Precise anatomical locations of pressure points coupled with diagrams, and striking methods. personal self-defense. Has been called a must read for every serious martial artist.
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: Dillman is a joke in the fighting art community Comment: YouTube & wikipedia George Dillman and you'll see & hear his bizarre explanations why his techniques fail on non cooperating volunteers.
This book belongs on the same shelf as Lord of The Ring. Anyone that thinks that an agressor will slowly walk up to you and allow you to do these dubious poky attacks, will wind up injured or may be even dead.
If you're unable to train in a realistic fighting art, spend your $$$ on a Krav Maga book or a good pair of sneakers. At least both are proven effective defensive mechanisms. Customer Rating: Summary: Another piece in the puzzle... Comment:
It has been said that "Nothing is EVERYTHING but everything is SOMETHING". This book is another piece in the puzzle of understanding martial technique.
I have trained with Mr. Dillman on numerous occasions. I was initially very skeptical of his technique and his flamboyant personality did little to allay my suspicions. My first impression was that his technique was unlikely to be effective. I have since been dazed or knocked out by him on several occasions. I can attest that many of his pressure point techniques are extremely effective.
I do not think that pressure point fighting should be the core aspect of a system, but it certainly helps improve the effectiveness of technique.
I have seen and used his pressure point techniques. They knock some people out cold and others seem unaffected at all. I have experimented with using students who have no idea I am about to do a pressure point technique. The power of suggestion or "willingness to be knocked out" does not seem to be a big factor on whether or not a move works.
Simply stated, it works on some people but not on everyone. I am not going to make pressure point fighting the foundation of my fighting system, but it is certainly going to be one of the building blocks.
This book suffers the same shortcomings as almost all martial art instruction books. Video is really a better media for such information. Still, I would recommend all serious martial artists examine Dilman's contributions to the martial arts community.
I think his greatest service to the world of martial arts is that he has made many people aware that many arts have lost key combat applications of traditional technique. Customer Rating: Summary: Too soft, but with some good contents Comment: The contents of the book is accurate as far as I can tell. I am also a follower of pressure point fighting, BUT I felt that this book contained a lot of practically irrelevant pressure points.
The book can help you to advance your technique and to add some points into your list of targets, but you need to read selectively. Example: The upper lip "is not a hit point. Rather it is a rub-point". I would not bother to rub an upper lip if I can turn the nose into bloody mud. This book advocates a soft style of fighting, which depending on where you expect to fight, might not be the most effective way. The other issue is, that an attacker will hardly wait and pause to allow you to hit his pressure point accurately. Most of these points are farily small areas and difficult to hit.
Therefore, I think the contents is accurate, but only a small portion might be useable. Customer Rating: Summary: My Personal Experience May Be of Some Small Interest Comment: God knows I wouldn't claim my experience to be either exhaustive or authoritative, but of the two times I've knocked someone out, one was with a pressure point. I didn't know it at the time. I just knew that I had barely touched the guy with my kick, just inflicting a very light, barely noticeable on my end, "thump." But the location I hit him at was pretty clear, and imagine my surprise years later to learn that there is a knock-out point at that location. (The other time I knocked someone out was with a pugil stick during Marine Corps bayonet training.)
In addition, years ago I spent a few months--regrettably did not get to spend more--training with some Ryukyu Kempo people. I experienced the tuite techniques--many of which rely on the pressure points and hyperextension of the nerves for their effectiveness--and found them effective.
For those who suggest that cooperation is required on the part of the person getting the technique performed on them, no doubt that is what it looks like in a demonstration. It is a demonstration, after all, not a fight. And it is surely true that application of these techniques is more difficult in a fight than in a demonstration, but that is true of just about any technique, isn't it? The answer to that problem is the same as it has always been--practice.
As far as the lack of these techniques in the UFC proving their ineffectiveness, all I can say is that in the limited amount of UFC-watching that I have done, I didn't see any dangling eyeballs from eye gouges; I didn't see any crushed tracheas; I didn't see any snapped fingers, ripped-off ears, or any biting, or anyone pick up a bludgeon. Nor did I want to; the point is that poking eyes, jamming fingers into the windpipe, twisting or biting ears, or even use of weapons are all proven combat-effective techniques, and they appear to be absent from UFC competition.
God knows I wouldn't want to climb into the ring with one of those guys; they are all obviously much fitter and stronger than I am. But it is a mistake to conclude that because two big, strong, guys step into a ring to do some combined kickboxing and grappling that only their techniques are effective in ordinary self-defense situations. Customer Rating: Summary: Seeing is believing Comment: The reviewer below is an uninformed moron. I have attended several of Mr. Dillman's seminars and have had many of the knockouts described in the book performed on me personally. I am a trained scientist and biologist who is not fooled by hocus-pocus mystical nonsense. Anyone who is a doubter need only attend one of Mr. Dillman's seminars. NO ONE goes home an unbeliever. The methods outlined in this book DO work. This book is THE book to get on pressure point karate!! I have gone back to it so many times my copy is almost worn out.
