Although sports medicine is a growing specialty in contemporary western medical practice, Chinese "hit" Medicine, developed by and for professional martial artists over several centuries (if not thousands of years), is the repository of a number of techniques of remarkable efficacy which are also low cost and low in iatrogenic impact. Such techniques are the province of the so-called Barefoot Doctor of the Peoples Republic of China. They are easy to learn, have few contraindications, and do not require elaborate apparatus or equipment. In addition, Chinese medicine has an important perspective on the long range effects of seemingly minor traumatic injuries which should be healed as speedily and as completely as possible.