge is vague.

Vince Morris (6th Dan), created tapes in which I found likable. In these tapes I’ve seen, he is first demonstrating a kata, then explains his interpretation of what the techniques are doing. He seems to be a personable fellow on camera and explains how to work it. It is one of the first tapes that you will go away with something usable, unlike the tapes and DVD’s prior to this. His bunkai will work for you in a combat situation. That is the point. What will you know at the end of the tape? Will you be more confused than ever? Or will you have something you can learn and know and therefore be able to use.  Combat pressure point striking that can be used in a combat or street situation, by the beginner right up to the master, and that is my point. Vince Morris, well done.

As far as the Kata Naihanchi Shodan and its use, all the above masters of this Kata can all take lessons from Master Robert J Moran for it is my view that he is the cream of the crop as far as this kata goes. None of the above mentioned names, including all the clones can hold a candle to Bob’s knowledge and fighting ability with the Naihanchi Kata!

Robert Moran, inventor / martial artist, had a incredible burden to master pressure point combat striking strategies but found himself unable to comprehend the element theory as many of you do. He also found that striking one preliminary point first then striking another point second was impractical, much to complicated for high speed combat situations. In Bobs words, “it just couldn’t work, in high speed combat situations in most cases“. With the help of his father Dr Moran, he created a unique pressure point system that can be explained not by Eastern terminology but by Western terminology. In other words your language!  Moran’s tapes and DVD’s explain pressure points on terms that we can all understand the first time out, and they work in combat situations, unlike the Dillman approach. The down side of the Moran tapes are, that the use of the cameras could stand some improvement and the filming is a little lackluster and that makes them a little tiresome.  In some cases he could show the actual points better and give a better understanding of why it works. But of all tapes that are on the market which I’ve seen,  if Moran shows you  10 points you will know ten points at the end of the viewing. You will not have to remember terminology like Lu# 3 or St#9 or strike metal than fire, no confusing terminology.  Moran’s terminology goes like this, “strike chin #1( which is the indent at the bottom of the chin) with this hand weapon (middle knuckle fist) using a (knocking on the door motion) , in a downwards angle, which will produce a K.O because it shuts down the nerve found in that area, Simple isn’t it! Good work Master Moran!

Master Morans new DVD on defeating Brazilian Jujitsu, gives you about 6 basic pressure points, that I guarantee will work for you, against Brazilian Jujitsu, the first time out.  Master Robert Moran is a new age pioneer and his work will change the world of pressure points forever more. His work with pressure point striking is unique, and in the future will change the nature of pressure point striking forever! Finally the Mystery is over!

In the future of Pressure Point striking combat, I would like to see, less play for the money aspect and more money spent to delivering a DVD that teachs all about one point first then move on to the next point. In the future I would like to see, better technology used for the filming process. One thing that is lacking in all film footage to date is a concrete plan (script) before shooting the demonstration and thoroughly teaches the points shown. That would use freeze frames of the body weapon entering the point, with the plan to end shooting with the knowledge that the buyer will understand the point and can safely start to practice for combat. The filming would be shown at combat speed and not at rest, which can be demonstrated with the use of proper gear. That future filming would have a written script for the film. In order to know how much is enough or to much information to comprehend. And that all future filming would stress proper safety for practicing with a partner with strong warnings in the case of misuse.

Fore only a fool would play with the unknown, and only a foolish instructor
would create an instructional DVD without showing the student a harmless way of
practicing training techniques without damageing others. And you can find many
DVDs Clips on youtube were some novice knocks out a person. it is exciting to
watch I agree but, can he assure that the person will not become sick or even die from the K.O?
Wiill he put it down in writing? I doubt it.

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

The post How can I learn combat pressure point striking? Part 4 appeared first on Pressure Point Arts.

So far, we’ve looked, at many of the books and manuals, and also the pressure point web sites that appear on the world wide web. We’ve found that, we may pick up a scrap or two of information here and there, and if you read all the books and manuals and search through all the websites that we can find, that they may describe where pressure points are located and sometimes gives a scrap of method and or philosophy. Some books describe a possible reaction when pressure points are activated. In most cases, all the books, magazines, manuals, and web sites are incomplete as far as totally teaching the full art of striking any point. All the printed materials have left out many special techniques and training methods needed to use each individual pressure point found on the human anatomy. Iin the early days of printed materials, poor art work appears in those books and manuals and were also badly translated from the Asian languages to English.

Today’s books and web sites have pierced the language barrier but again many training methods and techniques are not shown. For instance, what hand form (or hand or foot weapon) should be used for any given point. If a twisting motion is used, is it a clockwise or counter cloakwise? Is an individual point hit straight in upon reaching the right depth, applies an up wards or down wards turn? These techniques have been left out for various reasons. I can only assume that they don’t really know! And it would be very dangerous to try it with out knowing. Now that the reality of using the printed options has been exposed, they do not truly teach you the art of striking the points, even if you studied all the printed material on planet earth, they will at best only give a partial viewing. The outcome from trying to learn from printed materials alone could only be total confusion! Instead of answering questions, they create hundreds of other questions! Now the only question that remains to be answered is, if we can not totally learn the pressure point striking arts from printed materials, manuals, book, magazines or web sites, (web sites being the poorer), can we learn from tapes and DVD’s?

Can I learn about pressure point striking from a tape or DVD?

The first media that we will consider is the 35mm films which came here from Asia and the Philippi’s which are distributed by vendors in almost any style, or system. From the 20th century on, Many legendary masters demonstrated their art on 35 mm films to record their journey down the martial arts road. These 35 mm films recorded the history of the masters and document the original Kata they practiced and some training practices that were present in there day in countries like Okinawa, Japan and China. I personally own about a 1,000 hours of 35 mm film footage and have viewed many more. I can tell you that I had a pleasurable time learning from these old masters. I found these films to be inspirational, witnessing for myself, the early martial artists practices which I am calling flow power. Some of you may call it Chi or Jing, all these old time masters have one thing in common, they all move from one technique to another with great speed and power which for the most part has all but vanished in modern martial arts today. Although these films had no sound and were not really an instructional film, they demonstrate to us what the masters believed to be the core of their art, and in turn, that there is a marked difference between the Masters then and now.

This will be my first point, I can not name many masters that flow from one technique to an other in kata that also have speed and power. Because kata is the only way to learn it, jf it is not found in a master, chances are that he hasn’t achieved it! That is why you will see students doing kata on modern DVD’s and tapes. All the pressure point understanding in the world, is of no use. All the technique analysis can’t help you if you haven’t acquired flow power. And the way to get this necessary factor in pressure point striking is to practice kata daily, coupled with studying films of the old masters doing kata.

The bulk of these 35 mm films from 1935 to 1966 were brought back from the war torn countries of Asia by GI’s that were stationed on bases in and around the orient. GI’s would learn from these masters, and captured them on film as they performed the very things they were learning, which had mystified them so often. The things they captured on film were mostly Kata and an occasional drill or two man set. Some of them capture feats of incredible skill. For instance, I have footage of a Chinese Tai Chi master in a horse stance (standing only on his toes) for 2 hours and twenty minutes with out quivering. This stance was adopted later by the white crane system to teach balance and is also used in pressure point kicking. It also strengthens the toes. I have film footage of a old Shaolin monk, probably in his 80’s, doing a one finger (index finger) hand stand having his feet against a wall, which lasts 20 minutes. Again with out quivering! This would be boring for most people to watch but this monk was demonstrating a training method used for single finger pressure point striking. Imagine getting hit with that finger! Another film which shows a Chinese Chi Kung master, breaking a granite rock (9 by 5 inches) with his hand, using a shuto, also useful for striking multiple points. These mystifying feats are historical training demonstrations, on film, taken by GI’s to wow there family and friends back home. And it did! But they do not tell the sequence of training methods that brought them to there seemingly super natural ability’s. Bruce Lee demonstrated a two finger push up. Which he learned in his Wing Chung training which at the highest level uses pressure point strikes. In the Chinese arts one or two fingers are primarily used for single pressure point strikes.

Side note. Vietnam was the war that created today’s modern martial arts. Many of the returning combat Vet’s came back home with films, either of themselves or their instructors in training practice which would later become the standard for training. They accrued these back in the Japanese and Okinawa DoJo’s and is now gently practiced in the U.S today. Most if not all GI’s earned there green or brown belts by the time they came home. Very few GI’s came back to the U.S with the rank of Sho-Dan. That is the reason for the martial art incompleteness of training methods in many American martial arts schools and the reason little to no teaching of the pressure point arts today. These GI’s would come back to America after the Vietnam conflict, and found the general population unwilling to provide jobs for them. Some of them started karate school simple because it was the only thing they knew something about. So they became instructors. These combat Vet’s trained many students which started the industry of martial arts that you practice today! Again few of the Vet’s came back with any rank statues. In sort although they heard about pressure points, they never achieved enough rank to be shown how pressure point strikes work and it was never instituted in the Do Jo system. Instead hand to hand combat which was learned in boot camp was the standard that replaced pressure point arts. This is slowly changing.

