George Dillman
American karateka
- Citizenship
- United States
- Sport
- karate
- Occupation
- karateka
George Dillman (born November 23, 1942, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a controversial American martial arts instructor, who popularized the use of fake techniques such as pressure points (Japanese: kyūsho jutsu, 急所術) among the United States' martial arts practitioners. Dillman is a member of Black Belt magazine's Hall of Fame, and in 1997 was named Black Belt Magazine's "Martial Arts Instructor of the Year". For 30 years, he ran the Northeast Karate Championships. Dillman also conducts martial arts training seminars at the former Muhammad Ali training camp at Deer Lake, Pennsylvania. Dillman has been subject to scrutiny stemming from the fact that many of his most famous techniques don't work, especially those involving alleged touchless chi manipulation.
Dillman calls his style Ryukyu kempo karate.
Dillman began martial arts training in 1961 with Harry G. Smith. He went on to study with Daniel K. Pai, Robert Trias, Seiyu Oyata, Hohan Soken, Wally Jay and Muhammad Ali.
External links
Facts from Wikidata Q5538541 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.
Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.