A little knowledge is a dangerous thing here.
The phenomenon Ian speaks of above is called commotio cordis. It is a VERY RARE phenomenon. If you wanted to cause it, you couldn't. It is usually found with young boys playing sports who are hit either with a projectile or an elbow.
Below illustrates the narrow window of time in the electrocardiac cycle where commotio cordis is possible.
That window there maybe is a twentieth of a second.
It isn't the armpit per se that's the target. It's any blow which sends a shock wave to the heart at an exact window in time. Naturally boys have thinner chest walls than adults, so are more prone to this in sports. Furthermore... the reason why people say armpit is because when you lift your arm up, there's an area in-between the pecs and the lats that isn't protected by muscle. The shock absorption capacity of those bare ribs isn't anywhere near as good as a shot right over the pecs. And while causing commotio cordis by intent would be dumb luck, it still hurts like hell to get hit where there's no muscle (like getting kicked on the shinbone). And a shot strong enough to break a rib there would definitely slow the bad guy down - to say the least.
True armpit strikes (like the thrusts before carry in Seisan) don't involve the heart at all - no matter how much some granola-eating chister wants to tell you. The target in the armpit is a nerve bundle distal to the brachial plexus. The picture below illustrates the anatomy.
There's a reason why nature evolved to have that bundle under the armpit. That way you can't have it accidentally poked and damaged very easily. It wouldn't take much in the way of imagination to figure out how useful that arm would be if you shoved a blade in there.
Our femoral bundles were equally protected as well until one day some enterprising young hominid decided to go from all fours to standing just on the hind legs. Oh well...
The picture above has the collar bone removed (see it cut off). Imagine the collar bone where it naturally is. Now you know what the target is with the crane strike in Sanseiryu. There's definitely a "secret sauce" to the application there, but... you at least get the fundamental concept.
- Bill
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I had never heard that target/point explained in such detail. Of course we, try to avoid any real contact in such drills, and safety comes first. However, any additional understanding of such techniques is always beneficial.