What can be learned from the old 35 mm films that can’t be learned by today’s tapes and DVD’s? There is a powerful flow demonstrated on these tapes that is rarely seen in today’s martial art schools. And that this powerful flow-motion can only be obtained by hours of daily practice, and some special training on inner energy breathing. These old masters practiced every day. Much of today’s Kata, looks either slow, choppy or has no power, in other words lacks dynamic flowing power. There is a type of flowing power that these old 35 mm films show use, that most all systems have lost to time. The key to this kind of flowing power is first to see it done by these old master who practiced kata daily, then to try and copy it, in the same way that they did it in those mystifying feats of strength. These old films are very valuable for that very reason. A tape that I would recommend is a video tape by Master Tadashi Yamashita named Dynamic Fighting system Vol, 1 &2, which demonstrates this necessary quality for your pressure point fighting arts training. This film is modern and will motivate you higher. This master is fast and powerful, so fast that in slow motion, it is still to fast to see well!

The people schooled in Okinawa by a renowned Master, new about flow motion, but the schools teaching in modern times rarely reflected this principle in their teachings, not being schooled over seas. So although there is great value in the old 35mm tapes brought here from over seas, they have little instructional value but great demonstrational value. What of today’s DVD’s and tapes, are they instructional? Do today’s tapes and DVD’s truly teach you the buyer how to develop skill needed for pressure point fighting, useful in combat?????

We will cover that in the next and last article in this series.

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

The post How can I learn combat pressure point striking? Part 3 appeared first on Pressure Point Arts.

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

The post How can I learn combat pressure point striking? Part 2 appeared first on Pressure Point Arts.

Many of you who practice in the martial arts, have an inner longing to learn how pressure point striking to the human anatomy works. Many have expressed the hope of acquiring the knowledge by one source or another. Many students from around the world have tried almost every resource out there to harness the abilities needed to perform some type of results, not only in the Do Jo but also in a combat situation. Many have tried learning points from books, video tapes and DVD’s, some by pressure point charts and other types of equipment to help in the process of learning but most if not all of them finally get lost in the maze of product buying. Many have asked me straight out, “How do you learn how to strike pressure points?”. My students and I over the years have endeavored through our website pressurepointkarate.com to help your brothers in the arts to learning the striking points in a way that can quicken the learning process. We hope to continue to do so.

Lately I have been thinking about how to make your learning process even faster. One of the ways I could possibly help the student to quicken the process is to review for them the Books, DVDs and also web sites, that are availabe to see what they have to offer. I do not mean to aggravate any authors of products but just point out to the students, the shortest way to their goal. For example, everybody has seen a promotional advertisement on TV or in a magazine on a movie but after going to the theater you found that the ad you saw was the best part of the movie? Books maybe advertised the same way and after buying it and reading it, you may have found it was not all it was cracked up to be! In many of the books that are currently on the market, you may have already found that they may, in some way, be a little lacking in the process of depicting the realities of a true pressure point combat strike, profile. They may work in a Do Jo and not in the street. But if there is one product out there that would help you, I’m sure you would want to know its name wouldn’t you? That answer may save you not only a lot of time but also a lot of money. I will first address the book market, then I will go on to web site’s and finally to tapes and DVD’s. Are they really worth it? You be the judge!

Can I learn pressure points from a book?

In the book market today, you can buy several books on the subject of pressure point striking and although they offer a inner view of the mysterious art, they in general, tend to make more of a mystery of the subject than to clear it up!

The first booklet on pressure point striking was introduced from china and translated into English on the art of Dim Mak by James S. H Lin, and refined over the years. Although the book covers a great deal of knowledge, the art work is very poor and show in some cases the weapon to strike with, methods, techniques, depth, and direction has been left out giving little more than a glimpse into the total process. When Bruce Tegner wrote a book called, Nerve Centers & Pressure Points in 1968 which for its time was pretty good as far as showing the elements of striking the basic vital points by showing the basic attack process and the type of hand weapons use to perform the basic attack. But once again, the book treated the subject as if you copy the picture and read the information, even a novice can do it. Again methods and techniques as well as training methods had been left out.

Later Myung Cill Kim, wrote a book called Acupuncture for Self Defense, which shows many of the basic pressure point & strikes, and displays some of the uses of hands as a weapon. It was a better application than books printed previously, but still lacked methods, techniques and training methods. Up to this point in time, although the books printed were showing basic strikes used in Karate combat, they were attempting to show the majority of elements needed to perform the act of striking a pressure point. They didn’t show the techniques and methods as well as training. The ground work had been laid for students of that day.

My commentary on all the early books are as follows. The early books and booklets did show you the hands and foot weapons used to strike the basic vital points that they were showing you, but lacked the methods and techniques that generate the differing types of power used for the individual strikes shown. The positioning of the body for the pressure point strikes are shown and gives a student some indication of how and when a strike would be used. The pictures and art work were very poor in those days and the notes on the strikes were shallow and incomplete. But, I need to say that all future books that will be written would do well to take note of these early pioneers, what they did accomplish also what they did not!

Today we have a variety of books that deal with the pressure point striking arts. And like the earlier writings they also have high and low points too. The first written by George A Dillman entitled Kyusho Jitsu. This book is again a basic book of single strikes, extracted from kata. It is well written with better pictures and centers on the pressure point aspect of the art. It shows proper placement of the body for the attack and how the pressure point strike would be used in a given situation, much like the earlier book by Bruce Tegner but with better pictures and well described points. The down side to the book is, as in the earlier Tegner book, was that the methods and techniques for generating power to perform each strike was not shown. Also it gives the reader the idea that you force the attacker in to a receptive position. That philosophy only works in the Do Jo with two man sets and rarely works in combat. Once again training methods as well as techniques and methods for the individual attacks have been left out giving the idea to the reader that there are none!

I have a personal story about this book I can communicate to you. One day at my Do Jo, a student brought to class George Dillman’s first book Kyushu Jitsu. He was a first year student and as we all looked through the book the students all got very excited over the book and wanted to use it in our study in the Do Jo. Under student pressure, I agreed to use it for a period of time to go through the book step by step. We did. Although I was sure of the outcome, we stopped all other activities and went into the book. In about three weeks, all the students were totally lost. The book seemed to make simple strikes more complicated. The students found that they learned faster by exploring there Kata and talking about it with me and each other. It has given the student “the where” but not “the how”. In defense of this book, it is one of the better books out there as far as good writing and illustrations. Dillman’s second book was even more complicated than the first as a whole. The Kata Naihanchi analysis was only fair. There have been other Dillman books printed with about the same attention to detail.

The Bubishi is an ancient Chinese manuscript having been introduced by two writers, one named Patrick McCarthy and the other George Alexander. Each writing with there own interpretations, McCarthy’s writings being the better of the two. The book has about 14 pages that deal one way or another with pressure points. The other 195 pages deal with topics such as history, philosophy, medicine, and basic fighting techniques. These two books are understandable if you know the points to begin with but to the student these two books have little to no value.

Erle Montaigue is a master of the soft style martial arts like Tai Chi and has written several books on the subject of pressure point striking. They are all well written but may be difficult to interpret to the hard styles like Karate or Shaolin, unless you have studied hard and soft styles of martial arts. If you are a practicing Tai Chi or Baguazhang player or a student of the soft system of Martial arts, these books are a must read! Also I must say that Erle Montaigue is in every sense a true Master of the pressure point arts. I say this because I know him as a true gentleman kind hearted and giving.

The final book I will comment on is The ancient art of life and death by A. Flane Walker and Richard C Bauer. The high point of the book is writing in appendix eleven. In it is a very well written index of all major meridians and their combat points. For the most part, the weapons used to perform the point srikes are not included as well as methods and techniques. There are no training methods at all. The rest of the book is just okay.

All other books on the market, which I have looked into are not worth mentioning in this article. The above books that I have commented on for the beginner pressure point karate student have little value. They are like looking at a map in a way, they may show you where you want to go but you can’t drive a map there!!!

Is there something you can learn from a book? Yes, but will you learn how? Maybe if you have an IQ of 265, but for the rest of us the picture is bleak. So to answer the question, Can I learn pressure points from a book? My reply would at this time be “No”. The books to date are all incomplete. There is much more to be written as many of you already know.

A note to future writers. A totally instructional book capable of depicting a total art in the case of combat pressure point striking, has not been written – yet! That book would be very valuable to many people!!! The closest writer to that goal would be the series of books written by Master Erle Montague. He has made the most serious attempt to date.

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

The post How can I learn combat pressure point striking? Part 1 appeared first on Pressure Point Arts.

BASIC QI BREATHING EXERCISES

Be peaceful and relaxed and silent in spirit. I personally like sitting Indian style, on a pillow or blanket. Sitting on a pillow or blanket will keep the back straight, which is very important for Qi to travel and circulate through out the body. Close your eyes gently, letting a little light in. Relax the shoulders and chest with the quietest of mental states. While you place the thumbs of both hands against the palms and close your fingers over them, and place each fist shape, little finger down on top of your legs. Find your Dan Tian with your minds eye. Slowly breath In through your nose, move the tip of the tongue so that it lightly touches the roof of the mouth (which will connect the CV and the GV meridians) so that Qi will travel through the core of the body imagining you are leading your breath to Dan Tian (this is physically impossible but that is why the imagination is necessary).

