Kyūsho

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Kyūsho (literally: “places of suffering”) are anatomical weak points within the human body. Kyūsho are susceptible to the application of force or pressure, which will result in pain, injury, unconsciousness, or death. The magnitude of the applied force, the area of the body to which the force is applied, and the technique used to apply the force must always be seriously contemplated.

In general, avoid striking any muscular or fatty areas. Muscle and fat act as a natural safety padding which dampens the impact of your blows. While striking these areas will cause painful bruising, these bruises will not set in until long after the confrontation has ended. To quickly incapacitate an attacker, you must attack sensitive soft tissues, break small bones, or dislocate major joints. Fighting requires a functioning skeleton.

There are a number of popular books which explain vital points location, and list their effects. However, these books typically draw from traditional Chinese medical practices (i.e., acupuncture) and lack a scientific basis in anatomy or physiology. The only non-pseudoscience kyūsho book is Deadly Karate Blows: The Medical Implications, by Brian C. Adams; however, this book is currently out-of-print. If you cannot obtain a used copy of this book, we suggest critically reading standard medical reference texts, such as Gray’s Anatomy.

A list of kyūsho is provided in the table below, listed from the top of the body to the bottom (which is easier to memorize):

Kyūsho
Skull Temples Eyes Ears Bridge of the nose
Philtrum Chin Side the of jaw Side of the neck Base of the cerebellum
Windpipe Collarbone Armpit Elbow joint Fingers
Floating ribs Inner wrist Solar plexus Upper back Lower back
Abdomen Kidneys Bladder Tailbone Groin
Hollow of knee Side of the knee Shin Achilles’ tendon Instep

Every technique you perform should be always directed to one of these thirty kyūsho. Even when performing kata, you must envision striking the kyūsho of an imaginary attacker matching your height and build.

Skull

Do not punch someone in the skull. Heads are incredibly hard, and you can easily break your hand trying to crack one open. (This is why boxers wear padded gloves.) Attacks to the skull should only be conducted with the most robust parts of your body (e.g., hammerfist, elbow, knee, or heel). Even then, skull fractures are unlikely, but it will introduce your opponent to the magical world of closed-head trauma.

Brain floats in the skull like a yolk in an egg. Localized force will crack the skull like an eggshell, less than that will move the head. This overwhelms the brain (E goes as v2), brain stays still while skull moves. Liquid helps cushion the blow of the skull striking the brain. Brain is scrunched, rupturing blood vessels on the side opposite the punch, and likely at the site of the punch from the rebound. This repeats until oscillations die out. Jolt and damage interrupts nerve conduction, so brain has to reboot, if you are lucky.

Any jolt to the head, especially those where the head is not allowed to roll with the shockwave, can cause a concussion. A consussion is the vibration of the brain within the skull. The effect of a concussion can range anywhere from insignificant to fatal, depending on the number of ruptured blood vessels and their position relative to the brain.

The brain has many redundant pathways, so being knocked out for < 30 s causes little damage. Being knocked out frequently will though. Loss of brain flow from blood loss, chokes, the brain builds up swelling, lactic acid, fatigue poisons and will idle until those are flushed out. When this happens, sometime these people wake up again, but they are very different afterwards. This is a coma.

The skull is weakest where the frontal and parietal bones join. Sharp blows can cause cranial nerve traume, resulting in unconsciousness, vasucular shock, and possible death.

A flow to the forehead could cause whiplash from the sudden change in head position.

Temples

Contrary to popular belief, the temples are comprised of bone which is just as thick as the rest of the skull. Blows to the temple are more effective because the temple is flat, which allows for more efficient energy transfer. so the blows can hit dead-on, rather than glancing off of a rounded surface.

Powerful blows can cause concussions, unconsciousness, and possible death.

A epecially poweful blow can fracture the skull a that point, rupturing, pinching, or cutting the meningeal artery, resuling in an immediate compression of the brain from the hemmoraging, leading to coma and death.

Eyes

The bones behind the eye are thin. A really strong eye-poke can break this bone and pierce the brain.


Ears

rupture eardrum, causing nerve shocks and internal bleeding. Sharp blows can cause concussions, leading to unconsciousness or death.

In later volumes, we will introduce kumade uchi, the bear-paw strike, which was exclusively designed to do this.

tear ear off.

Tearing the opponent’s ear off may also impair the opponents vision, since the ear serves as an anchor point for most styles of eyeglasses.

