The touch of death with Dim Mak : The Art of Pressure Points

Venom ponders : If evolution has made man more intellectually powerful than ever before, why is it that he progressively becomes more ignorant of himself ?

Coming from the land of Kalari Payattu , the awareness regarding the art of attack on pressure points on the body has never been new to me . After all, the mysteries and richness of Kalari goes back beyond the ages. There is even a theory that postulates the origin of Chinese martial arts to be traced back to the Kalari . But thats not what this is all about . One art that has been so shrouded in mystery that it has been imparted to only the most trusted and worthy of students through generations . There is a reason for that . If practiced by a skilled practitioner , it can incapacitate the victim with the touch of a finger when used at the right place . This elusive art encompassed in skepticism and fiction and fraudulent practices by people pretending to be masters of the art is called DIM MAK.

Much about Dim Mak can be understood from the ancient Chinese medical practice of acupuncture. Acupuncture is based on the theory that the body has various lines of energy running through it called the Qi. The Qi flow is responsible for the emotional and spiritual well being of the body . It flows through fourteen meridians in the body . Acupuncture points are the specific points in the body where the Qi meridians come close to the surface of the skin . These points are where the acupuncture “needles” are pierced to bring the balance of the Qi flow back into the body . Modern science refers to this “release of energy ” by the term endorphins .

Dim Mak emphasizes the attack on these specific points . In fact that is just one portion of the art . knowing where to attack never suffices. The right amount of thrust, penetration power and inner energy is also required to get the desired effect . There are supposed to be 361 pressure points used in ancient Chinese medical practices and close to 400 more not used for medicine purposes. All the more ways to incapacitate an enemy . A famous example is the touch of death in which the heart rhythm is stopped by using some advanced Dim Mak procedure. Why is this move so famous ? Because it is postulated that it could be the reason for Bruce Lee’s death .

This art takes several years of practice and learning . Those who practice this art know the moral responsibilities associated with it and hence will not use it for uncouth reasons . Those who perform fraudulent practices should not even try to attempt it , leave alone masquerade as Dim Mak teachers . This is because

1. You will get it wrong
2. If by any stroke of luck , you get it right , you would be regretting have done that the rest of your life .

That brings me to this interesting story of a great Kalari expert which I heard when I was a kid . This particular gentleman was renowned for his mastery of the art and I sincerely apologize for letting his name slip the pages of my memory . He had an enemy from a rival school hellbent on making sure that the name of the Kalari expert is tarnished . So he decided to teach the rival a lesson . Lets just name the rival “Rival” and the Kalari expert “Master” for convenience purposes. Once when Rival was walking by the fields , Master  casually went by his side and gently pushed his finger at some point under the shoulder. Rival fell down to the ground screaming with excruciating pain and agony . That caught the attention of a lot of villagers who took him immediately to the local physician . The physician had no clue as to what was the issue and could not figure out what to do or who did it. Then Master walked into the physicians house and pushed his finger at some other point on the body and Rival soon felt life rushing in through his body and slowly losing the pain . Rival promised not to cross paths with Master anymore for he realized in true essence the power of knowledge and mastery over the art and that Master was in every sense superior to him .

I don’t have any stories of legendary Dim Mak practitioners . If you do , can you share with me ? I will be glad to hear . I don’t see myself learning Dim Mak anytime in my life. But yes, I do wish to learn Kalari some day . It is a fine art every martial art practitioner should think of learning .

Khudahafeez

Kaashif

My talk on self defense in the Bangalore BarCamp

Venom Ponders : Why does the fool not fear a man who takes a few steps back while in battle ? For when the monkey goes looking for trouble, the deadliest of the cobras charge only when cornered.

I had this interesting, albeit funny I should admit, talk on self defense in the Bangalore BarCamp last weekend. It went admittedly much better than I expected . Nor did I expect such a crowd. The presentation was impromptu and extremely informal so I have my concerns about the take away for people joining in late . May be I will try much better next time and get it more hard hitting . I was able to churn up a few interests and got people from a completely non martial arts background listening to what I had to say and I thought that was good enough for me .

Self defense for people in metropolitan cities have been of high concern. As the metro culture grows, so does the murky underworld hell bent on exploiting the new amount of monetary resources. We may not encounter such a situation every day in our lives but times may change and luck may run out and everyone should know as to how to get out of such a situation .

Four cardinal rules of self defense :

1. Block the first assault
2. Hit a couple of fatal/near fatal blows
3. Scream
4. Run for life.

These rules are to be applied in that order. Yes. Block the first assault comes before hitting the opponent. Never try to mess a situation where you can slip out of . One can live with a hurt ego . Permanently damaged arms and legs are worse. These tactics should ONLY be used when in a situation that is already messed up and when there is no other way to go but to turn around and bite back . Pun intended here as Bruce Lee said that there is nothing stopping you from biting,poking and using your nails on your way out of a pinhold as life comes first and then alone comes discipline . That realization forms the essence of Jeet Kune Do.

The standard goon approach is the use of rush and psychological pressure to get the job done. They will not carefully gauge the situation and get to you in a preplanned technical maneuver. More often than not, they rush in . In such a situation , the upper block with a small modification is most effective . Blocking out the intruder as in the picture ( from a very useful site : http://www.lyon-karate.com) but with legs bentdown so as to block out the incoming chest rather than the punch will effectively thwart off the assault. This can simultaneously be used with the yoko geri or the side kick aimed to the knee to shatter his knee.

If the attacker makes a surprise attack from behind then thrusting the elbow into his abdomen will due to reflex action make him bend forward. Then using the elbow on the now exposed back should do the trick and ward him off.

