Dimmak

The Essence of Dimmak
The legend or myth says that though hitting a point the opponent will day weeks after. Another myth is the story about people who say that they were knocked out but they were never touched them. This is often explained with that the strike were to fast to see or simply that knock out often gives the person being knocked a lost of memory from the second just before he went into knock out. Dimmak is filled with myths and legends.

This is a model of some of the Dimmak points

Definition of Dimmak
The word Dimmak or Dim Hsueh is Chinese and means Death Touch or Touch of Death. Some means that the more correct translation of the Chinese character should be Poison Hand. Dimmak is an aproximate Cantonese pronunciation written in pinyin as dianxue. Pinyin is the common Chinese language and Cantonese is the common language in the South of China. Dimmak is the Ancient Chinese Martial Art of using Vital Points of an opponents body; once forbidden in Chinese kung fu. Most of these techniques are using acupuncture points as it basis. These techniques are engineered to cause specific moments in the opponent, knock-out, Death, control the opponent or a specified delayed reaction. Many see Dimmak as the mother of the Japanese Atemi. As of the core is much the same.

As we have yin we also have yang. Dimmak is made to kill an opponent. Then we also have a type of Dimmak who is made to only afflict the opponent with pain, this aspect is called Dar Mak. In Dar Mak we see that the pain principle is more central. By inflicting a sudden, sharp pain to interrupt an attack and at the same time use of this short lapse to position ourselves in an advantageous position, from where another technique would be used on the opponent. Darmak is in a way the little brother to Dimmak.

Vital points on the body are manipulated for effect. The Dimmak points are the same as used within Acupuncture. There under the name acupuncture pints. All Martial Arts focusing on the Acupuncture points will have some roots in Dimmak. There of many not knowing this close and intimate relation. Acupuncture is a part of the Traditional Chinese Medicine theory that clame that energy called qi circulate along specific pathways called meridians on the human body. On the meridians there exist hundreds of acupuncture points. Through Pressing, seizing or striking these points or by using combinations of points and at certain angles the Dimmak practitioner can heighten or diminishing the qi circulation in the body. By manipulating qi in the body the opponent will react in different ways everything from pain to death can occur.
Very few Senseis know much about Dimmak techniques, and therefore do not Pass on their Marital Arts Dimmaks to their students. Others again do not want to pass on this knowledge to anybody except to the chosen one. At the same time there are many masters and fakes within Dimmak. Just take short surf on the net and you will see several speaking of effective Dimmak. By logging in to this homepage you will see videos of some Personalities doing Dimmak. At first gland it looks stunning, but on second hand a mixture of suggeration and randomly badly located acupuncture points; some even strongly flirting with Fiction and Sorcery. This told, There exist true Dimmak Practitioners.

Styles of Dimmak
Dimmak originates from China and is therefore often included in different Chinese styles. Most known is styles like Kung fu, Gong fu, Tai chi and Wushu.

Pseudo Martial Art
Due to years of bad publicity of the word Dimmak and strong clames Dimmak has comed to be seen as a pseudo-martial art. Through claims to give its Dimmak practitioner the ability to cripple and kill opponents through the use of gentle taps and glancing blows to pressure points. Cheap DVDs and small crash courses around have destroyed a lot for Dimmak. As it have also done for Ninjutsu. Some instructors have claimed that they have the ability to incapacitate attackers without touching them at all. This was duly falsified by a TV program some time ago. A more cartoon like philosophy have been adapted to Dimmak as of some people feel attracted to this type of Power. Schools of Dimmak did teach students to channel their qi into invisible lightning bolts of force. Who could be sent out of their body and create damage on the opponent. Instructors of styles like mentioned above have repeatable failed to deliver. In attempts of explaining why it does not work they have said among other excuse that the opponent were not a believer! This type of Practise is not Dimmak. This is a Pseudo Martial Art abusing the Ancient word Dimmak; simply a Fraud.

Use of Dimmak
To be able to use Dimmak the Practitioner need to know the location of acupuncture points. Through this knowledge the Martial arts skills can be used to hit and to avoid putting oneself in a position where the opponent can harm oneself. The force applied on the acupuncture points could be everything from normal External Power to classical Fa jin, SEE-Striking with Explosive Energy. Through hitting a person with fa jin on the acupuncture points you will get an effect. Always remember that acupuncture points are on the weakest and most vulnerable areas of the body. The most common acupuncture points within Dimmak are located over major nerves and blood vessels, chest, vital organs and the most vulnerable parts of the neck and skull. A demonstration done in 2006 by a Dimmak practitioner in Beijing on a Pig showed that after hitting Shenshu UB23 the pig did not show any problems. Only after 15 minutes it got problems with the legs and fell to the ground and died shortly after. The combination of acupuncture points and the location of major internal organs are of importance. It also tells us that the exact location of organs is not the main issue. If the Dimmak practitioner hit in the right area it will work good enough. In short Dimmak means manipulating the acupuncture points with fa jin, to among others cause disorientation, collapse, weakness, temporary or permanent paralysis, unconsciousness or death. By using different acupuncture point combinations the Practitioner get different effects of his Dimmak.