Bridge of the nose

Strikes to the bridge of the nose can have a variety of effects, depending on the power behind the attack:

Impaired Vision

Due to the nerve density in that region, all strikes to the nose will cause an involuntary watering of the eyes, which can temporarily impede the opponent's vision. This will not stop an opponent, but will slow them down; this is why a backfist strike to the side of the nose is an ideal atemi.

Skeletal Trauma

A powerful strike to the nose can fracture or dislocate the nasal bone and septum, resulting in shock, pain, and a severe nosebleed. Due to the small target area, it is likely that a strike to the side of the nose will miss and strike the opponent's face, just under the eye. A powerful strike could break the opponent's orbit. This can be be dangerous, since the fracture can extend into the ethmoid bone, and tear the brain casing. This will result in sever headaches as the cerebrospinal fluid leaks out. This is exacerbated by the fact that cerebrospinal fluid leaks tend to be ignored, since they are often mistaken for runny noses.

Indirect Death

While a strike to the nose is not directly fatal, the pain and shock can induce unconsciousness, which can be indirectly fatal from:

  • The trauma of the opponent's head striking the ground.
  • The unconscious opponent choking to death on their own blood.

Philtrum

The philtrum is the groove centered on the upper lip, directly under the nose. A strike to the philtrum can have a variety of results, depending on the severity of the impact:

  • Due to the high nerve density in that region, all attacks at/near the nose cause an involuntary watering of the eyes, which can temporarily impede the opponent's vision.
  • Split lips are likely.
  • Chipped, fractured, or dislocated teeth are likely.
  • Whiplash is possible.
  • Due to the skull's sphere-like geometry, a sudden pressure pressure spike in this region can cause a bursting fracture of the maxilla (upper jaw) under the eye, beside the nose, and above the canine teeth. These fractures typically occur on the opposite side of the face, but same-side bursting fractures are possible. Eating becomes excruciatingly painful until these fractures heal.
  • Unconsciousness can result, either from a concussion or from shock.
  • Death can occur. Please note that contrary to popular portrayals in television, movies, and comics, a rising palmheel skrike to the philtrum will not cause instantaneous death via piercing the opponent's brain with their fractured nasal bone. This is physiologically impossible; the only intra-skull passages leading to the brain are for the nerves and blood vessels -- these passages are too small to accommodate the nose structure, and their direct upward angle offers no convenient attack vector. Any forceful blow to the head is unlikely, though possible, to cause death from via the following mechanisms:
    • Concussions.
    • Choking on blood and/or tooth fragments. Inhaling blood and/or teeth can cause vocal cord spasms, which can seal off the trachea (windpipe), causing death by suffocation.
    • Epidural hematoma caused by rapid head motion tearing or rupturing the middle meningeal artery.

Chin

Striking the chin allows the jawbone to act as a lever rapidly rotate the opponent's head. This leverage efficiently induces closed-head trauma, leading to unconsciousness and concussions. To best exploit this weakness, strike the side of the chin, 1" (2.5 cm) from the tip. Boxers call this spot "the button," since it figuratively acts like an on/off switch for your opponent's brain.

Striking the chin from underneath has a similar effect, which is is amplified by the fact that properly-executed rising strikes are hard to detect and defend against. Whiplash may result. An unprepared opponent may inadvertently bite through their tongue, leading to pain, intense bleeding, and the inability to speak.

Side of jaw

Powerful strikes could fracture or dislocate the jaw. Broken jaws must be wired shut to heal, rendering the opponent unable to speak or eat solid food.

A mistargeted jaw strike can fracture the cheekbone, rupturing the sinuses and causing a severe nosebleed. If the opponent were to loose consciousness, they could choke to death on their own blood.

Additionally, facial nerves may be pinched or abraded, resulting in paralysis.

Side of the neck

A target-rich environment, carotid arteries, jugular veins, the vagus nerve, which can cause unconsciousness from shock.

Skeletal trauma can damage the spinal cord; this effect can be amplified by their broken neck's inability to support the weight of the head.

Base of the cerebellum

Nerves are the most energy- greedy cells in the body.

Without oxygen, glucose metabolizes wrong and becomes lactic acid. Brain shuts down to preserve itself from lactic acid build up. Anything less than 5 minutes is ok. More than that causes brain damage. A delicate person, one with clogged arteries or diabetics could see it in 3 minutes. There are also cases of kids trapped under ice for 15 minutes and coming out normal though.

Strikes to the side of the knee work too well; don’t practice

Striking between the should blades can send shockwaves into the heart , aortic arch, or vargas nerve.