Then exhale by dropping the toungue from the roof of your mouth to it’s normal relaxed position. With your lips forming a kissing shape and exhale through it slowly. The air which you breath in and out should not make any sound. This is one full round of the exercise. You should try to work your way up to fifty rounds. This is a core exercise that builds Qi energy in the Dan Tian. It is necessary to perfect the breathing portion of this first piece of the brocade. Beginners may start with Natural breathing and work up to the other types. You should continue this basic exercise until you can go beyond fifty rounds in a relaxed manner. Then you will be ready for the next step.

This part of the exercise, teaches the mind how to gain Qi energy and store it in the Dan Tian. Sitting quietly can bring about peace of mind and ward off distracting thoughts, relax muscles, and soften breathing. Doing this fifty times will improve oxygen to the lungs and improve blood circulation, and (in time) Qi may build down to the cellular level. It also will prepare you for exercises yet to come. As you complete this first part, you should feel more alert and more capable, happier emotionally and more peaceful.

MASSAGING THE EARS

Take a moment to relax, then place your palm on each ear, your finger pointed out toward the back of your head. Rotate your palms over your ears in a clock-wise circular motion 18 times. The ears being a central healing station to balance Qi in the interior body.

HEAVEN’S DRUM

With your palm still placed over your ears, lift your forefingers and place it on top of your middle fingers. Now with a tapping motion ( first right then left) strike the base of the skull 24 times. You will know why they call this exercise heaven’s drum. This will wake up the central nervous system. From head to hips. It also improves lung and heart health and is a cure for head ache and dizziness.

TEETH TAPPING

Drop your hands back down (fist position) on top of the legs. Tap your teeth together lightly 36 times. Do not swallow saliva. This exercise will improve the health of the teeth and gums.

TONGUE LICKS TEETH

Move your tongue so that it rubs the upper and lower teeth, the top teeth left to right, the bottom teeth right to left. Start at the back (top) right towards the front then toward the back tooth on opposite side. Drop your tongue down to the back tooth of the jaw, run your tongue to the front and on to the left side. This is one round, continue 18 rounds. This will bring even more saliva, but don’t swallow it.

RINSE THE MOUTH

Use the saliva you’ve been collecting, to rinse the mouth in the same way you would with mouth wash, using the muscle of your jaw, and keeping your lips closed. It is like making a kiss shape then relaxing, do this 36 times. Don’t swallow yet!

SWALLOWING

Now you will sallow the saliva as you inhale than exhale three time in three small gulps one by one. You should try to imagine that you are willing it to go to the Dan Tian. The combination of exercises four -seven, will increase the secretion of gastric juice and improve digestion and appetite.

RUBBING THE NOSE

First you will rub your two hands together vigorously till they get warm. Then make a fist shape with your thumb sticking straight up, and rub your thumbs together till they are warm. As you are warming your thumbs, breath in and out normally. Quickly place your thumbs against both sides of your nose and rub back and forth 18 times on each side. Rubbing the nose, protects you from diseases of the respiratory tract, helps prevent catching a cold, and many types of nasal diseases along with cures from obstructions of the nasal passage.

EYE EXERCISE

Lightly close your eyes, with the knuckles of your thumbs, rub the eye brows 18 times. Then rub the eye lid lightly back and forth 18 times. After this, place your hand into a fist shape and place them back on your legs, and exercise the eyes by first closing them, and rotating them around 18 times, by looking up, then right, down and then left. Some time I split the number into two groups, nine clock wise and nine counter clock wise. This exercise will strengthen the eye muscles stimulate blood flow, cure and prevent eye disease and improve sight.

MASSAGE THE FACE

Rubbing your palms together to warm them, place your two hands on your forehead and rub clock wise in a downwards direction, rub the forehead, eyes, nose, cheeks, and chin. Then reverse the motion, moving upwards in a counter clock wise direction for a total of 36 times. Again I split the number to 18 clock wise and 18 counter clock wise. This exercise will stimulate blood flow and nerve impulse. Making the face glow and give a more youthful look.

NECK EXERCISE

Interlock the fingers of both hands together, and place them on the back of your neck. With your eyes looking upwards, Tilt your head backwards, your finger will cause resistance against your neck. Do this exercise 3 to 9 times. This exercise will improve blood flow, relieve shoulder pain and dizziness.

MASSAGE THE SHOULDERS

Rub your palms together till warm, massage the right shoulder with the left hand in a clock wise motion 18 times. Then message the left shoulder with the right hand in the same way, 18 times.
This exercise stimulates blood flow and can cure arthritis.

ARM SWINGING

In karate there is a rare punch that is very much like the arm swinging exercise. Close both hands into a loss fist shape, palm up position and place them at each side of your rib cage, as if you were getting ready to do a punching exercise, with elbows bent at a 90 degree angle. With out turning your fists over as you punch, strike out Left than right, turning your waist with each punch so that you can reach out a distance. Alternate punching 18 times. Don’t turn your punches over, keep the palm side of your fists up, remember to swing at the waist for more reach, with each punch straighten the arm then return it to the rib cage with a 90 degree bend in the elbow. Exhale on the extension, inhale on the retraction. This exercise is good for the shoulder blades as well as the chest muscles, increases blood flow and improves the function of the internal organs.

MASSAGING THE BACK AND COCCYX

Rub the palm of your hands together making them warm, Place each palm on your lower back and rub up and down alternately, 18 times. Then warm the hands again, and massage the coccyx in the same manner, 36 times. The first of the two exercises relieves and prevents any pain or pressure of back ache, and also cures and prevents amenorrhoea. The second exercise, stimulates area nerves and cures and prevents anal fistula and hemorrhoids.

MASSAGING THE DAN TIAN

Again rubbing the palms together till warm, place the right fist back on your leg, place the left palm on the dan tian, and massage in a circular motion in a clock wise fashion 100 times. Then warm palm again and place the left hand in to a fist and place it on your leg and with the right hand in a counter clock wise fashion rub 100 times. If you have problems with emissions or premature ejaculation or impotence, you may try this exercise, hold the scrotum with the left hand and rub the Dan tian with the right hand 81 times. Then reverse the hands for another round of 81 times. The effects of this exercise maybe surprising when practice with out necessity. This exercise, promotes the peristalsis of the gastrointestinal tract, improves digestion, relieves abdominal distention, and cures constipation. It increases semen and strengthens the kidneys when alternative exercise is used.

MASSAGE THE KNEES

Massage the tops of the knees simultaneously, rubbing in a circular motion for a count of 100 times.
Because toxins have a way of collecting in the knees, messaging them has a way of removing it, which will strengthen the legs and prevent arthritis.

MASSAGING THE YONG QUAN POINT

NOTE; See pressure point chart on Kidney # 1.
Bring the sole of the right foot up towards you and with the left hands forefinger and middle finger, rub Yong Quan (kidney # 1) point, in a circular motion,100 times. Then reverse the process on the left foot for a count of 100 times.

WEAVING CLOTH

Stretch your legs out straight in front of you, side by side, toe pointed upwards. Bend your elbows with the hand opened and fingers together, palms facing your feet. The backs of your hand start out close to the chest. Push your hands out towards your feet bending your back and spin forwards, while you exhale. Then turn your palms over to face your chest, and return to the starting position, inhaling as you go, then turn palms out (as before) to repeat this exercise 30 times.
This exercise will do the whole body good. Also cures back aches, promotes metabolism and flexible as well as movement in the spin.

CIRCLE BODY LIKE A WHEEL

Go back to the original posture ( Indian style) legs crossed. Place your hand over the stomach with one hand held by the other. Bring top of your body towards your toes, then move your body to the right side, then to the back the to the left side and finally to the front again. Now try it in one continued motion. This time exhale in the forward and right parts of the movement and inhale on the backward and left part of the movements. This exercise is good for the back, kidneys, organs and the digestion.

MESSAGING THE FINGERS AND THE TOES

This is the final exercise, where you massage each finger also the thumbs, and toes. With your right hand take the little finger of the left hand by the side of the tip of the finger, and turn it left then right, this will loosen the joints, do this several times. Then pressing on the edges of the finger nails strongly, Pull the hand away quickly from the fingers hold it. You will hear a popping sound if done correctly. Repeat this process on all fingers thumbs and toes. Qi entrance point; These finger, thumb and toe tips are number one point of many meridian systems, In many cases it is said that, Qi can enter as well as exit from the finger tips. If there are blockages in these places, the body will become ill. To remove any blockages would restore proper flow and good health to all meridians.

(End of exercises).

SOME FACTS ABOUT QI GUNG AND THE 12 PIECE BROCADE

The Ba Duann Gin (12 piece brocade) also called, “keep fit exercises”, is the sitting method of Qi Gung ( chi kung), practiced in the martial arts of long ago. There are still schools of Qi Gung existing sometimes as separate school from the fighting types of art systems. It would be very rare to find a karate school that teaches the total Qi Gung package. In the Gung Fu schools, 12 piece brocade is a little better represented, but again it is rare to see it exercised to the full measure, other than in a school for teaching QI Gung alone. The Ba Duann Gin, has been reduce in many Kung Fu schools to eight pieces, but you will be reading and hopefully learning the entire twelve pieces in this above article. In my articles to come, you will go from basic training to intermediate to advanced and finally mastery of these breathing exercises.

