Shot Across The Bow, Kuk Sool Style

6 Precision Kicks That Will Stun an Attacker Long Enough for You to Escape! (And You Can Crank Up the Power If You Need to Do More Damage) 

- Robert W. Young

A martial art is a thinking person’s self-defense tool. We all know that. In part, it’s why we wield our natural weapons like a scalpel, not like a machete. We’re taught that precision is an essential component of mastery, that our goal in a fight is not merely to blast a kick into our opponent’s leg as hard as humanly possible and then hope for the best. Rather, it’s to aim for a specific spot on that leg using a specific part of the foot to make contact. That’s the definition of efficiency with respect to energy expenditure, technique choice and target selection.

In the case of the Korean art of kuk sool, that quest for efficiency inspired founder In Hyuk Suh, who was Black Belt’s 1984 Man of the Year, to turn to pressure points. Whether it’s a precision kick or a surgical strike, he teaches that the best target is a pressure point or a similarly vulnerable spot on the body. The founder’s son, ninth-degree blackbelt Sung Jin Suh, concurs. In fact, he’s made it his mission to spread knowledge of the efficacy of pressure-point strikes wherever he goes.

I met with Sung Jin Suh, whose official title with the World Kuk Sool Association is su suk kwan jang nim, for the purposes of the photo shoot that yielded the images you see here and the interview that led to the training tips. In this issue of Black Belt, Sung Jin Suh covers kicks. In the next issue, he’ll address hand strikes.

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