Windpipe

Any across-the-throat chokes, strikes, or any other form of pressure can easily crush the thyroid cartilage (Adam’s apple) or trachea (windpipe).

Crushing the throat requires emergency tracheotomy or the opponent will die.


Lesser blows can trigger the gag reflex, leading to vomiting.

Collarbone

A collarbone fracture will incapacitate that arm, as the clavicle is one of the more painful bones to break. The jagged bone ends can potentially lacerate the brachial plexus or subclavian artery, creating the possibility of arterial blood clots (i.e., thrombosis) and/or gangrene.

Extremely penetrating strikes to the collarbone can can drive bone shards into the chest, puncturing and collapsing the lungs. Collapsed lungs can cause shortness of breath, painful breathing, dizziness, irregular heartbeat, coma, and possibly death.

Armpit

Though it is unlikely to present itself during the course of an altercation, your opponent's armpits contain an anatomical weakness. The brachial plexus lies in this region, close to the skin, where there is little to no muscle to act as padding. All of the nerves controlling the arm and hand branch from this point, so striking this area can compress this nerve cluster, causing severe pain and temporary paralysis (i.e., a "burner" or "stinger").

Elbow joint

Striking the inside of the elbow joint causes the arm to fold, and makes the opponent to bend forward. This can be used to break an opponent's balance and setup a takedown. Striking the outside of the elbow joint, like with an elbow break, can have a variety of outcome, all of which will painfully incapacitate the arm. The power of the blow will determine the additional severity of the injury:

Painful Swelling

Moderate strikes to the outside of the elbow will tear its bursa ("student's elbow") and tendons ("tennis elbow"), causing pain and extreme swelling which impedes mobility.

Skeletal Trauma, with Complications

Powerful strikes can fracture the humerus, just above the elbow joint, resulting in extreme pain, nausea, and anxiety. This injury can exhibit severe secondary effects:

Fingers

Individual fingers can be grabbed, peeled off, and quickly snapped backwards or sideways to break out of grabs and holds, for an escape with a built-in atemi. The fingers contain numerous small long bones, which can easily be broken by strikes from lateral directions to induce pain. If the hand is not incapacitated, it's grip and dexterity is severely reduced, leaving the opponent unable or less able to use grabs, weapons, or tools.

Floating ribs

The lowermost (i.e., the 11th and 12th) pairs of ribs are structurally weak because they have a "floating" end which does not connect to the sternum, or its cartilage. Powerful attacks to the floating ribs can result in:

Kidney Damage

The hydrostatic shock from a strike to the floating ribs can rupture the opponent's kidney. Broken floating rib rib fragments can lacerate the kidneys, resulting in weeks of mandatory bed rest to recover from peritonitis, extreme pain, bloody urine, coma, and possibly death.

Glancing blows to the floating ribs can tear the membranes holding the kidney in place, causing internal bleeding and a possible bend or kink in the urethra, causing urethral blockage, infection, and possible death.

Respiratory Damage

Additionally, shattered rib fragments can pierce the diaphragm, resulting in short, quick, "shallow" breathing as the body restricts diaphragm motion to prevent further piercing. Internal bleeding will irritate the diaphragm and cause painful hiccuping. This restricted air intake can lead to asphyxia-induced unconsciousness, coma, and death.

There is a tendency to miss the floating ribs and strike higher up on the chest. This can break the short ribs (i.e., the 8th, 9th, and 10th ribs), creating sharpened bone fragments which can resulted in punctured or collapsed lungs. Collapsed lungs can cause shortness of breath, painful breathing, dizziness, irregular heartbeat, coma, and possibly death.

Inner wrist

The inner wrist contains many nerves, tendons, and major blood vessels which control and feed the hand. These are all close to the surface, in a region where there is little muscle tissue to cushion impacts. Striking these tendons can cause their hands to involuntarily open, which can be exploited to disarm attackers. Powerful strike to this area will cause:

Sprains and/or Fractures

Wrist sprains are likely, and radius and/or ulna fractures are possible. Both of these injuries will cause pain, swelling, and a greatly weakened grip.