Today in some Qi Gung systems, much like the practice of Tai Chi, they has been Simplified or reduced to a exercise for longevity, which is a questionable theory, Which could be calmed about any exercises program. these types of calms would be very hard to disprove, because first you would have to know how long the test subject would have lived or better still, how well the subject would have lived, with out the exercise! You may only say that an exercise program, is a beneficial art form for ones health, as long as it is practiced daily. Qi Gung, on the other hand, has been reduced to a form of exercise for health benefits mostly, or at times for simple cures for various disorders, but Qi Gung is much more than that. For improving health, and curing illness, test results have been well documented, Qi Gung, combined with any other Martial arts program, have results that are visible, improvements which can be seen by the naked eye.

Just to begin with, martial artists, who practice Qi Gung daily, along with there fighting arts, are healthier and can become two to three times faster with less concentration, with vastly greater strength, using less effort. With long term deep study and practice, over a period a decades, according to the types of breath training or method (s), healing powers may be developed. If you steadily develop your Qi Gung to this point, you will be a few simple step away from a method known as energy transitions, the adding or subtracting of energy into or away from yours or another human bodies. This is were the legendary Cavity gate, Blood gate, Poison Hand, Iron Shirt, Trembling Palm and the like, along with many forms of healing powers, are gained. It is documented that Qi Gung masters, who can ward off dozens of attacker with just a simple wave of there hands. Others with supernatural strength, who can break stone with there bare hands, bend swords against there necks and bodies and many other recorded displays of even more supernatural powers.

Of course, there are phony’s too. Some masters I’ve witnessed, have been the real article and some were not. I myself once had a karate teacher, who studied an Okinawa style of karate, and knew his fighting art well, he also knew all the promotional gimmicks too. He would demonstrate dramatic skills, but these skills were phoned, and you would never know it! Many students have in the past gone to many martial arts schools because of witnessing this type of trickery. For example, if you see a person laying on a bed of nails claiming Chi powers, He maybe a phony! He can do it because the nail are set very close together, they can not penetrate the skin. The same thing is so when they lay on glass, the glass is broken up so fine that it has no cutting edge to it, and there are many more type of tricks other than these.

On the other hand, Master Yu, from China, came to the U.S.A. to visit a friend here. I met him through my friend who was a local Acupuncturist, who lives in Boston Ma. Master Yu, lives the life of a Buddhist monk, and practices the healing arts with out touch! Master Yu, would hold his hands over a sick persons effected area of illness, from 3 to 10 inches away, as power came out from his palms or finger tips, power which could be felt! He would raise and lower his hands as he wiggled his fingers and a strange powers could be felt ( feeling kind of like a light mist falling over you).

He would not teach the secret of his art to anyone because he would need to know a persons character type first. He said, a persons heart may not be in the right place (so to speak), to put this type of power to good use. He was afraid that it would eventually be used for a bad or wrong purpose. But we did talk about Qi Gung and healing a lot and he demonstrated his powers on me personably. In short it was real, I did feel it! Sometimes with other master, heat can be felt or even cold can be felt as well, depending on the health of the individual.

Many people out there are trying to duplicate this “no touch” method with little success,Why little success? Master Yu, would find it unthinkable to squash a insect, Master Yu, I found, has the utmost respect for live things, his only approach to living life is, to help and contribute to the well being of all living things. This is a dilemma for those who would try to produce the same effects for the purpose of harming others, using a healing art in a different way for the purpose to harm people. This ability had been fostered for a singular reason, a claim to fame which of course would automatically make money. Does this power exist? Yes it does! can it be learned? maybe, Why maybe? A persons basic character has a lot to do with the outcome of there success!

There is a reason for telling you all this, Your level of virtue is directly connected to your level of success as far as Qi powers goes. You may recall, that in many oriental movies, with a martial art theme, the evil tyrant always is shown to have a high degree of martial arts ability and power, but the man with great virtue, will have a greater abilities and powers over him! The man who would learn these thing only for the purpose of hurting others, will not gain as much power as the man who would provide help and protection to living beings. So before starting this exercise, ask yourself, Why do you want to gain these powers? If your deepest desire is to heal yourself and others and to be a benefit to mankind and the time comes you must protect yourself or others and the need to harm someone is inescapable, And you use Qi as a last response only, if this is the spirit within you, you will do well in martial art as well as Qi Gung.

If your mind is set on showing off your powers or harming your enemies for the purpose of gaining fame and fortune, you will have a lesser intermittent power. Even if you have to defeat an opponent, the mind set MUST BE for the betterment of the community, not for a private secret agenda. The first thing to think about is, what you would do if you succeed with this endeavor, How would you use it? Sorry if you don’t like this philosophy, it’s not my rules, it’s natures rules Daniel San!

But if you are not so pure of heart, there will still be great benefits to practicing Qi Gung. And on the way you may have a change of heart and find no limitations to your success in Qi Gung practices. This is what that whole Shaolin temple thing was all about! Purity brings inner strength, faith and inner strength is hard to defeat, To attack a person with this kind of inner power, well, it would be like fighting with a god.

As you practice, it would be best if you picture these exercises as a life long adventure. This kind of mind set may take you places you may only could dreamed of, other wise. Start your exercises in the most relaxed comfortable way possible. Don’t rush, don’t skip steps to get to the next dimension. Develop your patience, remembering this, Many who practice Qi Gung have great fun seeing the sick, get well under there hand. I myself have healed several students along with others in my time, to me, it is was great fun. Remember this too, killing is easy to do, even the unskilled can do that! But who can heal the sick? only the skilled can do this. My students have seen me hit stone and break it in half, just using my hand, and there response was WOW. But when you make a students, shorter leg grow as long as his other leg, you have his life time gratitude! And he will speak of it all of his life.

(To view the first part of this article click here)

The post Qi Gung, the lost art. Part 2 appeared first on Pressure Point Arts.

Once again the reason I titled this article Qi Gung (the lost art) is because instructors make this vital process in martial arts too complicated or don’t themselves know enough about it to make it easy to learn. In this article I will try to simplify the instructions, so you can start work on your QI balance today!But first, a very short history on the subject and then we train!

HISTORY:
Dama, a Buddhist preacher who traveled from India to China to teach the Buddhist philosophy to the Chinese monks, living there. He, Dama was the father of what we now know as, QI Gung . The Country of India had already established forms of Medical therapy and exercise along these lines but Dama seeing that the community of monks were, in fact, drained of energy and vitality, were not able to stay alert and responsive to the rituals which are a part of Buddhist practice. Dama, unable to correct the problem at first, reportedly retreated to a cave and meditated for nine years on this difficulty. When he emerged from the cave he created two forms of exercise to help the monks to regain there energy and vitality. These two forms were very different from the ones found in India. Although they shared similar foundations, Dama’s two exercise’s provided movement and were not static in nature. In this way, QI Gung was formed, and in time Qi Gung became, quit by accident, a basic building block for all the forms of Chinese martial arts.

Later all other systems, soft and hard, would adopt Qi Gung into its regiments of formal exercise. Even the Okinawa martial arts adopted Qi Gung into their practices. And in some cases the higher forms of karate still do incorporate Qi Gung into their fighting arts. But in time as karate became simplified, Chi Kung (Qi Kung) was dropped from the traditional practices. But In the original Gung Fu and Karate systems they were never meant to be separated from the fighting arts or dropped altogether. Originally the fighting arts and Qi Gung were all part of the system and were practiced by the all students at the same time as the fighting arts. One of the reasons for dropping the Qi Gung practices was time to make the art quicker to learn. They would drop certain aspects of training, one of them, basic vital points the other Chi Kung. But in times past, they were a part of what the masters today called, “the old ways”.

The name Qi, simply put means “internal energys”, and the word Gung means “work” or “to work’. The combination of the two words, “to work on the internal energy systems”, by way of breathing and messaging certain points of the body. This type of energy work would be best described by telling you what it is not! It is not necessarily strength having to do with muscle. It is not necessarily power ( having to do with mightiness), and it is not necessarily speed having to do with quickness although the end result is all these will improve greatly. Qi Gung is producing core energy, in the places the core energy originates, not were it ends up. Qi is the energy that flows through the System of the body by way of, a liquid-chemical chain like system called meridians which by way of this liquid-chemical mixture, energy is created, stored, transported to every part of the body, brain, nerves, organs, skin etc… The wrong type or amount will cause sickness and or disease. On this fact the higher martial arts is based, for it is possible to enter a pulse of QI into an opponents body which will disturb the opponents QI balance. This type of ability comes directly from the practice of long term QI Gung practice. It also is a self help management tool for keeping fit, healing, and helping to heal others.

Qi Gung practice starts with the breathing process which is focused on pressure points found inside the human body. The type of practice to start with depends on the general health of the individual. I will go about this discussion by starting with the sickly individual and go on to the healthier one, and what that may mean (Sickly and healthy). And we will get to know why the ancestor’s practiced QI Gung and why in the orient it is still practiced even today. Qi Gung is in use today as a form of therapy by oriental peoples, along with medical forms and practices like cupping, acupressure, acupuncture, message, herbal tea’s and foods, as well as western medicines. All have a place in eastern medicine in this culture.

