By Paul Vunak
Reviewed by Roberto Pedreira
Dumog is the "art of moving a body from point A to point B", Paul Vunak explains. The techniques of Dumog are few, and simple, and they work. They can be summarized as moving the body by either pulling or pushing on the upper arm, or by using the head as a lever--where the head goes, the body must follow.
The arm techniques are not mysterious. Tai Chi uses push arm techniques (they do work), and so do some Brazilian Vale Tudo fighters. Wrestlers use pull arm techniques as a matter of course, and judoka do too, although they grab cloth and use their legs for tripping at the same time. The head controlling techniques can be found in traditional Jujitsu, Hapkido, Muay Thai and Silat, although there are variations in approach and grip. So there's nothing really revolutionary in Dumog. But Vu presents them clearly and concisely (in his inimitable way with the English language) and shows how to combine them with various other arts.
The arm
pull can be done from either inside or outside. Inside works more efficiently
but exposes you to chokes so it might be best to work from outside if you have a
choice--in any case,
beware of the choke. The idea is simple: from inside, grab
the man's right wrist with your right hand and extend his arm. Now lay your
forearm in his inner elbow and rotate counterclockwise in a standard whirlpool
pattern. It is similar to a judo maki komi (巻き込み)
movement. The outside version is pretty much the same thing: grab his right
wrist with your right hand, lay your forearm on his inner elbow, but this time
rotate clockwise. Be careful of your face, because his forehead is probably
going to smash it. Vu teaches this as a bonus. According to him, you jerk the
man's face into your headbutt. However, what we see him doing is the opposite,
Vu jerking the man's forehead into his own face. In other words, you have to be more
careful with this one. However, it certainly works. Of course, you have to get
the grips first. But getting the right grips is the hardest part to executing any throw.
The push arm is a weirder looking
technique but it is based on the same anatomical idea, which is that if you can
straighten his arm out, you can use it to 
break his balance and then move him
from point A to point B, as Vu says, or from point B to point A, if you so may
desire. It becomes a handle that you can use for leverage. Even Mike Tyson won't
be able to hurt you, Vu promises (of course, he doesn't put it in writing). The push arm
technique requires you to grab the upper arm around the triceps and shove it up
into the shoulder socket. Since there is no more "give" left and you
are making him light by lifting him slightly off the floor, he will be easy to move
in any direction, provided that you keep the upper arm bone tight. This is a Tai Chi technique and now you know why it works (not
chi power, but anatomy and gravity). Some people will think this is a somewhat
useless technique. How do you grab a tough guy's upper arm (you'll probably need
both of your own to do it) to move him?
Here's how, and more importantly,
here's when. It was taught to us by Ricardo Liborio in Tokyo. You are tied up
with a tough opponent, a wrestler no doubt, because wrestlers are tough, and he 
has a Thai style tie up around your neck with his right hand. Since your hand is
therefore on the outside (otherwise you'd be the one with the hook), you can
easily seize his right triceps with your left hand. You now lever yourself out,
(using your right hand to brace against his massively muscled chest if necessary), and grab his right wrist
with your right hand. Your hands should be facing the opposite directions in
such a way that you can straighten his arm out. Now you simply turn into the
angle described above, which is basically close to his back, and push. He will
(probably) stumble off balance with his legs crossed, and you will have a
perfect opportunity for a beautiful double, or a nice clinch from which to apply
an uki waza into a mount, or, if this happens to be your gig, you could land
some uncontested leg kicks.
If it sounds unrealistic, try it. Liborio swears by it.
Vu spends a fair amount of time on set-ups. Like, how do you get your hands on a guy who is trying to hit you? Anyone who knows Vu will be able to guess that the methods he recommends are (1) hubud, (2) straightblast, and (3) gunting. He is assuming that the man will attack with a jab. "We equate everything off the jab" he says. In reality, a jab is probably the last punch you'll see in a bar or on the street or in a jungle hell somewhere in the Pacific or up in the DMZ. Vu assumes the punch will be a jab because that lets him enter with a gunting. A gunting is a knife slash to the opponent's attacking arm--an example of "defanging the snake". Vu does it with his knuckles instead, hoping to take out the nerve. It might work. Vu thinks so. You wouldn't risk much by trying. The problem isn't what you risk, but what you sacrifice, which in this case is the opportunity to use that right hand for more devastating purposes. Here it seems that Vu is teaching you to do something because he likes doing it, because he is good at doing it, or because he is pretty sure you don't already know it, rather than because it is the best thing to do. But as always, you be the judge. Discard what is useless.......
"Normally, in a fight, we're going to use Wing Chun to get in", Vu says. The straightblast is supposedly a Wing Chun concept, or at least a Jun Fan concept.
I don't comprehend Vu's fixation on the straightblast. No matter how you rationalize it, these are arm punches and can't generate enough power to deter or hurt anyone that could possibly be a threat to you. As a distraction, maybe, but it seems an inefficient one at best. After you open the door with a lead hand, why waste the golden opportunity to throw another wimpy punch when you can drop a heavy cross on the man's jaw?
Hubud is a different matter. But even here, hubud is a way to clear obstacles, or rather to reposition oneself relative to the adversary's weapons, not a way to grab incoming projectiles. The most obvious and the best application of dumog is probably when grabbing his limbs isn't a major problem because he is attempting to grab you and you therefore obviously know where his arms are going to be (the original ju-jutsu that Carlos Gracie learned and everything derived from it is based on the assumption that the man will be grabbing you and doesn't want to let go). This is the situation Liborio discussed. This is when you can make dumog work for you (incidentally, aikido, which is useless in vale tudos, works very effectively in such situations).
But what if one of my arms is caught and I can't use it? (Actually, that can only happen if you don't grab him back). This is when you proceed to the devastating arts of head dumog. The head is the best dumog "choke point" according to Vu. It is certainly a versatile one. Unlike wrist locks however, it is not difficult to grab the man's head (actually, the jaw is the best place), and you only need one hand to move his head. (Incidentally, the defense against all dumog and related head controlling techniques is 100% effective and very simple: keep the cervical spine (i.e., the neck) straight).
The tape
is about 50 minutes long, but there is
relatively little material on it compared to Vu's earlier classic
series--basically variations on the three dumog 
techniques of pull from arm,
push on arm, and twist head. However, it has to be said that seeing everything
done from many angles and entries aids comprehension and Vu is entertaining to
listen to, in a whacky sort of way. Vu has apparently taken acting lessons and gotten his hair
styled and seems to be going for the Tinseltown look. In fact, Vu
doesn't look impressive at all when he executes most of the moves. However, in
view of his great contribution to American martial arts during the 80's (he
taught people to glove up and make contact and essentially, to learn from the
boxers), and to the fact that he studied for years with Rickson,
Rorion, Royler, and Royce,
long before anyone outside of Southern California ever heard of them, I'm not
going to hold this against him.
I will decline to comment on Vu's recent Black Belt Magazine article on the art of biting and his recommendation to practice by gnawing on large chunks of uncooked beef. I don't know if there is a connection or not, but on "Head Butts, Knees, and Elbows" (tape #3 in the JKD Streetfighting series), Vu concludes the tape with footage of him beating the hell out of various fruits and vegetables. It certainly demonstrates that these techniques can be devastating against food. But as Bruce Lee might have said, "food doesn't hit back".
Dumog is tape # 2 in the JKD Street Fighting Series, available from PFS-Video, Inc, P.O.Box 112, Oley,PA 19547.
** Special thanks to Igor and Alon for demonstrating the dumog positions.
(c)2001, Roberto Pedreira. All rights reserved.