On Sun, 22 May 2011 18:43:24 -0700 (PDT), Pavel314
wrote:

On May 22, 7:17*pm, mm wrote:
Actually, it was before anyone in the US talked about karate, in the
50's or 60's when one would often see someone knock another
unconscious by hitting him at the base of the skull, neck, somewhere.

Growing up in the U.S. in the 50's and early 60's it was generally
called a "judo chop." We didn't hear about karate until the mid- or
late-60's.

My mistake. You're right on all points.

Now that I had something to look up, I wikied judo chop. It
redirected to knifehand strike , something I don't think any
American outside a martial arts school really calls it even they
probably use Japanese or Chinese when they can. and says "familiar
to many people as a karate chop, (in Japanese, shuto--uchi). " But
the short article doesn't use the words judo chop, probably becuse the
writer is 19 years old.

He is right about this part: "Fictional depictions
The popularity of martial arts in mid to late 20th century gave rise
to an exaggerated version of a knifehand strike widely used in
American and British cinema, television, and animated cartoons. In
common depictions, a character will deliver a single, precise-looking
but relatively weak strike to the side of an opponent's neck, which
instantly renders them unconscious but otherwise unharmed (in some
versions, the blow is instantly fatal). This is frequently done from
behind to an unaware adversary, often an enemy guard. The move became
a staple of the spy genre through the 60s and 70s.[1]

As audiences became more aware of how implausible this move seemed, it
gradually migrated to the realm of comedy. In these depictions, it is
either used unexpectedly and found to work in absurd situations, or a
character attempts to imitate what they saw in film, only to find it
has no effect." I guess this last line is why I asked how hard you
had to hit someone.

A) Can you kill someone this way. *I probably wouldn't want to do
this.

B) Can you knock someone out this way, even if you only have moderate
strength?

I took karate lessons many years ago. The base of the skull is a very
dangerous place to hit someone, it could kill or knock someone out,
according to the instructor.

C) Where exactly do you have to hit him,

The base of the skull, where it joins the neck, as I recall. Someone
with more recent experience might be able to be more specific. I seem
to recall that a chop to the side of the neck would also be
incapacitating.


D) and what percent of your maxium strength would you use / do you
think is necessary?

If you're in a fight and your life is in danger, hit with all you
got.

I plan to, and I think I would. But in the story below, I'm not in
the fight yet. Still I wouldn't want to stand idly by while two or
three guys beat an innconent guy to death, and I wouldn't want to kill
them either, if only for the fact than even were it justified, I'd
have big legal bills. And because I'd probably wonder, were they
really beaing him to death, or only giving him a few bruises.

I ask because the news tonight talked about the L.A. Giants fan who
was almost beaten to death by two other men who were at the game.
There was a slighly similar incident in Balitmore a few weeks ago.
Were I to have seen this, I don't know that I'd have nerve enough to
hit the assailant in the face, hoping to knock him unconscious but
more likely to cause him to turn and try to beat on me.

The bridge of the nose and point of the chin are the main facial
pressure points. Other than the eyes; use a Three-Stooge two-finger
poke.

A poke that doesnt' do any permantent damage? That would scare the
aggressor, but wouldn't it make him angry too, and make him come at me
twice as hard once he saw he wasn't injured.

And even if I could win, there are guys smaller than I am, and women
and girls, who could benefit if there were a way requiring less force
to knock someone out. *The incident in Baltimore involved 3 females,
sort of, 2 kicking one who they had knocked down and was on the floor,
and I wondered what my 5'2", 105 lb. ex would do if she had been
there.

This used to be in the movies a lot, but it has disappeared, in favor
of fights that go on for dozens of blows. *So that I wonder if it was
possible. *Of course also in the 50's it was common for tv and movie
killers to use a silencer on their automatic and that disappeared for
30 or 40 years, during which they only used pillows, returning only a
few years ago.

When someone put a silencer on a gun in the old movies, you knew he
was a serious bad guy, whereas anyone can get a pillow to shoot
through.

Yes, but even the vicious bad guys used pillows for 30 years. I
didn't see s silencer for 30 years until I doubted that good ones
existed. I don't have delusions, so I know they were in the old
movies, but I thought, Maybe they made movies more accurate and
dispensed with the what must have been fictional silencer, which would
work 3 times in a row or more. And truly, how come the first bullet
didn't blow out so much of the stuffing that the second bullet was
just as loud as without a silencer? With a pillow, the person holding
it compressed it and there was loads of stuffing for 100 bullets.