EMOTIONAL STATE

The alpha and omega of eastern medicine is, our emotions. The state of our emotion is what can dictate the difference between good health and illness, also life and death. In eastern medicine, the freeing of a negative emotion is the key to good health. There are many things we can do to free our selves from a negative emotional state. When I ride on my motor cycle, I find myself too involved in the controls and the beauty of the country side to think about how I feel. It is that way with many things we do. Isn’t it? Meditation works much the same way. Meditation provides a way of emptying one self of negative (destructive) emotions and can bring oneself to a balanced peaceful place in the spirit. The primary tool used in meditation is a tool called quiet. The goal of QI Gung is for the mind, the spirit, and the organ of the human body to be still in a sense to be quiet. And the way to use this tool (quiet) is by using the imagination. Yes the key factor in the practice of Qi Gung is your imagination. if you don’t have one you will not be very successful. So get one!

MAKING THE MIND QUITE

In this exercise one needs to make the brain (mind) quiet. This you will find is not that easy. You may find that it is very hard at first to quiet down your mind. You may have to work at it for a time, but this process is a must for your health and the building of the stillness of mind needed to be a good martial artist, as well as healthy in body, mind, and spirit. I find that in the arts I can tell right away, the ones practicing Qi Gung from the ones who are not. The ones who are not trying to anticipate your moves, for the most part that’s impossible, but they will try anyway. Also the ones that can’t shut up and always think there being treated unfairly. The Qi Gung practitioner’s mind is quiet enough to see his opponents move coming, as if in slow motion. This may only be done by having a quiet mind. So now lets start the process in which we can open a quiet mind. We can start by following the coming directions.

ESSENTIAL NOURISHING EXERCISE

This is a wonderful exercise when you find your mind going a mile a minute or you can’t sleep at night because your mind is racing. Intrinsic nourishing exercise, is one of the main types of stationary breathing exercises. It requires you to regulate your breathing, imagine your self directing your breath downwards to the Dan Tian. While you think a thought in your minds eye, move your tongue to the roof of your mouth in the inhale and down and relaxed on the exhale.

Step 1. There are four suggested postures, you will pick one according to your health condition.

• A: Lay sideways; Get in your bed, with your head on a pillow, lay side ways and tilt your head slightly forwards. Curve your back slightly. Place your hand (the one that would be on the bed) Palm up beside your ear. Place your other arm along your body with the palm on your leg. The legs should have a slight curve, one leg on top of the other. This should feel very natural to you and comfortable. Many people find themselves going to sleep in just this type of posture.
• B: Supine posture; This one is when you lie flat on your back in bed. Place your head on a pillow, stretch your arms along the side of your body with the palms facing in towards the body.
• C: Sitting posture; Sit on a chair, keeping the back straight but relaxed. Feet flat on the ground shoulder wide. Relax the shoulder and chest.
• D: Strengthening posture; Lay in the same way as the supine posture but under your head put two pillows (eight inches of lift) and put one pillow under your back and shoulder, which will give your body a sloping effect. Stretch both legs out and then relax them side by side. The arm should be stretched one on each side with the palms against the sides if your legs.

The Supine posture is used when a person is ill or sickly. In this case the person would choose the right or left side according to comfort factor. A person with a problem with his colon, may feel more comfortable on his left side or some one with a heart problem on his right. The other posture may be used as one feels and according to what works best for the individual.

Note: to learn the Qi Gung exercises correctly, first you will need to learn how to relax, breath and quiet the mind and the spirit. Then you can go on with the correct more complicated precess of Qi Gung. Although there are many forms of Qi Gung they are all basically the same in nature.

Now that we know four starting postures, lets learn more about breathing. There are three method of breathing.

• Breathing method #1, Simplified; Mouth closed lightly, breathing through the nose, inhale air, and imagine you can direct it down past the lungs, past the stomach to a place located behind the intestine, one and a half inches below the umbilicus (belly button), just in front of your vertebra called the Dan Tian. Hold your breath there for one second, then exhale smoothly and slowly. As your breathing in, think the words “quiet mind” or “I’m breathing in health” or “I’m relaxed”. These thoughts should be slow enough to last through the inhale and exhale process. When you breath in, touch you tongue to the roof of your mouth, lower your tongue as you exhale.
• Breathing method, #2, Simplified; The difference with this method is to change the holding of the breath. Instead of holding breath in the Dan Tian, you will breath in then out and then hold your breath for one second and then think the thoughts in method #1. Every thing else is just the same as method # 1.
• Breathing method #3, Simplified; Inhale, with your tongue placed against the roof of your mouth, and take a breath through the nose then hold your breath, again inhale a little more air, imagining the air going down to Dan Tian, as you say a word in your mind. Again inhale a little more, saying a word in your mind. Do this as many times as possible. Then relax the tongue placing it normally exhale slowly and smoothly. In all exercises, there should be no sound when inhaling or exhaling.

THE DAN TIAN AND HOW TO CONCENTRATE ON IT

Originating in India, the Dan Tian is a common term used in many Qi Gung exercises and known also to most of the martial arts systems as well. Medically the Dan Tian or Ren # 6, (Qi Hai) is located 1,5 inches below the umbilicus. Of course, this fact differs from one martial art to another.

To fined Dan Tian, place your finger 1 and a half inches below your belly button and with the other hand, place the finger of the opposite hand, at the side of your hip. Where the lines of your two fingers cross in the core of your body is were the true Dan Tian is located. The doctors of ancient Chinese medicine say that Dan Tian is the place were vital energy rises and gathers. If a person concentrates his mind (imagination) on it, he can ward off illness and disease. The Dan Tian, is the place were fighting energy and sexual energy is stored.

All traditional martial arts teach this but much of the practice for concentrating on Dan Tian has been lost, due to the modernization of martial arts into a more acceptable sports like art due to the length of time needed to master many ancient methods and processes.

HOW TO CONCENTRATE THE MIND

To keep away from all distracting thoughts, the mind must concentrate. There are three methods for concentration. The most common is the Dan Tian. Another is the Shan Zhang, located at the diaphragm, and on the tips of the toes of the feet. The Dan Tian is the most used although lady’s should use Shan Zhang because of lengthening of there menstrual cycle and if you are plagued by stray thoughts when meditating, you should concentrate on the toe’s. The idea is to stop your mind from wandering wereever it wants to go.

By concentrating your mind on the Dan Tian ( Shan Zhang or toe’s) the mind will become quiet and the mind will rest and regain health. That can translate throughout the whole body. This is the breathing part of the exercise, you need to take the time to master these things first before you go on. Why? I will expand on this exercise later. Be patent, for if you learn this exercise first, you will find great health benefits. Then you can go on to a more difficult expanded exercise. Don’t skip to the next part of the exercises until you’ve mastered this part first. You should do this exercise untill you become very relaxed when doing them and until you can take up to fifty breaths at a sitting, moving from one method to an other. This will take no less then six months to a year to master but as I said before, you will find great benefits in this exercise.

TONIC EXERCISE

The tonic exercise is the cream of the basic exercise practiced in the Buddhist, Confucian and Taoist religions and adopted by the Shaolin temple and given to all traditional martial arts of ancient times.

• Posture # 1, Free crossed leg posture. Sit on a blanket or pillow to help keep your back straight and relaxed. Cross your leg ( Indian style), close your eyes gently, relax your shoulders as well as the muscles of the neck and chest. Place your hand on your lap holding one an other. Try to keep your back straight but relaxed.
• Posture # 2, Single crossed leg posture. First get into the free crossed leg posture, then place your bottom leg on top of the higher leg so that the soles of the feet are on top facing upwards.
• Posture # 3, Double cross-leg posture. Put your right lower leg on top of your left leg. Then lift your left foot and place it on your right leg so that the two legs cross with the two soles facing out wards.
• Posture # 4, Standing posture. Standing straight with your feet shoulder width apart, knees bent ever so slightly, with your head very slightly bent forwards. Close your eyes gently, relax the neck, shoulders and chest. Place your hand in front of Dan Tian with hands relaxed and your palm face the body. The thumbs on each hand should be spread apart and away from the fingers. Or place the hands in front of the diaphragm in the same way.
• Posture #5, Free posture. You may take any posture you wish other than the ones mention above! If you are exhausted mentally or physically do what you wish. This will improve your condition. But remember to center your mind on the Dan Tian and relax your whole body.

In all cases, keep your back straight and relaxed, don’t slump. Note; any one of the above postures is good as long as you can become relaxed. None of the above postures are better or get you there faster than an other. So find the one that will make you most comfortable and relaxed. That is the goal for choosing the right posture.

BREATHING METHODS

• Breathing method # 1, Natural breathing; The is a natural breath function with no restrictions. This is most useful to the older person or the sick person.
• Breathing method # 2, Deep breathing ; Extend your abdomen as you inhale. Breath in slowly, deeply, softly, evenly. Used for some illnesses and people who have trouble quitting there mind.
• Breathing method # 3,Reverse breathing; Contract your diaphragm along with your abdomen, as you inhale, again breath slowly, evenly, softly deeply. Slowly release the diaphragm and expand the abdomen as you exhale as well.Note; Choose a posture then a breathing method and go for it! Experimentation is good, Practice gradually building up to fifty breaths at a sitting. Do not force yourself. Daily practice can help to develop slow, even, soft, deep, breathing technique, which should be your goal.

