Midterms time!
Today, I have at least one midterm. As my second class doesn’t seem to have them, and my third class had the midterm a couple of weeks ago (I think I passed, but I don’t know yet, because he won’t put anything up online), I’m left with just the most terrifying midterm of all. That’s right, it’s the Physical Fitness III one – known to previous years as ‘Defence Tactics’. This is the class where I learn the evils of jumpropeshow to talk to people, how to position myself when talking to people, how to use pressure points, and how to move.
So! Since it shall soon be time for my midterm (with my luck, I’ll be one of the victims, so I think I may pack my painkillers), here’re some quick and dirty notes on the three most painful pressure points.
The diagram I’m working from is annoyingly enough under copyright from the publisher, and not from my teacher, who wrote the book in the first place, so until I can find out about getting a decent diagram going (even if I have to draw one up and scan it in myself), we’ll be working from words only. Probably a good thing though – one of these can kill if used properly, and another of them kills if used repeatedly.
The pain descriptions are what I feel when somebody does it to me.
Repeating requests (or, ah, yelling), are the only way to get through to anybody who is being gone over with these pressure points. This is due to sensory overload, similar to what happens when one is playing a sport and ignores the crowd, for instance.
Going in the order learnt:
Mandibular Angle
An incredibly painful little spot.
Find that point where your jaw meets your ear. Right, brilliant! Now, move a little bit backwards, past your jawline and into your neck, still right by the ear. If you can feel a little indentation, you’ve found the spot.
Now imagine somebody is digging a thumb into that little spot, and it feels almost like they’re trying to scoop out your eyeball from the wrong direction, while they’re yelling at you, right in your ear.
Incredibly painful. This pressure point has a 90% accuracy rate, although field and lab have many differences. Pete suggests that this number is closer to 70% in the field. You do not want to hold onto this spot, or any other, for too long though; the person may get an adrenaline dump, thus blotting out the pain, and lending superhuman strength, and then you’re screwed. I’m not kidding.
This point is made even more painful if used in conjunction with…
Infraorbital
Find your nose. Now find that gap between the middle of your nose and your mouth. Okay, cool, now press into and upwards in that space with the edge of your finger. Feels a bit weird, ay? When done to you, it feels like somebody it attempting to push your nose into your skull by sheer pressure just on that point – and yes, there will still be yelling. Everybody’s spot for this is incrementally different – some may be right on the join, some may be further forward on the nose. This is the second most effective point, and that effectiveness increases when a ‘C-clamp’ is used – that is, both the Mandibular Angle and the Infraorbital simultaneously from one hand.
Hypoglossal
Draw an invisible line down from your eye to your jaw, and then just under the jawbone. Roughly here, you’ll find this rather painful little bugger. Press up with your thumb. Feels a bit weird? Now imagine that somebody has his or her thumb up, and is pushing upwards and outwards and trying to drag your jaw forwards or maybe snap it in half. Ooooow. My personal least-favourite.
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