On Serious and Fatal Blows

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In my limited experience and greater knowledge and understanding the possibility of serious blows is possible and as follows the possibility of a fatal blow is ludicrous and so unlikely that how it is often explained is either:

1. By teaching with a minimal contact so that one can believe that it would have been fatal if the blow had been more serious. Also, by teaching that to actually experience and/or demonstrate the blow would mean death so it must remain academic in nature as being too dangerous, etc.
2. Add in that if one learned the points and the types of blows necessary to be fatal then when actually applied in self-fense and when they fail the application must have been incorrect or fatalities would have occurred. 
3. Finally, those very same points and techniques are almost always based on theory with very little historical documented proof other than the word of the author including the ancients in the martial disciplines. 

As is often the case, stories and legends abound and when someone attempts to teach and demonstrate such things the results are often compliance and sleight of hand and a type of hypnosis that makes things work. When challenged by others outside the group or dojo those same teachings fail with a result of excuses as to why it didn’t work this way or that or on whomever. 

In a nutshell, if a blow is given and is fatal more often than not it was not the blow that did it. It was the blow, for example, causing the subject to lose balance thereby being subjected to gravity and gravity pulling the persons mass to the earth usually causes death, i.e., when the head hits something solid, like a curb, on the ground. 

When such information is presented the disciples of those beliefs often justify their perspective and beliefs by providing excuses even when the data and research says otherwise and they also refuse to believe that humans are conditioned by nature to use forces that will NOT result in grave harm or death. Our bodies have natural defenses along with those instincts to apply tactics, i.e., blows and such, in a manner that sends a message, i..e, a form of communications in the group dynamics, rather than grave harm and death. These same folks will then provide such proofs as the old story of the karate-ka who downs a bull with their bare hands, etc., etc., yadda, yadda, yadda. 

Now, let me discuss my views on the training mentioned, i.e., “ … directions are few and simple, yet great care must be observed by the student. … the vital points that must be touched in the manipulations must be found with exactitude or the desired results will not follow.” Yes, this is about the kuatsu portion but you must note, at least in the limited examples/snapshots, that the first one does not explain how it is taught until the section on kuatsu. 

When vital points are demonstrated and taught and practiced there is always mutual cooperation including a form of pre-programming students through explanations so when a technique is taught or applied their minds are already prepped to be stunned, etc. Often, even without that pre-programming students will often feel a stun and seldom will there be an actual debilitating result from the blow if for no other reason than, as they will gladly tell you, it is too dangerous. The only true way to find out its proficiency in applications is in a real fight and in a real fight under the effects of adrenaline chemical dumps effects it is doubtful the practitioner can affect an effective vital point strike. This doesn’t even take into account that the difficulty becomes insurmountable due to the attacker or adversary or opponent moving constantly. 

Herein lies more of the trouble because seldom is a practitioner told about any of this and seldom are they taught about the difficulties of applying such applications against the proverbial vital areas of the body. Yet, they readily accept it that it will work when under very controlled conditions they are misdirected to assuming a falsehood because it stunned them or caused them to faint, etc. 

Anyway, these types of things sell books, sells the uninitiated on signing up with a dojo training contract and into falsely assuming that what is taught and practiced is self-fense and will work if they are ever, so very unlikely in modern times, attacked.

Please, don’t take this personally but martial arts and karate are awesome and offer us a plethora of things to learn, practice and apply and yet there are also many things taught that are just not appropriate or even applicable. Reality and real life are far removed from the realities of dojo training and life. 

In closing, lets just say for the sake of this discussion that vital points and the training are doable and deadly, then we have to find some way to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt and herein lies the conundrum. There is no way, historically or today, to test and demonstrate and research and prove that this stuff works. It is fun to discuss; fun to train even if more entertainment than reality; fun to discuss in the dojo and a lot of interesting information used to fatten the testing used to award grades and levels in the dojo. 

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“In order for any life to matter, we all have to matter.” - Marcus Luttrell, Navy Seal (ret)