When I looked into Dim Mak

 

Back about 1977 when I was studying Tang Soo Do, one day after class I stopped into an old book store below where my classes were held. Looking through the old martial arts books I found a small one (literally almost a comic book) on PaQua, the Chinese Martial Art. It was written in Chinese and showed applications for PaQua movements. I did not realize what it was but I bought it anyway. Many years later I realized it was showing a number of Dim Mak applications for PaQua.

Roll forward to the mid-1980s and the karaate magazines were describing the technique of Oyata Sensei. Then  George Dillman 'borrowed' a lot of stuff from Oyata eventually to put his own spin on it to make it a money building empire on its own.    He even borrowed Oyata's terminology and further went into the use of meridians to explain his pressure point striking.

Now I was not looking to get with Dillman, having more than enough of my own varied studies.  For example I already had many 'bunkai' studies with Tristan Sutrisno, which no one not trained by him had any idea of what his technique usage would be. They were and are that unique.

But I literally bought all the magazines and books coming out on Pressure Point striking, and of course I wondered if there was something there.  In my Isshinryu and in all the arts I had studied no one ever talked about using the meridians for pressure point strikes.

So I read more and more, eventually going into the books appearing on Dim Mak and Meridian Theory. It was something to read, but I had no way of verifying if it made sense nor a desire to Ko individuals with pressure point strikes.

Over time the most exhaustive literature was by Erle Montague, He was also running a publishing empire, clinics and more Eventually I acquired his 2 volume Encyclopedia of Dim Mak. One volume being the use of the Major Meridians and one volume on the use of the Minor Meridians.

It was the mosy exhaustive work on Chinese Meridian Theory I had seen. Far exceeding what George Dillman was selling. Later I bought the new edition with the two volumes combined into one book.

Truthfully, as detailed as they were, I was never able to get into whether the Dim Mak striking was worthy. Those books for decades just sat on my bookshelf looking pretty

Then the internet happened and Dim Mak and pressure point striking exploded. There were tons being shared.

In the case of Montague he went into Dim Mak for Tai Chi as well as other related martial topics. Eventually oodles of his VHS tapes were being shared on You Tube.

Here are a selection of his stuff, there are many, many more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1U0UkC6kdg

 

 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GRcDk7LPio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSORaFoWsMI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1KO0OQ9G54&list=PL9E34C46E70B63637
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aHOsQeO3xw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyc-7PP1vUk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE9dG7ulvwc

Eventually when I moved to Arizona that entire selection of books I discarded.

I plan to eventually share a bit of his Tai Chi Dim Mak literature I saved from the internet.

 

 

Several of my previous posts on pressure points:

https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-question-of-pressure-point-striking.html

https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2024/07/i-acidently-discovered-light-touch-ko.html