|
 Simply put, Dit Da is the traditional Chinese art of healing injuries. Dit Da deals with both the prevention and treatment of many different types of internal and external injuries such as bruises, sprained and dislocated joints, broken bones, cuts etc. Dit Da Ke (Cantonese) or Tieh Ta Ke (Mandarin) is commonly translated into English as Fall and Hit medicine or Iron Hit Medicine.
Dit Da has been an integral part of traditional gung fu for centuries. It has developed, flourished and evolved over hundreds of years and passed down from master to disciple for generations as an integral part of gung fu training and tradition. Practice of Dit Da and gung fu training go hand in hand, they compliment and complete one and other. Past masters were always known for their dit da skills as well as their gung fu. They would often earn their living from treating patients and selling herbal medicine. Dit da skills and herbal formulas of a gung fu family were always highly guarded and kept very secret. Only the selected students, the successors of the gung fu family who proved their loyalty and dedication through many years of training would receive the direct and complete transmission of dit da skills along with their gung fu training. This tradition is still carried on today. Although may be not as secretive as in the past, many good masters still preserve and carry on this tradition and carefully select their students. However, sadly most of the modern day gung fu practitioners and masters do not posses any dit da knowledge or skill.
 Physical exercise, conditioning and physical contact are all part of martial arts training, whether we like it or not injuries are part of gung fu training and may occur at one time or other. No one needs to be a rocket scientist to realize that human body can be injured or damaged very easily. Risk of injury in martial arts is an unavoidable factor and may occur due to variety of reasons such as getting hit, falling down, pulling or tearing muscle and etc. The type of injures may be internal or external or both and may include bruises, sprains, strains, cuts, fractures, internal bleeding and other trauma, etc. Normally the human body can in time heal itself of some minor injuries such as light cuts, sprains etc but this natural healing process is limited. Dit da uses variety of traditional methods or combination of methods such as massage (tui na), herbal medicine (dita jow, etc), bone setting, acupuncture, moxibustion and cupping to treat such injuries depending on their type, severity as well as other important factors. If used and applied correctly by a professional dit da expert these methods are extremely effective and bare no side effects (hence the word expert: a professional who knows what he/she is doing). As a branch of TCM, dit da is also based on the fundamental principles and theories of traditional Chinese medicine. As we also mentioned above dit da deals with prevention of injuries. This means that the practitioner educates and treats the person to prevent injuries from arising, rather than treating symptoms after problems have occurred.
Generally martial art injuries can be divided into internal and external. In martial arts the external injury can be defined as any kind of damage to the body from outside including blows, strikes, knocks and falls. Most external injuries involve damage to the skin and flesh, the sinews and bone, and the qi and blood. Some of the most common injuries caused by knocks and falls include swelling/bruises, cuts and grazes, sprains, bone fractures, dislocations, and damage to the bowels and viscera.
In the Dictionary of Chinese Medicine, internal injury is defined as "damage to the bowels and viscera (internal organs) and other deep structures of the head, chest, and abdomen through knocks and falls, lifting heavy weights, or spraining". In martial arts most common internal injuries are internal bleeding, blood clots, dame to the internal organs and etc.
Dit Da makes extensive use of herbal remedies/medicine and massage as well as number of other methods mentioned earlier to treat both types of injuries. The use of herbal remedies to treat injuries has been a part of Chinese culture of thousands of years. When talking about what is used in herbal medicine, most people automatically think about natural plant parts such as roots, leaves, bark, fungus twigs and so on. Although this is correct, traditional Chinese herbal medicine also includes mineral and animal substances/products as well plants. Now days the use of animal parts such as tiger bones, deer horns etc are strictly forbidden in the west and practitioners now use alternatives to animal parts.
The herbal medicines used in dit da normally come in the form of decoctions, liniments, wine, powders, plasters, balms and pills. In martial arts most widely used and known herbal medicine is Dit Da Jow.
***The future update of this section will include information about herbal medicine, dit da jow as well as description of other well know traditional formulas and comically available products. |
|
|
|
