Dim Mak or Death Touch is a field of study within Chinese martial arts that is usually only known by senior masters and Chinese Medicine practitioners. Dim Mak is a term that is usually translated as vital or pressure point striking.
Dim Hsueh is a related term has been translated as the touch of death or Delayed Death Touch. Generally speaking Dim Mak is the major category and Dim Hsueh is a sub category within the body of knowledge referred to as Dim Mak.
In the United States the most common version of Dim Mak to be found is a version whereby the practitioner hits several related pressure points in a row resulting in a knockout to the recipient. This is one kind of Dim Mak but there are many other kinds of Dim Mak. This field of study offers a lot more than just learning where the points are and then learning a particular order in which to strike or hit the points.
The meridian system of the body as studied in Chinese medicine and Dim Mak is a series of pathways that cover the entire body. For instance the Kidney meridian runs from the middle of the bottom of the foot, up the body through the kidney area, towards the top of the chest and ends underneath the back of the tongue.
To help explain about some different kinds of Dim Mak I will focus here on the heart and lung meridians. In the arm the lung meridian is on the index finger and runs up the radius side of the arm. The heart meridian is on the little finger side and runs up the ulna side of the arm.
Dim Mak pressure point study involves learning where the points on the meridian are easily accessed from the surface of the body. I will use the radius bone as an example to help explain the depth issue. In the average person, near the wrist you can easily touch the radius bone but near the meaty part of the forearm you will mostly feel flesh and the bone is buried under it.
In some areas of the arm the heart and lung meridians are covered quite well by muscle. In other areas the meridian can be accessed from the surface of the arm and in some areas where the bone can easily be accessed from the surface of the arm the meridian is between the bone and skin making it easy to access and easy to affect because the bone acts as a backboard or anvil to strike the meridian against. The points where the meridian is easily accessed from the surface are the pressure points on the meridian and are commonly known just as pressure points. Learning how and where to strike these points is one kind of Dim Mak.
Another kind of Dim Mak involves learning how to generate a specific kind of strike or strikes so that no matter where you hit, strike or otherwise act to affect the meridian you transfer force into it causing the effect the paralysis or knockout. These are the effects that most people are familiar with regarding pressure points. In this case knowledge of the meridians and points is helpful but not as necessary as it is in the common striking the points kind of methods. Developing specific kinds of striking ability is the more important aspect of this training. Iron Palm and Poison Hand are specific examples of this
Another kind of Dim Mak involves hitting or affecting the meridian in a way such that the force travels up the meridian and affects the nervous system, brain or spine of the recipient. In this kind of study you must learn to feel the connection of the meridian into the rest of the physiology and also how to direct force on impact so that the entire meridian is affected by the contact anywhere on the meridian. Once you understand how this kind of Dim Mak is performed it is not particularly difficult to apply. However, you do need to understand that each individual person is uniquely different from every other person with different weight, mass, density, length, chemistry and nervous system accessibility. I have personally worked on and with people who would barely notice if you hit them with a sledge hammer and others who keel over if you barely touch them (properly of course).
To Be Continued...
Author Resource:
Sigung Richard Clear began teaching in 1985 and has over 30 years of continuous study in the arts. He openly teaches the "secrets" that the vast majority of Tai Chi masters only show behind closed doors to a very select few. Visit http://www.ClearsTaiChi.com for more on Combat Tai Chi and Fa Jing
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