Chi blocking



Chi blocking is a special ability that Ty Lee utilizes on her enemies. When she blocks one's Chi, it renders their muscles useless and disables one's bending abilities, which earned her Katara's fear and spite after Ty Lee blocked her Chi in Omashu. This ability is even capable of taking down a platoon of elite Earthbenders.

Method
Chi blocking is utilized by hitting pressure points with "quick jabs". Ty Lee hits these pressure points with relatively light jabs using her fingers and knuckles. Apparently, even people wearing strong (but not necessarily heavy) armor are not spared from its effects. It seems she can use any of her fingers, such as when she disabled Katara with her thumb. Ty Lee can also use her feet to disable others' chi flow with a swing of her foot. She used this method to fend off the boys who cornered her in Chan's house. Although a very useful method, chi blocking is most effective against an opponent not expecting such a light blow to be so devastating. It is less effective against someone who either knows chi-blocking or who has battled a chi-blocker in the past. This was first seen when Katara, having already faced Ty Lee once, successfully dodged Ty Lee's attempts to block her chi.

Effects


Chi blocking blocks the victim's chi and renders their muscles useless and disables one's bending abilities; this would be particularily devastating for people who rely solely on their bending abilities. It is unknown how long it takes for people who had their chi blocked to recover, but it's been shown that Ty Lee can control the damage she does: when she first attacked Katara, she was still able to move, though not able to bend. When attacking the Terra Team, they could barely move, were powerless and felt pain afterwards; Katara was unable to heal them, stating that their chi was completely blocked. Later, Ty Lee struck down Katara who was paralyzed from head to toe and fell to the ground motionless. It is possible that Ty Lee can use her chi blocking ability to kill or seriously injure an opponent.

History
Chi blocking was first shown by Ty Lee when she disabled Katara's Waterbending with a series of jabs in her arms and back. It was seen later when she rendered Sokka's muscles useless, numbing his arms and one of his legs. Ty Lee made good use of it during a fight when she took down the entire Terra Team with some cover from Mai.

The concept of Chi blocking was used by Team Avatar to destroy the Fire Nation Drill by striking its pressure points, causing the Drill to collapse upon itself. Ty Lee also defeated at least one of the Kyoshi Warriors who were protecting Appa with this ability. Disguised as a Kyoshi Warrior, Ty Lee once again paralyzed Katara, catching her by surprise. She also immobilized Sokka and Toph when Azula threatened the Earth King at flame point, forcing them to surrender.



As mentioned above, the technique was used by Ty Lee when she was was cornered by several boys, at Chan's party on Ember Island. She attempted several times to use it on Suki during the Escape from the Boiling Rock, but Suki was on guard against it due to her past experience. Later, in the escape's aftermath, Ty Lee used it to paralyze Azula and strip her of her bending, when she was about to strike down Mai.

Ty Lee made friends with and joined the Kyoshi Warriors after giving them Chi blocking lessons in prison. This probably means the Kyoshi Warriors are capable of doing this now like Ty Lee. It is unknown if there are others who use this fighting style.

Variation
An accidental form of Chi Blocking was used twice against Combustion Man. In two occasions, his third eye was hit (once by a pellet resulting from Toph's attack and once by Sokka's boomerang, deliberately aimed at him), causing his ability to "misfire". In the second occasion, the explosion was strong enough to demolish a section of the Western Air Temple, and led to his demise.

Connections

 * Chi Blocking seems to be a more elegant and energetic form of the martial art Dim Mac (sometimes spelt Dim Mak) or Kyusho-Jitsu. Both are forms of fighting that trigger pressure points on the body to stun or paralyze the opponent. Dim Mac also has the potential to kill someone if hit in certain parts of the head and neck. This can be avoided if the user triggers another pressure point to awaken the victim, who would have been rendered unconscious.
 * Martial arts that employ strikes to block principal channels of a person's chi is not unique to a singular culture and has roots all over schools of martial arts in China, Japan, Korea, and South-East Asian countries.
 * Qigong (sometimes spelled Chi Gong) uses similar techniques and pressure points to help others qi flow more easily and is considered a standard medical technique for hospitals in China.