Solar plexus

The solar plexus is a large nerve cluster located where the rib cage (thorax) and abdomen meet. The solar plexus is oriented along the centerline, behind the diaphragm, in front of the first lumbar vertebrae. The nerves controlling many major organs branch out from the spinal cord at this point, like rays from the sun. While martial artists frequently attack the solar plexus, they are not attacking that nerve cluster per se; they are just attacking its general location. Attacks to this region can have a number of deleterious effects on the opponent's major organs, as described below:

Respiratory Paralysis

Blows to to solar plexus can send the diaphragm into Charley Horse-like spasms. While the intercostal muscles ("rib meat") will function as a redundant diaphragm in this emergency, these muscles are inefficient and will quickly tire, leading to respiratory paralysis (i.e., "getting the wind knocked out of you"). Complete incapacitation for 1-2 minutes will likely result, spelling doom in an altercation. Lapsing into asphyxia-induced unconsciousness from such a blow is unlikely, but possible.

Experience indicates that respiratory paralysis mostly occurs when opponents are struck during inhalation. As such, all inhalations must be sharp and quick, to minimize this vulnerability.

Organ Damage

Attacks to the solar plexus can damage and/or rupture various organs, depending on the attack's angle and force. The opponent will enter shock from the blood loss, vomiting, and influx of different organ fluids entering the abdominal cavity. Unconsciousness can result, and if so, it will often lead to death before the damage can be surgically corrected. The jarring shock of a powerful solar plexus attack can tear lung tissue, leading to short and painful breathing.

Straight attacks to the solar plexus cause the lumbar vertebrae to act as an anvil or chopping block, vectoring all of the attack's power into deforming and possibly rupturing the pancreas, duodenum, and/or aorta. While any organ rupture causes internal bleeding, ruptured aortas commonly result in fatal hemorrhaging.

A strike at the opponent's solar plexus, angled towards their left can compress and rupture the opponent's stomach and duodenum. Without surgery, uncontrollable hiccuping, gastrointestinal disturbances, vomiting, shock, and eventually death will result as the body cavity is filled with, and eventually dissolved by, a mixture of blood and stomach acid. Additional compression many bruise or rupture the spleen. If bruised, the spleen will weaken, and could spontaneously rupture at some point within the next 2 years. A ruptured spleen will cause death from massive hemorrhaging within 48 hours.

A strike at the opponent's solar plexus, angled towards their left can compress and rupture the opponent's liver and gallbladder. Without surgery, uncontrollable hiccuping, gastrointestinal disturbances, vomiting, shock, and eventually death will result as the body cavity is filled with, and eventually dissolved by, a mixture of blood and bile.

Upper back

Dislocation of the spinal column can lead to dislocated or herniated vertebrae. these "slipped disks" cause extreme pain, imparing mobility.

Severe dislocations can compress, sever, or otherwise damage the spinal cord, resulting in paralysis or death. The higher the dislocation, the more severe the consequences.

Lower back

(e.g., the small of the back; sacrum)

Spinal cord injury to this region can result in limited or full paraplegia, urinary and fecal incontinence, and sexual dysfunction.

Abdomen

Poorly-conditioned, fatigued, or relaxed abdominal muscles can be sent into painful spasms when struck. Vomiting is unlikely, but possible. A well-timed attack can cause respiratory paralysis (i.e., knocking the wind out of an opponent) if they are struck during inhalation. Organ damage, as described in the solar plexus entry, is possible though less likely.

Note that blows to the abdomen are less effective against opponents who tense highly-developed abdominal muscles, as they will act as sort of natural armor plating. This is one reason why boxers spend so much time on abdominal conditioning, and kung-fu practitioners cross train in Iron Shirt Qigong.

Kidneys

A direct blow to the kidney can cause it to rupture from hydrostatic shock, or from being pieced or lacerated by broken floating or short rib fragments. Peritonitis

Bladder

In addition to explicit bladder attacks (i.e., gyaku-sukuite), groin strikes can also damage the bladder, since it is conveniently nearby. This can have different adverse effects:

Bladder Rupture

When struck, a filled urinary bladder can pop like a water balloon, flooding the opponent’s abdominal cavity with blood and urine. This will cause extreme tenderness, the inability to urinate, and an urinary tract infection. (To defend against this vulnerability, the bladder unconsciously voids as part of the fight-or-flight response. This is why frightened people pee their pants.)

Skeletal Trauma

Severe blows to the bladder can fracture the pelvis, and its sharp, jagged edges can puncture or tear the bladder and/or colon. This will result in internal hemorrhaging, shock, and painful breathing caused by the weight of the gastrointestinal system bearing down on the broken pelvis.