Read part 2 of this arcticle here.

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The Vital Points combat arts, has been misunderstood for many different reasons. One reason that needs to be acknowledged is that the early development of these art forms were created to destroy the enemy and the need to make these arts instinctual. Therefore in those days the combat arts were a lethal art. It was a war-developed form of lethal hand-to-hand combat, which would render a man inanimate by means of unconsciousness and or death, preferably within one strike. Reason being, when encountering an enemy, that enemy must not be able to signal his company for any type of assistance. A second reason is in centuries past, it was used for the purpose of silent entry to a fortification. The schooling and teaching of these arts were reserved for security and military purposes, and are still used to this day.

One thing we do know is, at the turn of the century most Asian martial art systems had changed the attitude of schooling and of kata applications. They would not fully explain to the majority of there students and only to the master top student, the exact point strikes and its technical methods and theories. These Masters decided that they would leave out these techniques and methods in order to civilize the art to display karate publicly in the school systems of Japan. In leaving all deadly techniques out, for fear of civilians getting hurt, was the original reason (martial combat) was drop from the art altogether. Short cuts replaced the techniques and methods in most martial art systems, and a sport or street martial art became popular. Today the making of short cuts, in the good old U.S.A., is even more wide spread. Why? It is profitable and it attracts more students because it is easier and faster to learn! (The new easy to learn method) This practice has continuously turned away from the long years of training and the true art form. Much has been lost. It is understandable in a way because life is so much more complicated today than it was in the time of the founding fathers of the martial arts.

In ancient times there were a breed of men that would make the time as well as travel great distances to learn the martial art from anyone who would teach them. In those areas of the world is were you find where the arts thrive.

The first to use vital points to strike the human body was southern India. Kalari beliefs of today consider Bodhidharama, a Buddhist monk from India, introduced the martial science to China and there it evolved into the legendary system of today. Some of Karate’s larger systems have a legendary story transmitted from master to student, and is still in some schools taught to this day. This is how it goes.

It was approximately in the year 3,000 B.C, in India a prince of the royal family lived. He was very wealthy and had many servants. This prince had a great interest in the way that many of the animals fought and defended them selves, especially in a case of a life and death encounter with a predator and the ways used to escape their demise. The prince would spend many hours in the study of the individual movements of the animals and birds as well as their methods of self-defense. He studied the birds and animals of the forest, noting how they used their power to defend themselves. For instance, white crane uses skills along with Qi, when using its legs and wings along with its spirit coupled with silence. (The spiritual requirements mean that you need to be relaxed the (arms) wings in order to circulate air). He noticed the strength and stealth that the Tiger used before successfully slaying its prey. The Tigers strength is in the body springing from the thighs and the waist. Its eyes glare with anger. The prince applied these combat techniques found in the animal kingdom to the human torso and found many of them to be successful.

The second area that the Indian prince explored is after seeing a warrior struck fatally with a Bo staff, he became fascinated so much by the ease of the strike and the quickness of the warriors demise, that he started experimenting on captured warriors and slave to discover the weakness in all parts of the human body. Using an instrument that looked slightly similar to a chopstick, carved from bone and fabricated with a blunt point so it would not puncture the surface of the skin. The prince then gave the order to have healthy living slaves and captive worriers jabbed with this instrument in many parts of the body, noting the outcome of each individual reaction. In this bizarre account, thousands of captive warriors and slaves gave their lives for the purposes of the prince’s peculiar experiments. In the end, all of the vital points of the human body had been discovered. Finally, the prince combined the movements of the animals with the vital points that caused an unhealthy effect and later learned to use the hands and feet as weapons as well as using weaponry.

The use of vital point applications further advanced in China about the time of the Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD). In the book named Li Chi, among other things, contained records of death by violence. In 1247 AD a book call Hai Yaun Li, contains a list of 32 dangerous points. In addition, a book called The Bubishi a scroll used by the Okinawan martial arts community has many pressure point lists. Today many U.S. martial artists have worked hard to under stand vital point striking, compiling notes and writing books as well as make videotapes to help instructors as well as students to simplify the learning process. It should be noted that it is extremely difficult to learn by these methods.

Later around the sixteen hundreds, China replaced it’s civil envoys in Okinawa with military men, among whom were many noted for there prowess in Chinese Kempo. The Okinawa’s took a keen interest in their ability and combined these techniques with there own native martial system called TE. The thirty-six points started to spread to martial arts families of Okinawa. These families would of course keep the vital points a secret so that the very people they warred against would not learn the bases of these critical techniques. Some techniques that you will be studying on this web site are from the thirty-six vital points and a few additional points. Some of the points were lost or never given to these Okinawan Masters of TE, But this didn’t slow down the Okinawa masters. They had some of there own and added them right on to what they learned from the Chinese. This is why you will be studying forty-four points rather than thirty-six. In addition, there are multitudes of critical point that I will list, 109 points.

In remembrance of these ancient masters’ who practiced the old ways, and after a long study on this subject myself, I have decided to reveal to the public the art and exact locations of all vital points and the techniques that make it work. For those wishing to learn and practice the forbidden art.

WARNING! I want you to understand the real and intense danger that fooling around with striking points can cause. Therefore, I wish to set a few simple rules to help guide you through with out doing damage to yourself or others.

1. A VITAL POINT STRIKE can cause unconsciousness, paralyze parts of the body, disrupt organ function and cause death. Do not intentionally strike a point on another person’s body or you’re own body, (To find a pressure points, press don’t strike).
2. Never strike two or more points with in a twenty four-hour period (practice one point each day). To combine points has, in the past, has caused accidental death.
3. Pressing too hard can cause health problems, (press to the point of discomfort not pain). In most cases, vital points can be established with light pressure.
4. Never practice striking the body as your practice partner is inhaling. This is a technique used to maximize a vital point strike.
5. Dim Mak strikes can and will cause death anywhere from instantaneously to seven years later. For this reason, these points should never be hit other than in a combat situation.
6. Do not practice pressing points after a heavy work out.

Conclusion.

The combat arts (Budo) using vital point strikes are a stark contrast from the martial arts practiced today. There are really three categories of practice throughout all of the martial systems.

1. Combat martial arts – using any means to KILL, MAIM, or DESTROY the enemy without regard for law.
2. Street fighting arts – to damage to incapacitate, within lawful jurisdiction.
3. Sport martial arts – to do little to no damage at all, along with some self-defense.

In addition, with each of these categories, they carry their own philosophy that cannot be intercommunicated as an all in one art. Today the general public at large has become much to civilized to carry along with them the philosophy that would be needed to be incorporated tactically, technically, and spiritually.

To be a warrior you must become war! To be a good street fighter you must hit first, hit hard and subdue. To be a good Sport martial artist you must be good at sparring and hit the target first without being hit.

Therefore there must be a different type of philosophy in each category to make them work for the student. In addition, there are to many instructors out there that try to please their students by mixing street fighting, combat, and sport martial arts together, IT CAN’T BE DONE!

The pioneers of the martial arts lived in a somewhat antiquated society. Combative skills were a necessary part of every day life. Without it, you would surly be at the mercy of the warlords, robbers and thieves. Today, it is true that, there is not so much of a need for the combat arts and its philosophy, unless you live in an urban war zone or are soon to go into combat. Many of us are enchanted with those very pioneer’s that lived at that time. To know how the vital points worked and the philosophy involved and the techniques, method and training that was done back in there day. Much of it is lost, forever, but there is a lot that maybe uncovered or rediscovered.

For more information and other articles click here

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Attitudes and preparation for encounters

We have all heard the word, in the Do-Jo, as a term used in the  practice of sparring or at sparring matches or at our local tournaments, But what does Kamae (Kam-I) mean? It is understood as a expression to signal alertness and to posture yourselves for action. In ancient times the word Kamae had a very different meaning. When translated into English, the word literally means, structure or construction. Kamae, in the Japanese language is mainly used to communicate a well built structure, as in a house, building or temple. In martial arts, the word Kamae has a dissimilar meaning. In the ancient martial arts world, kamae (structure) would be thought of as, one who thinks like a military general which studies the design of a fortress surrounding a castle or city.  If he were at war and his intent was to sack a metropolis, an Asian general would study the land mass leading up to the outer walls and how he might overcome those barriers. He would study the material construction of the walls, the height, thickness, how deep under ground the walls penetrate, if there is any underground water systems, and so on. He should learn this and more for a better understanding before aggressive action. In the same way, a Kamae will be studied and should be understood by two opponents who face one an other in combat. For this reason, the stance and the hand position may be viewed as a fortress or barrier surrounding the city or in this case the body. In this way the word Kamae should be viewed. A masters understanding is, if the posture can be comprehended before contact the battle is already won! Even if the opponent used one posture after another, if the posture has been read and understood, the odds are well in the masters favor. This fact has been held in mystery for over seventy years. And this teaching has been minimized around the world to this day.

