Bunkai, Kyusho, and the Death Touch – Part VIII

In the early 70s, one of my tougher brown belts, Steve Andrews, brought one of his biker buddies to the dojo. His buddy was a black belt in some open system and came in with a very cocky, arrogant attitude. He started immediately with “Well, in my style…” The rhetoric between the two friends quickly intensified until they decided to have a “friendly” sparring match to settle the matter.

The black belt opened with a spinning back kick, but was far too slow. As he spun, Steve lunged forward and punched him lightly in the back of the neck. The black belt’s knees buckled. He was out cold. But his momentum kept his body turning. As his head came around, Steve roundhouse kicked him square in the face. The guy fell to the floor, blood leaking from his nose. He quickly came to and pinched his nostrils shut. He stumbled to his feet, intending to head to the bathroom. But Steve grabbed him, threw his towel in his face, and told him to clean the blood off the floor first, which he did with a much more humble attitude.

The assessment of the amount of power applied in a technique usually differs vastly, depending on who you talk to. The person landing the technique always says “I barely touched him”. The one hit often thinks otherwise. (I generally, but not always, view the receiver as the best judge in the matter.) But in this case, I was standing nearby and saw that Steve’s punch to the back of the neck was very light, although highly effective.

As I’ve said before, we all understand this type of technique. The neck and throat are very vulnerable areas. It’s those knockouts, where people smack a couple of points along their partner’s arms and they drop to the floor, that creates doubt in many people.

In addition to Bruce Everett Miller’s material, a book I highly recommend everyone read who’s interested in this subject and how such things can occur is Death Touch: The Science Behind The Legend of Dim-Mak by Dr. Michael Kelly. Dr. Kelly is an Osteopathic Physician. To become a D.O. (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine), he had to undergo the same education and training as did your family doctor. And he’s medically qualified and licensed to do the same things, including practicing medicine and prescribing medication. My personal osteopath for several years was also an orthopedic surgeon. Until his retirement, he was team physician for the Oakland A’s baseball team.

So osteopaths know as much about the human body in general as do MDs. However, they know more than most about the skeletal and neurological systems, due to receiving far greater training in those areas. This makes Dr. Kelly very qualified to discuss this particular subject, which he does strictly from a western medical standpoint, while also pointing out where it and traditional Chinese medicine coincide.

“… the concept of attacking an internal organ by stimulating a point on the skin seems like a feat of magic,” said Dr. Kelly. “However, if one can accept the idea that a dim-mak point is an avenue for attacking the nervous system, then it becomes easier to understand how the points can affect the internal organs. There is an area of the body where the peripheral nerves connect with nerves from the internal organs. This connection is well known in neurology and known as convergence. … medical research has shown that stimulating the peripheral nerves can adversely affect the internal organs. Thus, stimulating an external nerve through a dim-mak point can stimulate the nerves that are connected to the internal organs, resulting in damage.”

Next time, I’ll more about this view and what it all means for us. Thanks again for your continued support.