Dim-Mak: Death Point Striking Paperback – January 1, 1993

Interesting concepts, written by someone who claims to have a lot of experience. Some explanations are rather adventurous, mixing tradition and beliefs with what is presented as "scientific" and then it is not. Written and presented in an old style way, you could say the book is dated. Somebody needs to give a big content-wise scrub and make it visually more engaging.

I have seen this method in use while in the military. It is startlingly accurate and amazingly easy for those who have learned it. In the words of Montaigue, it takes a lifetime of study to perfect, but in my experience even an elementary understanding can be a game-changer. Good read, sometimes tricky to follow charts, but worth the money!

This book is very imformative on many DIM MAK moves for self defense. It is very interesting, you really should be in a martial arts class to learn how to do all the moves correctly and practice each move. On the street only use in life or death situations. This book and all the DIM MAK books is highly reccommended.

I've picked up A lot of the points of the healing art from this book already, and I still have A lot left to read. I really enjoy it and am looking forward to it, still.

Master Montaique breaks the information down to earth so that it is very easy to follow and understand. You should also purchase his DVD's on the subject to get an even better understanding of the information being presented.

Don't buy book buy DvD

Great

First off, for the purpose of this book, you could nearly make the equation "Dim Mak=Taijiquan". Whether you agree with that or not doesn't matter much, but prospective buyers should be aware that this is a book on taijiquan, with a smattering of other things. Bagua for example.A must-read for any serious practitioner of taijiquan and highly recommended for martial artists of any style interested in details of point striking. Mr. Montaigue is certainly a controversial figure who has both his supporters and his detractors. I am not really concerned with any of that though, although I have never met the author, I have met plenty of people in both camps--but if you are a practitioner of taijiquan, perhaps even more importantly one that does not focus on striking, then you should at least consider a viewpoint different than your own. I call it a must read because even if you are dead set against what Mr. Montaigue teaches and says, you should at least confront it for yourself, and not be dependent upon someone else's viewpoint.I personally have a soft spot for this book because back in the early 80s, before there was an ocean of books on taijiquan (in the US at least), before there were magazines dedicated to it, anyone who did anything differently from what you were taught simply "wasn't doing tai chi". In those days you took a lot of flack if you believed that those things that looked like punches or slaps were actually meant for hitting. This book was one of the first longer studies on striking in taijiquan available.Also at that time there was not much exposure to different forms. Certain postures from long boxing are not explicit in either the form or short form, and one might simply glance at this book and mistakenly say "that's not taiji", dismissing it as not authentic. You may do that anyway, but doing so for those reasons is primarily conditioned hubris.Despite the book's title, it is NOT only concerned with death. In addition to this, Mr. Montaigue provides chapters that deal with life, using these points to heal and treat afflictions--not simply treating someone who has been struck, but also someone afflicted with corresponding illnesses (sunstroke, for instance). Information is also provided on qi gong and applying specific taiji postures and sequences for treating specific ailments. These chapters are sadly very short but are loaded with interesting information, that could prove useful. Also included is a brief transcript of a Q&A between Mr. Montaigue and Chang Yiu-chun which is extremely worthwhile. Such chapters contain many pearls to be plucked by attentive readers.The book can also help one understand reasons behind certain movements that one might never have thought about, or simply performed by rote, the importance of which may have been overlooked. An example of this occurs in Mr. Montaigue's application of "Embrace Tiger, Return to Mountain". This example helped me understand the turning over of the palm in a new light. This is not an isolated example. Even if one were to disagree with an application as presented, getting up and testing the posture will be good for your development.A minor complaint I will register at this point is that although many of the applications shown are drawn directly from taiji postures, Mr. Montaigue generally does not relate the descriptions and photos to those postures by name. This is a drawback to me as a taiji practitioner, but perhaps would be a plus to martial artists of different schools. In the end it doesn't matter much because if you know the postures you can recognize them, however it does make thumbing through looking for a specific posture a headache.This brings us to the flaws of the book. The book suffers from a somewhat lax job of copyediting. Although not overly burdened with typos, there are enough to annoy me. This is a minor complaint for a book of this genre; I do have more serious complaints as to some points of editing and production. For example: "When your opponent kicks, simply move in and strike St32..." (p. 130.) There is no point St32 discussed in the book. I think this may be a mistake for Gb32, but perhaps the St32 point was edited out of the manuscript. This seems clearly to be the case just below that in a discussion of striking Sp8 and Sp9. These points are not in the book in its published form and do not appear to be mistakes. A prospective buyer should be aware of these problems as they do occur, but also rest assured that they are not widespread. Also, clarity was sacrificed for page count. In a book of this nature, IMHO, clarity should be paramount. Diagrams and photos often do not appear on the same pages as their corresponding text. This is especially annoying if you are standing up and working through the applications. In some instances the photos are two full pages away.Given these problems, why not downgrade the rating? I do not consider these problems with the instruction, or with Mr. Montaigue's techniques. I am not rating the book on aesthetic principles, but rather on the the martial and other presented, especially to taijiquan. Mr. Montaigue shares his knowledge without holding back. His style is casual and friendly, yet authoritative. Again, you may not agree with what he says or believes, but you should confront it on your own.

If your serious about your martial arts then this a must Erle montaigue is the best internal martial artist and the reason I started practicing tai chi wudang and bagua.

another great book from the legendary earle, good self defence, but only for the responcable. recomended for any tai chi practitioner or any other martial artist looking to expand their horizons

This truly is a great book, and its very easy to understand. I just love the healing aspects of the book as well.

Excellent seller to deal with. Quality product supplied. Would highly recommend