There is and old story, which I was told years ago in one of the schools I studied in. It goes like this. Two Grand masters who chose to address each other in mortal combat faced each other bowed, and then one master postured himself (in a kamae). The other master in reply postured himself  as well. The first master changed his posture and in reply so did the other. This went on and on till the two masters determined the match to be a stalemate, turned in opposite directions and left for home. The first time I was told this story my minds response was, what the -^!*&- is that supposed to mean?  As time when by, and I sparred in the DoJo I slowly started to understand the story. And I learned to study the postures of my opponent. As I learned, my sparring record went from a one win one lose figure to a constant win factor. I also realized that it didn’t matter what color belt the opponent had. What mattered was if he got confused with my posture and if I understood his! It changed all the ground rules for sparring for me.

So, how many Kamae’s are there? Originally, there were four which came out of the Shaolin temple. In time the four Kamae’s were expanded to thirty-two Kamae’s. How ever, it maybe said that there are five basic and unique Kamae’s, but alas, century’s ago, the Kamae, was considered too precarious to teach any longer because it was a primary method used only to study a life and death combat situation and it’s teachings in totality had been prohibited in the orient along with other practices of the martial arts. So then “what is a Kamae”? It is much more than a posture used to protect the body. Lets analyze one of the commonly known, “on guard” postures, in doing so, we may better understand just why the study of the Kamae was so important to learn in ancient times.

Enshin-no-kamae

The name of the illustration of the posture below is called, in Japanese, Enshin-on-kamae. If we haven’t used it for sparring ourselves, we’ve seen something like it in tournament sparring matches. The drawing is a very old Shaolin representation from a early manuscript. This posture was titled, “Change hungry tiger robs the goat”. I translate the name to mean, change (movements) of the hungry (determined) tiger (predator minded) robs the goat (low comprehension skills). The Comments for this illustration tell us that you would take steps forwards and backward as the hands changed there positions from high to low in a rotational motion. (This hand motion would be similar to pedaling a bicycle using your hands) stepping three steps forwards then seven steps back at the same time. When this movement came to Okinawa and Japan, the name was changed to Enshin-no-kamae. Today, it’s the most used fighting posture. In fact, it is a rare duck to see another posture used in a sparring match or tournament. Several other sport fighting arts have adopted Enshin-no-kamae into their fighting arts. But the question is, did the ancient fighters of the Shaolin temple use Enshin-no-kamae for the same reasons as we do today? The answers may surprise you.

In Schools and tournament sparring you will witness similar postures which are for the most part static.  As we go on to analyze Enshin-no-kamae, the first thing we may notice is the hands are placed in front of the body spanning the center line of the upper and middle parts of the body for protection. The stance also covers the center line of the lower body ( hips and legs). Today Enshin-no-kamae is used for fear of a strike to the front of the body. This was not totally the case in ancient times. In ancient times, the operator of Enshin-no-kamae moved his body back and forth as he rotated hand positions creating a “obstruction”, forcing an attack to the outside of the body rather than the front of it. The attacker would feel that a straight in assault would be difficult and worked around this type of defense. Now as you look at the depiction, it is noted that there seems to be open areas (for a possible strike) and others (the front) are more closed. The attacker most likely would strike at the more open areas rather than the closed. This is the subtle strategy of all types of Kamae-s. To hopefully cause the attacker to strike at and open area for a very special strategic reason. The mysterious teachings of the all kamaes, as you may be starting to recognize is that, there is more to it than a posture or a stance. In Enshin-no-kamae, when in the hands of a person who has learned, mastered and  practiced all the secrets of the kamae, could use it to gain superior advantage. You may be asking at this point, what secret and what are the advantages? As you continue to look at the  drawing below, note the seemingly opened area that you may perceive as possibilities for a successful strike. The simple fact is that you are in reality being sucked in to interpret the option as reality when you are not! You may be asking the question, How am I misinterpreting what I see? The answer is you have been lead into a trap! Why? Because there are standard blocks as well as strikes which are within the posture, which protect the opened areas from attacker! You maybe thinking, I didn’t know that, I wonder what they are? The first technique I should explain is, the use of two stances used in Enshin-no-kamae, the back stance and the cat stance. The two stances are interchangeable and can be used to trick the attacker by using a back stance to telegraph an illusion of stability and the inability to kick but the stance can be changed quickly to a cat stance, by drawing back the lead leg, which may snap out a kick or block one from the opponent. The second technique is to learn how to move forwards and backwards with a slight curve, very quickly. This will throw off the timing for an attack. The third technique is that the two hands can be rotated in a pin wheel fashion in a forwards rotation (explained above) either continually or at will.

The continual motion will confuse your opponent, but more importantly as the lower hand rises up it maybe used to strike high as the opposite hand lowers which maybe used to block a strike! Are you starting to get the picture? Mastery of just these three techniques can build a hard to penetrate field for a center line attack, which will force even a seasoned fighter to go for the more open areas. The foolish opponent will just dive in to the buzz saw with a frontal attack! There is even more to Enshin-no-kamae! But at this point I should stop and explain how you may use Enshin-no-kamae practically.

In the Kata Shin Shu, For the students benefit, I displayed Enshin-no-kamae in a more advanced way in the later part of the kata. Turning from north to the south you immediately stand in the Enshin-no-kamae posture (as seen above, left hand high and left foot forward in a back stance) as the opponent comes forwards to attack, the illustrations hands rotate forward (three times) as the front foot retreat into a cat stance, and kicks. I interpret the movement of the hands in two ways, the opponent attacks with a fist strike. The kata shows the higher hand dropping down to block the attack as the bottom hand rises to strike the opponent by way of creating an opening, which is the same area your opponent once used for his own strike! The other interpretation is the two hands rotate to cause your opponent to study the meaning of the rotating hands as you attack him low by way of kicking. This is the way I demonstrate and teach Enshin-no-kamae in my Shin Shu kata as am advanced technique but there is more to it than that!

We began by noticing that there were closed areas as well as opened ones. And that the attacker would automatically try to strike at the open areas. This is were the Yin Yang theory comes in to play, The theories states as follows, “what is closed must become open and what is open must become closed”.  In this case, The Enshin-no-kamae is closed in the front, so it must open to the outside. You maybe asking, how does it open? Enshin-no-kamae, opens in the way of blocks and strikes to it’s opened areas, using the Chudan-tsuki, Kinkeri and Mae-geri with Shotei and thrust to the opponents stomach with Nukite also a poke to the eyes with a Nukite, parry-ing with Jodan-tsuki with Shotei, Shuto or Henka-Shotei. The foot can be used Kin-geri, Mae-geri and Kansersu-geri. Now that we have gone this far, we can start to see that one Kamae is a total protection system all on its own!

But just for fun, lets make a subtle change to Enshin-no-kamae by changing it to Soshu-no-Kamae. This change can be made simply by changing the two open hands into closed fists, all else is the same. Now a whole different range of techniques can be used. The hands can now punch rather than stab or chop. With this one simple change, the striking arsenal for the hands has doubled. This is also shown in the kata Shin Shu, the technique is called, “shifting hands”.  If you are starting to think to yourself, WOW, that’s incredible. What about this? What if we could learn about the other Kamaes? You now have a working knowledge of Enshin-on-kamae and Soshu-no-kamae what about the others. Maebane-no-kamae, Ryuhen-no-kamae, Birin-no-kamae and henka-soten-no-kamae along with their strategies methods and techniques? What would you have? You would have, Martial arts!

My study of the history of martial arts, has shown that Kamaes are the ancestor of Kata. In fact Kata came from the early Kamaes, And these postures have a variety of techniques with vast forethought put in to an array of strategies. And that Kata may simply be one kamae attached to another kamae. If this theory is correct, the way back through history in terms of finding out the meaning of kata is through the Kamae.  By the careful study and practice of the collection of Kamae, you may unlock the original meanings as well as the adaptations of Kata and therefore better understand are martial art systems.
Today’s tournament sparring has been heavy influents by boxing. Many followers around the world consider today’s tournament sparring as nontraditional, as well as ineffective. I consider these query to have an element of veracity. If the teachings of martial arts continue to be side stepped, then the old Roman empire has truly returned!  And the new coliseum, the ring, and the octagon will give way to traditional martial arts to boxing and mixed martial arts were youth, strength, and DNA become the measuring stick all for the sake of a TV rating and a big audiences. Martial arts on the other hand, has always been about knowledge and wisdom, but the end result for the participants of fighting may be a moment of glory, a crippled body, and a broken spirit which is almost always the case for boxers and the like. When they get old  all they may have left is memories of when they were the strongest. Which is the final story for most fighters as we already know and that’s sad isn’t it? Traditional Martial arts is different in this way. We learn and in learning we use wisdom to over come complexity. Fighting is when two men bump heads. The thicker skull wins every time! Martial arts on the other hand, when you are attacked by way of head butting, move your head! So, as an old time martial arts student the study of kamaes and like methods is a vital part of the wisdom factor and distinguishes martial artists from fighters.  The study of martial arts methods like Kamae is were the difference is made.

