Call it what you will, Dim Mak, pressure points, Atemi Waza, death touch, Tuite; it's out there now; it's hot, it's sexy and it's making some people a whole lot of money. Well what is Dim Mak? Is it effective? Can anyone do it? Is it Tai Chi?
Liu's Chinese-English (at over 1500 pages my largest)dictionary defines Dim Mak (Dian Xue in Mandarin) as hitting at selected points of the body, capable of causing internal bleeding and unconsciousness. Dim/Dian means a/to point/dot. Mak/Xue means a hole/vital point or to bore a hole.
So for a technique to be Dim Mak is it enough that it causes internal bleeding or unconsciousness? In my most recent video "Tai Chi Fighting Applications" there is footage of one of my international full contact fights back in 1980 showing me knocking out a much heavier hard style opponent in round number one. I did see his jaw was unprotected and I was aware that punching an opponent on the chin could cause concussion or even unconsciousness. I therefore hit him on the jaw rendering him unconscious for over five minutes.
Yet most books on Dim Mak refer to acupuncture points and purport to show the author striking these usually with finger strikes. So to apply Dim Mak do we have to know acupuncture? Should Dim Mak be applied through finger strikes?
I was recently in Finland visiting my friend Ilpo Jalamo, 6th Dan in Yuishinkai Karate. He has invited George Dillman to give seminars in Finland and has some interesting ideas of his own on Dim Mak.
He told me of one occasion when he was sparring with a strong opponent who was able with little difficulty to absorb his reverse punches to the ribs. Ilpo then changed the configuration of his knuckles so that the centre knuckle protruded making a "phoenix-eye fist". Again he hit the opponent with a reverse punch; the opponent went down.
Every Chinese martial art has techniques where force is concentrated in a very small point which is then used to strike the opponent, as in the Biu Ji or Thrusting Fingers form in Wing Chun.
In Tai Chi Chuan we also have examples of this in the form, e.g. White Snake Spits Out Its Tongue, Box the Ears; in the weapons, e.g. Pierce the Heart, Dot Red Between the Eyes; and in the Nei Kung, e.g. Leading a Goat Smoothly and Giant Python Turning Its Body.
Generally teachers of Dim Mak show their skills in a completely static situation, they simply have to hit a stationary opponent on the right points and down he goes. Applying Dim Mak in a real situation is something else. The opponent is not stationary, many points are hidden by his clothing and you the Dim Mak master are under pressure, having to fend off his attacks as well as having to locate and strike the points which would be most appropriate to strike given the level of violence used against you. If you make a mistake, the death touch could result in life - for you.
Six years ago when the Wing Chun wars were raging, I can well remember reading in this very magazine about Wing Chun Master William Cheung, the world's greatest streetfighter (according to Bruce Lee), the only man in the world to have been taught the secret Wing Chun footwork and of course Dim Mak. Well, he was doing very nicely, making a lot of money, when he was attacked at a seminar in Cologne by a challenger from one of the other factions.
I've seen photos of the incident and I've seen the video. What do you think he did, the world's greatest streetfighter, the only man in the world to know Wing Chun's secret footwork and Dim Mak? He skillfully allowed himself to be swept to the floor and then proceeded to bang his face against the Zhou Liao pressure point on his opponent's elbow. Funny, it seemed to hurt Cheung more than his opponent.
As for knowledge of acupuncture points and learning Chinese, well most people I've come across have difficulty telling left from right and speaking or writing English. My own feelings about acupuncture are that I wouldn't let most of these guys near my expensive threads with a needle, far less let them insert needles into my perfectly formed body.
To my mind there are two types of offensive Dim Mak. The first involves short or long range striking of an opponent's anatomy either to render him incapable of offering further resistance or to set up another technique. The second involves the sudden or sharp use of force on the opponent by gripping or twisting with a view to either rendering him incapable of offering further resistance or to set up another technique.
The first method can be seen in my new video. The second method needs a bit of illustration. I once had an American friend who learned Tai Chi with me in Hong Kong. He's still American as far as I know, but not a friend anymore.
As people will when you are kinder to them than they deserve, he made a few cracks behind my back including his belief that, after perhaps 4 months formal tuition, mainly from me over an 11 year period, his Tai Chi was as good as mine.
Came a day he was attending one of my teacher's seminars and he called me over telling me how the locking technique he had been shown was ineffective and his partner couldn't apply it on him. Well since Al weighed over 200 pounds stripped and was an ex-American football player, it wasn't surprising his poor partner couldn't apply the technique. I knew he was testing me and I knew the other students were looking to see what happened.
I started to apply the technique and sure enough he resisted. I pretended to loosen my grip then suddenly snd sharply twisted his joint. I could hear his tendons tear as he went down. It took his arm about six months to recover.
Some masters of Dim Mak publish tables giving the effect of Dim Mak on different pressure points. Well maybe. Under laboratory conditions, striking bound and emaciated Chinese civilians and prisoners of war as some Japanese masters did during World War II - I'm sure they found their techniques most effective under these circumstances. Were they to have tried the same techniques against living and moving top level Chinese martial artists, they might not have been quite so effective.
Dim Mak or the idea of Dim Mak is something that Tai Chi practitioners should be aware of, but rather than spending their hard earned money buying and valuable time watching or reading Dim Mak tapes and books they'd be much better off training their skills to the extent that no matter where they hit or grip or twist they hurt the opponent. Unfortunately too many people want a short cut.
If you really want to test the efficacy of Dim Mak you could do the same as one gentleman of my acquaintance who with one of his friends is gradually testing every point - on one another. So far they've worked out that it hurts to get hit on the nose. Dim or what?
p.s. 'Just seen the article in August's Combat about how Bruce and Brandon Lee were killed by Black Magic. I know this to be a total falsehood. I can categorically state that I have been eating these smooth dark chocolates for years with no ill effects whatsoever. Maybe the culprit was Milk Tray.