This video lesson is about pressure points in your art. Whatever martial art you train, pressure points can be added to it. You do not have to give up your style or start again from the beginning.

It is for karate, kempo, jiu-jitsu, boxing and other martial arts students who want to know how pressure points fit with what they already do.

Pressure Points Are Already There

In many traditional arts, especially those with kata, pressure points were always part of the system. Over time they were often forgotten or left out. In arts like boxing, nobody uses the words, but a punch that lands on the side of the jaw at the right angle is hitting a pressure point all the same.

So adding pressure points is often less about adding something new and more about understanding what your techniques were meant to do.

How They Fit Into Different Styles

  • Striking arts. Choose targets that give a bigger reaction for the same strike.
  • Grappling arts. Use points to weaken an arm before a lock or open a grip.
  • Kata based arts. Find the points the movements are aimed at in the bunkai.
  • Self-defence systems. Add points that are close to where the hands already are.

The technique stays the same. The target becomes more precise, and the result becomes bigger.

Principles Make It Work

Pressure points work best when they follow a few principles. Take the balance first. Strike with relaxed power. Respect the angle and direction as well as the location. Set the point up so the other person cannot protect it. And never rely on a single point to finish things.

With these principles in place, you can look at any technique in your style and ask where a pressure point would make it better.

Training Safely

Pressure points hurt and some can knock someone out, so add them carefully. Train at low power, with a cooperative partner you trust, and never strike the head or neck hard in practice.

Take It Further

The Pressure Point Fighting Course shows how to add pressure points to whatever you already train. If kata is your background, Kata Unleashed looks at kata bunkai and the targets within it.