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In the past, ancient Chinese manuscripts have been written about how and when to strike vital points or a specific a pressure point. Contained in these writings, were twelve basic rules which most of the ancient systems strictly followed. Later, as the Chinese visited the Okinawa people, new manuscripts were written by Okinawan masters, but many of these masters hadn’t collected a complete set of these rules. But in China many of the higher martial art systems still follow these rules to this day. A deeper understanding of these twelve rules will certainly assist in your progress in the mastery of striking points. It can also assist you when practicing in the Dojo. Out of these twelve rules, the tenth rule, weather and time is the subject of this article.

Important rules for Striking Points

1. The correct bodily weapon to use.
2. The direction and depth of the strike.
3. Proper breathing control.
4. Age and health of opponent.
5. Sex of opponent.
6. The degree of power.
7. The number of strokes necessary.
8. The stroke technique.
9. The muscle structure of the opponent.
10. The weather and time effects.
11. The length of time before application of strike.
12. The synchronization ability of opponent.

These are basic rules for beginners for the point striking arts.

Part of understanding the tenth rule is to realize that there is a correct time of day to strike most pressure points. The GV meridian and the CV meridian, under normal conditions, have no specific times for striking, any time of day or night is equally potent. All other meridians and their points have a special time for striking. The quandary is in connecting a time to a point and to memorize each and every point with it’s individual time of day. This may have been the very reason why this knowledge has waxed in modern times. But if you are a student of point striking, you may find two reasons to resurrect this information, 1) This additional knowledge makes striking more effective in a life and death struggle. 2) So that injury or even death, may not accidental happen during practice. Which as most of us know, has been the case. An additional consideration is how does the weather effect the time?

Noon Midnight Law

The noon midnight law is used in acupuncture and was adopted for point striking. In the practice of acupuncture, doctors choose certain times of day to treat the various organs for illnesses Yin organs respond best at the time of day they are most active, Yang organs follow the same principle. The vital point striking arts utilize the same concepts. Shown in the charts below, the center number is the highest period for activity , for example, in the Gall Bladder the times below show us three hours, 11 pm is the starting point of a rise in activity, 1 am is the time the meridian levels activity back to normal, but 12 o’clock is the highpoint of activity. So 12 o’clock is the proper time for highest activity for healing as well as striking. In the earlier Chinese manuscripts each point listed had a single hour beside each and every point. The most commonly known time chart is the wheel chart below. To the left is another commonly used time chart, note that the times are slightly different. But each chart has a singular high activity time, in which doctors of old and the martial artists alike would activate necessary pressure points.

The Standard Noon Midnight Time Table

60 to 70 degrees

Yin & Yang

Note that the wheel chart is cut in half, one half Yin the other half Yang, this is the key to the direction of the flow of energy (QI) or the direction that the energy travels. This is helpful information because when striking a point, there are three methods used

1. stopping energy
2. reversing energy
3. accelerating energy.

Construct your own chart

It is possible to construct a chart with your systems pressure points using the time charts above. Below is a partial sample of the Shin Shu time chart. You may want to apply the above chart to the list of pressure points your school uses.

Shin Shu Ryu

Single strike vital points of the head and neck.
With activity times.
Sampler

You now may orientate your striking points by time to use in a combat situation. Also, to construct a safety time schedule for practice. The striking points marked “time open”, are doubly dangerous because the effect that may be caused by a strike, may vary and that variance can be instantaneous or delayed. The doubled striking points are dangerous also because the first point time interlocks with the second point time which gives the point a variance of six hours of high activity.

THE HEAD

THE NECK

Shin Shu Ryu

24 hour single strike pressure points sample of active times.

A few things are noticeable right away from the sample charts above that I have given. The first thing is that if you add in points you already know, you can expand your own chart according to time. And some simple experiments can be made by using pressing, tapping or rubbing these points listed above or your own points in and around the proper times listed. This will give you a working understanding of how time can dramatically increase effectiveness. Also that the point combinations marked with a * , show two things, one is that when two points are hit at the same time, like GB #1 & TW #23 on the temple, this combination can be hit at two activity times in the same day. But in the case of LI # 18 & ST #9, with times that over lap, LI with 6 to 8 am and ST #9 with 8 to 10 am, it now starts to become clear that the strike time enlarges by additional hours, 7,8,9 interlocking hours of highest activity. The over all range of time for these strikes are from 10 pm to 2 am, in the case of this particular combination. Given the understanding that points exist within inches of one and other, combination of points can be hit without even knowing it. Because of time, the effects seem to vary, but the truth of the matter is that the point you may be testing has been tapping another point all along! This is the very reason why masters of ancient times used a lot of one or two finger strikes and single or double knuckle strikes. With this knowledge a true understanding of why a hand or foot weapon may be listed and why they change from school to school.

Weather and Time

An additional complication to vital point striking times is that temperature changes the activity time of the meridian and therefore the points strike. In other words, the temperature or weather conditions, can be a definite factor in the outcome of striking a point successfulness. Temperatures that range from 30 degrees to over 100 degrees changes the best strike time or it’s high point of activity dramatically. At 90 degrees the above noon midnight chart has been made worthless. Simply because the mathematical sequence listed above deteriorates. Some points have a longer span of time, instead of a three hour span, a individual point can have a 4 or 5 hour span. Some points not only change times but flip from AM to PM! And strange as it may seem, many CV & GV points, develop a specific striking time rather than having a open activity time. Scientifically speaking, a question arises, is there a mathematical way to decode the changes that weather or temperatures bring? Can it be figure-able and brought down to a typical cycle or ratios? The answer is NO!

That would be like trying to apply mathematics’ to Quantum Physics. Acupuncture’s medical theory, of noon midnight applies only in 60 to 70 degree temperatures, Manuscripts like The Bubishi, state that strike points have a special active time for striking but the Bubishi does not mention weather fluctuations to activity which will cause deviations in time, But the old Chinese manuscripts do! As temperature Changes all meridians grow more and more radical. An example, at 80 to 90 degrees, one point goes from a three hour span, as another changes from AM to PM, as another shortens from three hours to two!
Another thought to consider is, when two adversaries battling it out, there body’s heat up (see rule number 11). These rule lets use know that the strikes maybe more successful later rather than sooner, due to body’s higher heat factor and can also change strike times just as the weather does.
Also there is a real and ever present danger to repeatedly striking points (rule number 7). When in practice an extensive knowledge of time and temperature along with health ( rule number 4), has become fatal from time to time. The cause may not be detectable by medical science, and a cure can be elusive.

Safety First

There are safe ways to learn all about striking points and that’s the old school way. By kata and kata data from a truly qualified instructor and by repetition of Kata, And two man sets. Never ever strike a point for practice, tap with the proper hand weapon, using a light bouncing action. You may also lightly press down on a vital point. Another method is to use a rolling action on a point.

You maybe asking at this point, how will I know if what I have learned really works? My answer to my students, “you will know when and if the time comes.” Let’s hope that the time never comes! The fool chatters the wise lesson. Or, do you feel lucky? Well do ya? I sure don’t, I’m not all that lucky!

Below is a sample of a document from ancient Chinese manuscript called, the 25 Dim Mak points. This document tells us that the weather or temperature will change the strike times of each point in different ways according to each point. This particular school, lists 25 points with four time changes per point according to temperature. The same thing is true of all points of the meridians in the entire body. Combinations are not listed for the simple reason that listing those effects becomes much to complicated. But in the case of warfare, horrorable effects do not matter, dead is dead, but in today’s civilized world, we need to take note and not play with death.

A question that has come up from time to time is, “does the noon midnight wheel chart apply no matter where on the globe you live?” Answer: the wheel chart is constant no matter where you live because it is ruled by the Sun & Moon & the pitch of the earth.

Unfortunately accidental deaths do occur

I was notified by a MA instructor, about an accidental death of a NH student. His death was due to his unauthorized practice of striking pressure points. Namely the ST# 9 point, This student along with another decided to practice striking each other in the dojo without supervision. When the head instructor saw them, he stopped it, but it was too late.

One of the two students died two days after attending a seminar on pressure point striking. One of the two students suffered no ill effects, the other was found dead in his NH apartment the following day. I personally knew this student from teaching at his school about a year earlier. I remember him as a great guy, a fine student, but a little impetuous, and fixated on learning pressure points. He dogged me constantly, which I declined on account of his immaturity and rank.

Over the years, I have had countless questions by e-mail and phone call, from martial students who suddenly became very ill after attending one of these seminars. Accidental illnesses and death happens because, 1) Two impulsive, students get together to practice after going to a seminar, as in the case above, 2) And equally dim-witted instructors who, would take it upon himself to practice by striking his students.

Conclusions

In conclusion, I have presented one of the twelve rules, weather & time and touched upon a few of the others. Weather & time would be impossible to understand unless the manuscripts were in your position. I will present the other rules as time allows. But pondering the other rules now that you’ve seen them, will just take a little thought on your part to understand better. The twelve rules are worthy of contemplation, to those who wish to master the art of striking vital points. Each one of these rules, has a separate and astonishing value. Mastery of any one of the twelve, will ignite a lesser apprentice ability to a prominent noteworthy capability. Take rule number three, control of breathing. You may think, “well, I know about breathing, what’s to study?” But that’s the rub. Is there more to it than breathing in and out. Or if you were to think further more deeply about it, is there additional information which will enhance your potency? Think of it, what would happen if the secrets to all twelve rules were mastered?

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