Hernias

Men run the additional risk of receiving risk of inguinal, femoral, or scrotal hernias following bladder strikes, due to the unsupported hollow spots left in that region after their testicles descended. Femoral hernias are particularly dangerous, as they have the following potential side effects:

  • Protruding sections of the intestine or abdominal membranes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peritoneum peritoneum) may become constricted and receive decreased blood flow, leading to gangrene.
  • Pressure on the femoral nerve may lead to partial paralysis of the affected leg.
  • Blood clots in the femoral vein can cause thrombosis, which can lodge themselves in the opponent's lungs, causing death.

Tailbone

Contrary to popular belief, the tailbone does serve a purpose -- it anchors the anal sphincter muscle. Fracturing this small bone can lead to extreme pain, especially when sitting or defecating. Fecal incontinence may also result.

Groin

The groin properly refers to the hip adductor muscles located in the upper inner thigh. Rising ridgehand strikes to this region can send those muscles into spasms (i.e., Charley horses).

However, "groin" is really just a polite (read: parent and school administrator friendly) way of referring to a male attacker's testicles. So, let’s just drop the façade and talk about testicles directly, like adults.

In Goshin-Jutsu, attacking the testicles is not permitted -- it is encouraged. Groin strikes, being painful, debilitating, and humiliating, should be a part of most waza -- but they should not always be the initial attack. There is no element of surprise associated with groin attacks; literally everyone, everywhere, knows this trick. Groin strikes are not a solves-all since every man must develop a groin-protecting sixth-sense in order to survive middle school. However, this reflex can be exploited to your advantage. All groin attacks can be used as atemi, by using this flinch response as a distraction. When the opponent frantically covers his groin, he momentarily stops thinking about protecting his head, and thus leaves himself open to counterattack.

Also, be mindful that testicle strikes are immensely painful, but not always immediately painful. The opponent might have to take a few steps, and/or wait up to 10 minutes before feeling the full effect.

Severe groin strikes can have the following dire consequences:

Bladder Rupture

Groin strikes will often double as bladder strikes, doubling the damage potential.

Pelvic Fracture

Severe groin strikes can fracture the pubis (i.e., the bottom-most pelvis linkage). Walking becomes excruciatingly painful, due to the fractured bone's jagged edges rubbing against each other. The opponent must then curl up into a fetal ball, for lack of other options.

Crushed Testicles

Crushed testicles will induce extreme pain, loss of breath, and nausea. Vomiting can occur. Exceptionally severe cases can send an opponents into shock, leading to unconsciousness or death. Severely crushed testicles can result in sterility. Testicular rupture requires surgery, and depending on the severity, may end with the partial or whole amputation of the damaged testicle.

Hollow of the knee

Attacks to the hollow behind the knee can injure to the popliteal blood vessels and tabialis nerve, which can paralyze the leg. Sever blows can dislocate the knee itself. Even light to moderate blows will tear ligaments and cartilage, causing extreme pain and limited mobility.

Side of the knee

Dislocations of the kneecap are likely. even light to moderate blows will tear ligaments and cartilage, causing extreme pain and limited mobility.

Shin

Shin attacks are unlikely to kill an attacker, but they can render your opponent helpless, via:

Skeletal Trauma

The shinbones are close to the surface of the skin, and there is little muscle in that region to cushion impacts. Pain, broken skin and bone bruises (i.e., the bruising of the spongy, bone-forming tissue surrounding the marrow) are likely. Tibia and fibula fractures are possible from stomp kicks while wearing hard-soled shoes or boots. Since shinbones come in pairs, a fracturing one of them may not be obvious, even though the ruptured blood vessels surrounding the fracture will cause extreme swelling. If one bone is broken, the opponent can walk with extreme pain. If both bones are broken, the opponent will be immobilized, since they cannot support their own bodyweight.

Arterial Embolism

Bone fragments, torn subcutaneous fat, and blood clots can clog blood vessels, cutting off circulation from that part of the body, resulting in gangrene and/or death.

Achilles’ tendon

Poweful blows could poteinally sprain the ankle and/ or tear ligaments. Ankle dislocation is possible.

Instep

The instep contains numerous small long bones, which are prone to fracture when struck from a lateral direction. To avoid injuring them, karateka kick with the balls of their feet, and not with their insteps, like in many Korean martial arts styles.

Stomping on an opponent’s instep is a common atemi in waza involving opponents grabbing you from behind. Crushing the instep literally leaves the opponent without a leg to stand on, since the foot is essentially a tripod comprised of the heel and the first and fifth metatarsals. Foot stomps should always be directed the opponent's instep, and not their toes because: