Useful book
This is an excellent book by Mr. Clark, although I agree with some of the other reviewers here that the title isn't exclusively a book on pressure-point concepts and their application. The book's real strength is in illustrating some of the bunkai implicit in the katas, and in clarifying some applications that might otherwise seem mystifying. This is certainly valuable as the bunkai aren't practiced enough in many schools (and even in my own school), and this book goes over a number of these in detail. My only criticism is that the connection between the actual bunkai and the pressure point information isn't as clear or relevant as it could be. For an experienced instructor like myself this isn't a problem, as I can extrapolate, for example, in the case of a throw or takedown, several pressure points that might be useful to apply along with the throw or takedown. But a beginner or intermediate student might not be able to easily make that connection. Also, Clark had some applications I hadn't thought of myself and I found those vaulable. The author discusses both eastern and western medical theories and concepts and how they relate to pressure points. I noted the author doesn't uncritically subscribe to the Chinese theories, which are best regarded as pre-scientific metaphors for later scientific analysis of the underlying anatomy and physiology, but he discusses these concepts presumably for completeness, and besides, every other book on pressure-point fighting accepts these ideas as received truth, anyway. Even Dr. Yang Jwing Ming, who I consider very knowledgeable and educated in several arts and in Chinese medical theory, ascribes to these ideas in his Eagle Claw kung-fu book and other places. Well, Dr. Ming's doctoral work was in engineering rather than physiology and neurobiology, which was my field, so although an educated man it's not exactly his main scientific strength. The problem is that there are too many martial artists who aren't well grounded either in western anatomy and physiology (let alone the neuroanatomy and neurophysiology, which can get quite technical), and so they naively accept lock, stock, and barrel the Chinese theories for which there is no scientific basis whatsoever. Of course, people can say, "Well, science doesn't know everything." That's true. However, the fact that science doesn't know all of the truths out there doesn't mean we don't know that certain things are simply false and are nonsense, and the Chinese theory of meridians and chi and how pressure points work (especially how certain pressure points are more vulnerable at certain points of the day) is an example of this. Not to beat a dead horse, but my kung-fu instructor would occasionally say that a certain point was vulnerable in the afternoon. Well, being a polite student (and his senior student) I never contradicted him on this, but this is now 25 years later and now I'm the teacher. The simple fact is that almost any pressure point strike could have a greater effect later in the afternoon than in the morning since that's when many people reach their physiological low during the day, and things like blood sugar and circulating catecholamines (such as epinephrine and norepinephrine) reach their lowest points and people just don't have as much energy. Furthermore, neuroactive chemicals that can cause drowsiness build up in certain areas of the brain. Furthermore, the brain, which can only digest glucose, is sensitive to a drop in blood levels. But the ancients who devised these theories had no knowledge of blood chemistry, neurobiology, or any other modern medical science area. One interesting aspect of the book that I really liked is Clark's drawing from writers as diverse as Klauswitz, the 19th-century German military strategist, William of Ockham, the medieval philosopher and logician, and economist Wilfredo Pareto (the "80/20" rule) for concepts to illustrate different concepts in the martial arts. Since the only military stratetgist that most martial artists seem to be familiar with is Sun Tzu (who gets too much press in my opinion), I was pleased to see something a little different in that regard and I give Mr. Clark points for that. I found this quite useful and shows Mr. Clark to be educated beyond the boundaries of the martial arts as well. The author illustrates and discusses about 30 different techniques specifically drawn from Okinawan and Japanese katas. These include attack combinations, self-defense, takedowns, and throws. There is some excellent material here on the application of some otherwise obscure and hard to understand movements. For example, Clark shows how the double mountain blocks in the kata Jutte (which is spelled "Jitte" in the book) could be used as a striking and throwing combination, which had never made much sense to me before except as a double blocking movement. The author uses mainly Heian (or Pinan) 4 and 5 Naihanchi 2 (or Tekki in Japanese karate), Bassai Dai, and Kwanku (or Kusanku in Okinawan karate) as the main source of examples, but a couple of throws from Jutte and Empi are also shown. Finally, there is an appendix listing the pressure points and systems of about a dozen different writers, some out of print, and an appendix on the pressure points with a brief description and definition of each. All in all, I found this a good book although as I said, it might only be useful to someone with enough experience to connect the pressure point information with some of the alternative applications. But the book would still be useful to beginners for its useful illustrations of how to apply many of the bunkai.
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