There are many myths surrounding the use of pressure point in martial arts and a great deal of misunderstanding surrounding them. Some people will tell you that it doesn't work at all (I will come back to this later), but in my experience pressure points can be a very effective addition to your self defense arsenal of techniques and know how. Unfortunately, however, there are people out there who are teaching some highly dubious stuff. Many systems of pressure point self defense come from the Chinese kung fu art of Dim Mak, which is pretty much half myth and half reality, having been used as much to create a legend around particular schools and fighters as for actual practical use. So the purpose of this article is to provide a bit of information to anyone who is interested in learning pressure point self defense so that you know how it works, have some idea of what does and doesn't work, and can therefore sort the wheat from the chaff and save yourself frorm wasting your time learning ineffective techniques. I have also included some resources at the end for anyone who wants to learn more right away.

The first thing to make clear is that a pressure point is any specific area of the body which is more sensitive to pressure than the rest. This shows how stupid it is to say that pressure point martial arts don't work, as many so called authorities have done - it is just basic common sense that hitting someone on the nose is more effective than hitting them on the forehead, and it would be silly to argue otherwise. Pressure point self defense is simply about knowing something about anatomy and aiming for the weak spots. Having thought about this in advance and knowing which weak spot is easiest to go for in each one of various common situations that you may find yourself in can be a massive help.

it is when you go beyond the obvious weak points such as the eyes, throut (particularly the adam's apple on a man), groin and so on that you have to be careful what it is that you are learning and whether it is likely to work. Effective techniques will target the following types of pressure point:

• Areas where major nerves run close to the skin or have little protection. Anyone who has ever had a 'dead leg', something given out liberally at my old school which makes the whole leg go numb and hard to stand on when hit in the right spot , will know what this is like. In addition to stiffness, numbness and pain symptons to this kind of pressure point can include 2-3 seconds of being stunned and muscles spasms.
• Areas where vital organs are close to the surface or are not well protected. The classic example of this which most people will have heard of is hitting someone in the kidneys, which can be extremely painful and can cause internal bleeding.
• Areas where other bodily functions can be disrupted - such as restricting the ability to breath, or restricting blood flow to a part of the body, such as the head.

Traditional kung fu systems will generally also include techniques based on traditional Chinese medicine and will claim to work by disrupting the flow of chi around the body. I am not saying that there is no truth at all in any of this - there is good evidence that accupuncture, which is based on the same principles, is very effective for certain conditions, but my experience is that these principles do not act quickly or dramatically enough to be used for martial arts. You can generally recognise this kind of system as they will often make outlandish claims about being able to kill people with just a gently touch to the correct spot.

To Learn about some of the most effective pressure point self-defense techniques that you can use take a look at this article I published elsewhere on pressure point fighting. For other practical street self defense tips and techniques take a look at this Fighting Techniques blog.

Or if you want more than you can get by just reading a few online articles on sites like this then here is my top recommendation for a DVD which you can get from Amazon and which will teach you some highly effective striking and grappling techniques based around targetting and manipulating pressure points: Pressure Point Jujitsu - Secrets of Integrating Vital-Point Striking and Grappling into the Ultimate Martial Art