The second step is to use a couple of fatal/near fatal moves , one of which is already mentioned as the attach to the knee because the knee is the part of the body which comes first when an attacker charges. Punching to the vital points can effectively get the attacker genuinely scared of your skill irrespective of your size/height/personality . The vital points being :

• Groin
• Solar plexus
• Eyes

The third and fourth parts are the most important. Never assume that you are Jet Li to take on ten baddies all by yourself. Screaming for help is a necessity as someone helpful might turn out . If not, punch or kick a couple of times as mentioned and then run for life. Run like hell for retreat is a wise man’s way of survival .

Stay safe. Never try to get into trouble. Bu when you do get into such a situation, do not let them take away from you which took you hours or days of hard work to accumulate . Live life with self respect and dignity for that is the only way to lead a good life.

Khudahafeez

Kaashif

Tracing the origins of martial arts with the Art of War

Venom Ponders : Every state says that wars are fought to solve a problem ; ominously every problem this world faces has the history of a war behind it.

Looking beyond the obvious , sometimes it is not history and culture which determine the literature of a society. Rather at times it is the other way round . Some path breaking visionaries can be harbingers of peace and war with what they draft with the pen.

Tides of soldiers can thwart an army but who has the might to bring down the power of alphabets ? One such visionary was Confucius whose teachings and writings defined the Chinese way of life. Not as popular as him was another person who lived during his times albeit no less a visionary . Directly or indirectly he helped shape the oriental forms of martial arts we know today with his literary masterpiece , The Art Of War . His name. Sun Tzu .

Sun Tzu wrote what was one of the earliest treatise exhaustively covering military craftsmanship and army strategies , which were not merely bound by the physical prowess of men . Like all great treatises, the Art of War is so definitive with the winds of any time, that even in the contemporary logical sens, it can be directly applied to all the management and operational strategies mantras taught in prestigious universities around the globe.

To sum up, this was the first book that stated that any war strategy is not defined earlier in the general’s camp but rather dynamic. These are the things we already knew. What I wished to emphasize here is that inadvertently the forms of martial arts as popularized by Wushu, karate , Jujitsu etc. all draw the essence of their techniques and mastery of the body and the mind from the postulates as mentioned in the book .

Just having a quick look at some of the plans and strategies in the Art of War and how they influence the arts as we know today .

Laying Plans (Chapter 1): While heading the profit of my counsel , avail yourself also of any helpful circumstances over and beyond the ordinary rules.

This is one of the unwritten rules of Kumite as in karate or sparring in layman terms and the basis of Bruce Lee’s revolutionary Jeet Kune Do , laid down centuries before either of them started to thrive . There is no certain situation which needs one to stick to one set of moves or kicks or punches if the situation demands it. Kumite rather emphasizes that we master a few punches, kicks or the Rogan and then use them in combination as the situation demands. There is no one punch-kick-guard combination that will work every time . In fact , studying the way the opponent moves will give a good insight into how to react . Probably I can write another post on this later to describe this further. Jeet Kunde Do goes one step further stating that if we are pinned , then there is nothing that can possibly stop us from biting the opponent to lose the hold. Then why not do it ?

Laying Plans (Chapter 1): When able to attack, we must seem unable ;when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near we must make the enemy believe we are far away;when far away , we must make him believe we are near .

The combination of breathing, the movements and the right gust of Kiai is the key success to any attack maneuver . When we are at a safe distance from the enemy, he will be tricked to think he is safe out of our reach and try to do something fancy . In such a situation , step in twice with the front leg and then once with the back leg always maintaining the half stance should bring us close to him dangerously fast. This is the essence of movement as practiced in Karate, Shuri Te, Naha Te and all Okinawan forms of martial arts . Upon exhaustion, breathe slowly without making the heavy breathing noises. This will deceive the enemy into thinking that we are not still not exhausted and will be wary . That shold give us some valuable time to recharge.

Waging War ( Chapter 2) : Though we have heard of stupid haste in war, there is no cleverness in long delays

No fight should last beyond ten minutes. If it does, then we are in serious trouble of being on the losing side. The thrust of the punch and the kick comes from an inner energy boost which on quick succession will cause quick drain . A few maneuvers should do the job. If not, nothing else will and retreating will be the wise man’s bitter pill.

Energy(Chapter 5) : In all fighting, direct methods may be used for joining a battle, but indirect methods are used for securing a victory.

Markedly interesting are the differences in the martial arts followed in Japan as compared to that followed in then contemporary China and the Ryukyu Kingdom ( the land of the Karate ) . Many dominant Japanese forms of martial arts like Jujitsu and Aikido emphasize an “indirect” way of attack rather than a full on attack maneuver . While Jujitsu highlights the key to victory being swashbuckling throws and grappling techniques, Aikido is the more graceful art with only the right amount of energy being used at the right time to topple over an opponent. The defender goes with the attackers body momentum as a continual flow of energy rather than opposing it and then uses it to route it back .

Maneuvering( Chapter : We may take it that an army without its baggage-train is lost; without its provisions is lost; without bases of supply is lost

No successful move or maneuver can ever be performed without understanding the recharging stations of the kicks, blocks and punches. No attack can last or go through a trained man’s block without pullback or recoil at the right time . This is the sanctum sanctorum rule especially important for hard style techniques like the KungFu, Karate and Taekwondo today.

These are but some of the direct correlations between the wise counsel of Sun Tzu in The Art of War and the modern martial art techniques in existence. It may not take me one blog or a hundred blogs following it to highlight such stark similarities. My intent here is to get you interested into understanding the ideas and strategies suggested and how every thing else trickles down from it .

May the wise counsel prevail.

Khudahafeez

Kaashif