My current life in China, San Soo, martial arts training

**Permalost** · Posted On: 1/29/2013 4:04pm

Originally Posted by Resonance10

I read on one of the San Soo links that you posted that J.Woo didn't teach 'animal' forms which is why I said 'abbreviated'.

JKA is Japanese Karate Association. That is to say, its his Shotokan lineage, not san soo.

**Bezmond** · Posted On: 1/29/2013 10:37pm

Originally Posted by Fatal Rose

So far it's true. No one has ever herd of it. Also when I show my girlfriend (she's Chinese) and my other Chinese friends the "original" Chinese name/characters for San Soo they say it's strange and it makes no sense.

功夫散手 I asked a couple of people about this today. The first 2 characters are gong fu, the 3rd is "spread" / "spreading" and the 4th is hands. When the last two characters are put together they said it meant "flippers" like a duck! Both of them found the phrase confusing, one of them from Tianjin, one from Taiwan...

Here's what I found on Youku.

Some stupid fake pressure point strikes:

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDczMzA0NDA=.html

A man punching his student in the face while he just stands there:

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzA2NTE4MzI0.html

A couple of guys larping around

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjY0MzUxMTg0.html

If you're ever up my way, give me a shout and we could meet up for a brawl in the park.

**Resonance10** · Posted On: 1/30/2013 6:48am

Originally Posted by Permalost

JKA is Japanese Karate Association. That is to say, its his Shotokan lineage, not san soo.

Oops meant to copy/paste the whole paragraph..

My teachers lineage is JKA, so no difference at all. I've read somewhere that Jimmy Woo trained in Cai Li Fo while living in China and also learned martial arts from his uncle.

Thanks.

**W. Rabbit** · Posted On: 1/30/2013 2:59pm

Originally Posted by Resonance10

Cool. Have you been looking for any particular styles and what is SanSoo? An alternative spelling for SanShou?

No.

Sanda/San Shou is what you know as the Chinese sport. They are the Cantonese/Mandarin spelling of the same thing, a compilation of high percentage TMA techniques (e.g. kicking, punching, throwing, locking) developed over time by the Chinese military and government (and possibly borrowing from the Russians).

sanda/san shou as also the name for the types of sparring practice in found in TCMA schools that still maintain that sort of training. Some "traditional" schools train this as a progression from "san sao" (free arm) practice where there is zero contact (e.g. shadowboxing with a partner), to full sanda/sanshou which progressively adds resistance and contact from light to full.

San da/San Shou as a training concept is at least several centuries old and probably older.

San Soo (which uses the same Chinese characters but means a completely different thing) is a much newer specific CMA style "created" around the turn of the 20th century from other arts, by a Chinese man who immigrated to America. The "creator" specifically chose the name "San Soo" to sound like "San Shou", but they are still apples and oranges and without proper context would not make sense to a native speaker.

The San Soo school philosophy is a critique of what is generally considered "traditional" Shaolin animal kung fu, so it is essentially a mix of kung fu styles from prior to 1900 that specific DON'T contain animal based forms.

I personally believe the entire San Soo premise (philosophy mind you, not the techniques themselves) is a load of horse **** and implies a serious lack of understanding of the "animal" forms. San Soo represents a sort of fundamentalist, "purist" take on CMA...they reject the animal based forms because they interpret the names of the animal forms as literally meaning they require one to learn to fight like a dragon, snake, or tiger....a notion as ridiculous as it sounds and a complete misunderstanding of the point of the animal based systems, imho.

I believe the Bullshido archives have a checkered history of San Soo...of both decent competition fighters who have trained it, as well as a lot of the typical batshit crazy CMA crowd who are convinced their "5 family style" is better than your "5 animal style".

**Bezmond** · Posted On: 1/30/2013 7:45pm

That clears that up. Thanks Rabbit.

**Fatal Rose** · Posted On: 1/30/2013 11:44pm

Living in China is not at all what I expected. The internet censorship here is annoying and ridiculous.

It's dirty, violent, and racist. Nothing at all like the fantasy kung fu land I was expecting haha.

I've had many good times and many bad experiences here. Overall though I enjoy my time here in-spite of the challenges.