This is a Old model of Dimmak points

Example of a Acupuncture point in Dimmak
St9 is located on the top of the vegas nerve, the cartoid artery and the carotid sinus. If a light strike lands at St9 it will cause knock out. Done properly it can result in a delayed death. The main reason to this is that the carotid sinus reflex controls the blood pressure to the head. Hitting the carotid sinus sends a strong signal to the heart via the vegas nerve to slow down, blood pressure drops and the opponent faints, is knocked out. If St9 is hit to hard the heart gets in huge problems and might stop. As a result the opponent will die. Due to this potential result it is not advisable to play with Dimmak. Demonstrations of knocking out opponents at St9 are to be regarded as an extremely dangerous. If not resulting in immediately fainting, the stroke might create a traumatic injury on a small section of the interior wall of the cartoid artery. This injury might eventually detach itself from the wall and flow to the brain where it will cause a clot resulting in a stroke and possible death. The time prospect of this process can be everything from a few weeks to years.

The Practical use of Dimmak
Within Traditional Chinese Medicine it exist many different theories who describes different aspects of the human body. Acupuncture being one of the Chinese Medical Sciences does noe totally mean that the Dimmak practitioner need to have a profound knowledge of all aspects of Acupuncture to make his Dimmak work. Often clamed by Dimmak practitioners is all that it takes is to know is the acupuncture points, the direction of the strike: up, down, left or right and the rotations of the strike, clockwise or anti clockwise. Most Dimmak practitioners mention fa jin as the guiding technique of hitting. . Some styles like Choy Li Fut have made specialized techniques for Dimmak. Example is the four principle hand techniques Phoenix Eye Fist, Fong-Ngan Chui, Crane Beak, Hok-Juei, Arrow Finger, Jin-Ji and Leopard Fist, Tsop-Chui.

In literature they speak about the two levels of Dimmak: the physical – and mental touch. Physical is to hit an opponent and the mental is to make the opponent think something has happen and thereby create a disbalanse in his body. The mental Dimmak is closely related to Suggeration and normally seen among Disciples of a Dimmak master. As they faint only through the movement of their master and others not. Perhaps the reason is that they have seen the effects of Dimmak and thereby know the result. Others, not knowing, will often fail to show result on the Mental Dimmak. Perhaps clearing up in this would solve mush of the misconceptions within Dimmak.

Some branches of Dimmak also emphasises on the daily flow of qi in the body. All according to what time the qi flow through a point different acupuncture points on specific meridians will be active. Se table for extra details.

HOUR ORGAN
01.00 – 03.00 Liver
03.00 – 05.00 Lungs
05.00 – 07.00 Large intestine
07.00 – 09.00 Stomach
09.00 – 11.00 Spleen
11.00 – 13.00 Heart
13.00 – 15.00 Small intestine
15.00 – 17.00 Urinary bladder
17.00 – 19.00 Kidneys
19.00 – 21.00 Pericard
21.00 – 23.00 San jiao
23.00 – 01.00 Gallbladder

This is a model of qi circulation and organ times

Acupuncture points
Your body has about 365 standard acupuncture points and 50 standard extraordinary acupuncture points. A total of 415 acupuncture points. This is points that actively are used in both Dimmak and Darmak. Important in this is that not all points work in all people. Some people are impervious to some acupuncture points or all of them. That is why a Dimmak practitioner is not necessary an acupuncturist, and opposite. Everybody differ from one another in this regard. It is important to understand that not all acupuncture points are used in Dimmak. Many of the points are useless in Dimmak, but very useful in Darmak. In addition to that some persons are resistant to pain by genetics, others get temporarily resistant during a fight due to high levels of adrenaline or due to drugs.

Acupuncture points used in Dimmak

Famous Dimmaks
Dimmak through Commotio cordis
Commotio cordis, cardiac concussion is a syndrome in which a no penetrating impact to the chest causes heart failure. Commotio cordis does not give any structural damage to the external body. By getting a hard blow to the chest it is possible that the heart stops with death as a result from ventricular fibrillation. This is a state in which the lower parts of the heart stop pumping blood. To make a Dimmak using commotion cordis you need a relatively little force, but it is more important with speed. The core to this technique is to strike within a 15-20 millisecond window in the heartbeat cycle. Death by this Dimmak does not need to occur immediately since deaths related to Commotio cordis occur after hours.

The wounderable spot in time

Dimmak through Carotid artery
The carotid artery is very reseptive to trauma. The main reason to this is the location of the carotid artery on the side of the neck providing blood to the head. It is easy to administrate Dimmak at this artery. It is one area that is especially sensitive for manipulations like pressure and blows that is the carotid sinus. The essence in understanding Dimmak on this point is to understand where the artery divides into two branches. This is the anatomical weak point on the artery. To injure the blood vessel walls on this spot is to be regarded as easy. Leading to conditions like: Stroke followed by partial paralysis, neurological problems and possible death. Applied force to provide this Dimmak on the Carotid artery might vary from a hard blow to a innocent touch with musical instruments like a violin.

The wounderable spot at the Cartoid artery

Miscellaneous Dimmaks
This category is Dimmaks on acupuncture points. Through history we find several deaths whom it is difficult to explain. A accident who in it self look very innocent results in death. The Dimmak explaination to this is that dangerous acupuncture points have been stimulated. It exist several lethal dimmak acupuncture points. Most known are points like Ub10, Sj16, Si16, Si17, St11, Ren17, Liv14 etc. To promote death using these points you need to administrate a combination of the four components force, speed, angle and depth.