Small Joint Manipulation: Your Opinions...

K. I have read a few books concerning chin-na, absolutely loved them. Great principles, good flow. Also looke at a little of Wally Jay's small circle jiu-jitsu. My question is this. What do you view as small joint manipulation's main role in your arsenal? It is found in almost every style of combat. I have yet to see a school that does not at least have wrist locks. My personal view is that they serve as a distraction, and as a set up to open even greater targets. In other words, in actual combat, a broken finger will not stop the opponent from fighting many times, but it does serve as a distraction in that it limits the functioning of that hand. Due to the limited function of that hand, both offense and defense are now effected. This allows for opening both in avoiding attacks and launching your own. They also serve me well when rolling in escaping from certain positions. I do not attack the fingers or toes, especially individually, but wrist locks and such help to keep them busy and distracted while I seek a greater advantage. I view pressure points in the same manner. I do not regard any as absolute fight stoppers, unless you break all 10 fingers or something to that degree, however, I find them a very fine addition to my over all arsenal. I would love to hear some feed back from guys on here with greater experience/training in these areas, especially chin-na. As a qualifier, I am considering small-joint as wrist or smaller (ie fingers, toes, but not say, the elbow).

Clydeus Maximus: Mutt-fu Grand Master and Dominator of ****y Teenagers in my youth group.