When I began studying the martial arts, it was a brand of karate much like shotokan, I was fascinated by the tales of one punch one kill. The idea that you could drop an opponent with one punch was absolutely fabulous! And that you could actually kill somebody with a karate strike, well, that was more than just a TV show, you know?
Then, along came gung fu and the concept of the death touch, the idea of killing merely by touching with the fingers. Man, now this was something that was right up my alley, and I know it doesn't speak well of my maturity, but, man! To actually just touch someone,just put a finger on them, and have them drop dead, yowza kabowza!
We trained hard in pursuit of these killing philosophies. We did forms and push ups and techniques and endless hours punching the makiwara. Oddly, the more violent we got in the dojo, the more peaceful we came outside of the dojo.
Finally, age caught up with me, over forty years in the arts, and, finally, I began to understand some of this one punch, or even one touch, kill ability. I discovered that it wasn't in the fiber of muscularity. No matter how hard, strong and fast my body became, you see, there was something missing.
The missing something was this thing called Intention. Intention is the will, the desire, to do something. Consider it the so called invisible line between the thought of an action, and the accomplishment of that action.
Watch a fight between two UFC gladiators, they bash each other for a few rounds, and nobody falls down. The moment one is rendered unconscious, however, you have seen the first real punch of the fight. The other punches were just trying to be punches, but not achieving. They were generated by thought, but the line of intention was to weak to enable them to reach completion, reality, actuality.
So, how do you gain the ability of the dim mak death strike of karate legend and kung fu mysticism? Don't make your arm tight when you strike, for tense muscles slow the intention, lock it up, stop it from reaching the reality. Forget that the opponent is real and in front of you, and thrust your fist, or place your finger, through the space of his body.
Now, this is the truth, what I have told you here, and perhaps you can find training methods that will help you implement this truth. The odd thing is that when you finally gain the ability of this strike, you will not have the lack of compassion to use it, and you will find that the ability you earned translates into methods of living that are far superior than just killing. In the martial arts it is the knowledge behind the technique that is valuable, the technique is merely a part of the journey to your true self.
Al Case has examined martial arts for 4O years. A writer for the magazines, he has his own column in Inside Karate. You can find out about Intention and death punches at Punch Em Out, and a free ebook is available at Monster Martial Arts.
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