One Blow and ...

Well, perhaps!

If you push both your thumbs into his eyes, or hit him on the back of the head with a brick. Both blows will cause the greatest inconvenience, perhaps even death.

There are certain 'points' in the body where a strike can cause much damage. As any cricketer or rugby player will tell you. As will most martial arts teachers.

One problem is that many so-called self defence instructors will say the same thing. "Hit him here and he'll drop dead!" Well, he may indeed drop dead, but so will you, in effect, because you'll land up in jail for murder. Probably. But that's another article on legal issues ...

Dim Mak, atemi, kyusho points are acupuncture locations. As you'll be told by almost every martial artist.

Wrong, not so! Oh, the books spout this rubbish, as do bad instructors. But they are incorrect. And should know better.

Dim Mak attacks will certainly drop an enemy. Provided that they impact either a major internal organ, muscle or nerve supply. The effects are physical, not energy based.

Kick up inside someone's armpit and he won't have an arm to use for ages. The same as if a drunken man falls asleep with his arm over the back of a chair (I'm told!!). This is a nerve attack. It has nothing to do with the two Gall Bladder acupuncture points lying in the immediate area.

Jab your knuckle or punch hard into the middle of the biceps muscle. Do it hard and sharply focussed enough and it will go to 'sleep' severely impeding striking and punching (I know, it's the triceps primarily involved in punching - don't write in!). Nothing to do with the two Lung acupuncture points lying just below the surface.

Conception Vessel point 21 is a sensible one to attack with a finger or ball point pen. In the V of the throat, a stab here considerably inconveniences the trachea lying directly behind and below. Nothing magic about this, nothing to write home about. The tissue just rips or strains. Very unpleasant. Very effective (if you like that sort of thing).

A head butt (from you to him) to the middle of his forehead is a forbidden point, Governor Vessel 24. Not because it is an acupoint, but more probably because his neck is likely to break at the atlas vertebra. Causing him great difficulty in both walking or continuing his fight. Nothing to do with Dim Mak points - it's physical, his spine is broken!

A knife-hand strike to the side of the throat will prove very disturbing, not due to the impact into the two Colon points in the immediate vicinity but due to the shock effect to the major blood vessels directly underneath.

I qualified as an acupuncturist in 1968. In these forty years I have not had a single patient collapse unconscious from the effect of a needle into an acupuncture point. (From fright, Yes, but from Dim Mak shock, No!)

These 'points' are very small, perhaps less than two pin heads in size. It takes an experienced expert (Forty years!!) to find them. The more so in an actual fight, when the opponent is defending, and you are under battle-pressure.

The advantage of the kara-tetsu is that it has hard corners for impact into the immediate area of a point and a hard edge to inflict the most severe and incapacitating bone or nerve pressure. But this is not attacking Dim Mak or Kyusho centres. It is direct physical stuff. Nothing to with skill (in that sense, anyway). I suppose the skill comes in getting him to look the other way as you hit him ...

Kara-tetsu-jutsu seeks to attack these vital areas to cause intense disabling pain responses. effectively temporarily disabling your opponent, forcing him into submission. [Of course when the pain stops, he starts again, unless you are careful, alert and above all, experienced].

"The fight is not over till it's over;
And even then it might not be!" (Amagasa-jutsu)

But there's more to Dim Mak and Kyusho than this Death-stuff rubbish. There is the fantastic and most effective first-aid system called katsu. Revival methods to restore someone who has been rendered unconscious. By such happenings as an over-rough strangulation (eg hadakajime) or a neat one (namjujijime). Or a kick to the testicles (maegeri) - indeed, it's usually possible to restore normal function and activity (Judo, cricket, rugby) from such an injury within perhaps three minutes. I have had to do this many times.

The most spectacular event I've had to use katsu for was in the Brook Hospital, London, when the word came up that there was a patient suffering such a severe nose bleed that it was defying all efforts to stop it. I hurried down and within three minutes of katsu application, the flood stopped. By applying treatment to Dim Mak points Governor Vessel 15 and 16? No, by causing a temporary circulatory reaction by reflex nerve shock!

Sadly, while Dim Mak or Kyusho techniques are taught in most elementary self defence classes, you have to reach Black Belt grade to qualify in katsu.

So I urge all you Cricketers and Rugby players to take up the Martial Arts. Then when you have a ball injury, you can do something about it ...