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

**Cake of Doom** · Posted On: 1/31/2013 9:24am

Originally Posted by doofaloofa

I have a few Kung Fu San Soo forms if you'd like to see them

They're a bit racey

Do they involve the moons of Jupiter? If so, I don't think this is the place for them.

**doofaloofa** · Posted On: 1/31/2013 9:33am

Originally Posted by Cake of Doom

...Moons of Jupiter?...

i am unfamiliar with that cultural referance

**Ming Loyalist** · Posted On: 1/31/2013 9:34am

Originally Posted by Fatal Rose

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.

can we make this a sticky in the CMA forum? actually i want a bot that intercepts posts asking about training in china and sends them this.

**Bezmond** · Posted On: 1/31/2013 9:52am

Originally Posted by Ming Loyalist

can we make this a sticky in the CMA forum? actually i want a bot that intercepts posts asking about training in china and sends them this.

Just means more duck blood tofu for the rest of us. To be fair, fatal rose comes from California. I'd be pretty gutted if I moved here from California. Luckily I come from a boring shithole in the UK so I'm chalking it up as a win.

**Fatal Rose** · Posted On: 2/01/2013 2:36am

I stumbled upon a website last night while I was searching the net for teachers to hire (anyone interested in teaching ESL in China?) and I came across an interesting website. A San Soo practitioner went to China and visited Jimmy's home town, found his old family/friends that are still alive, and an existing San Soo school. As soon as I find this site again I will post it. I also plan on visiting these places when I have time to check the validity of his claims.Edit: http://americansansoo.net/Forum3/vie...hp?f=6&t=18Not the page I read last night but similar. I'm still looking.

**Fatal Rose** · Posted On: 2/01/2013 3:30am

Found it!

http://traditionalkungfusansoo.com

**doofaloofa** · Posted On: 2/01/2013 4:24am

Fatal Rose, what is your view on San Soo. I see you cross train

How often would you use a technique from San Soo whilst sparing?

(I trained in SS for 2 years, once a week)

**Resonance10** · Posted On: 2/01/2013 10:26am

Is this the same SS as the one you trained?

I thought there were no 'animal' type forms in SS. This looks like a sloppy Hung Gar derived attempt at some tiger crane stuff...

**Fatal Rose** · Posted On: 2/01/2013 12:07pm

Originally Posted by doofaloofa

Fatal Rose, what is your view on San Soo. I see you cross train

How often would you use a technique from San Soo whilst sparing?

(I trained in SS for 2 years, once a week)

Now? Not often if at all to be honest. Most of the sparring I do now is JKA kumite sparring so either a San Soo type strike is not allowed (can't throw hooks or uppercuts in JKA kumite rules) or are too slow to land in point fighting. When I spar with my friends or local Sanda guys I normally rely on a mixture of all the training I had throughout my life, with it all stemming from Shotokan.

Before I came to China and while I was training in Kaju/Kick boxing/SS I would spar either at the Kaju school or in my friends kick boxing class.

Kajukenbo sparring: Little SS strikes were applicable to Kaju sparring. Most Kaju sparring was free sparring, and some point sparring. I was able to use the SS pendulum trip/take-down in close but none of the other more complicated pretty techniques worked for me. As far as striking go's some of the hammer/windmill blocks were useful at times from a distance. But if I tried to step and follow up with a technique I learned it would either be too telegraphed, miss, too slow, or I'd get countered. If I tried to be offensive with SS strikes most guys would move out of the way or counter me. Most strikes in SS are step-in strikes. The problem is SS has no sparring so you never learn proper footwork and how to set these walking forward strikes up. Shotokan has a lot of walking strikes/step-in strikes but they work because they teach you proper set-up/footwork. Watch JKA/Machida fights and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. The piston (stepping forward front kick of SS) worked well because I can fight from both stances, as did the side kick. The hand/arm strikes rarely worked.

Kick boxing sparring: San Soo was almost totally ineffective due to the boxing gloves and no trips/takedown rules. Most everything said above applies to this as well.

In my earlier years of training while doing Hapkido, JKD, MMA training, etc.. SS the way I learned it was rarely used. SS taught no fighting stance so I had to figure it out for myself, I decided to try to spar these people/styles from a half horse (similar to a Karate kumite/front stance). I learned not to step into every strike due to me missing a lot and getting countered. I learned to retract as quickly as I could which is a no no in most SS schools. I started to mix in the Hapkido stance/footwork with what I was doing. Also the strikes. They were more realistic for sparring and much faster. Basically the same thing happened when I started training MMA/kick boxing and eventually JKD. Side stance with a mix of Hapkido/SS/JKD strikes. The conditioning and hard sparring of MMA/kick boxing made me much more effective in sparring too. I learned how to defend myself against it and how to adapt TMA training to more realistic sparring.

Even though most sparring in Shotokan is point sparring I still feel it teaches a lot more realistic fighting techniques when compared to SS. I've been doing Shotokan for 2 years now and I totally love it. It's easy to adapt to other TMA styles and continuous sparring against other styles. It's very scientific in it's way of sparring too, it teaches you how to be fast, tricky, elusive, improves timing, gives you phenomenal footwork, and to be a creative stand-up fighter. It also teaches useful trips/sweeps.

SS from my experiences with the art does none of that. No sparring, no point sparring, not even one step sparring. Just LARPing theoretical counters. If you look up old Frank Woolsey San Soo vids on youtube you can see a lot of potential and far more realistic techniques. Sadly I've had little experience with this older style of San Soo and have only been exposed to the newer style that's severely watered down.

This is my personal martial arts training experiences. It does not speak for all San Soo people and all San Soo schools. This is just what I have experienced so I hope I don't offend any San Soo people. I enjoyed my time doing San Soo as a kid and into early adulthood. It was a wonderful time in my life.

**Permalost** · Posted On: 2/01/2013 12:52pm

I was watching this guy's Woosley san soo videos:

As far as san soo goes, I guess they look pretty good. But the thing that stood out to me was the sort of comments this guy makes:
"**** YOU ****! is that careful enough?I learned from Frank.All you san soo bitches are a joke!Lets see your VID.so we don't have to "pray" So go **** mommy"

"Jimmy Woo got hijacked by the gayass Jesus WEENIES! WE don't respect that!"

"you should understand "Jimmy" didn't create san soo .Frank would have kicked "Jimmy's" ass anyway and so would I .I worship no man.I don't need a hero,Frank or Jimmy.Who gives a **** anyway?San Soo is for people who don't want to fight!What a JOKE IT IS! "

"No block and catch,spinnie,twrillie,flippie throw.No crawl thru the legs,roll on the ground B S . A GANGSTA don't drity his duds if he can help it,and he looks bitchen while beatin' yer ass! Thats the REAL JIMMY WOO!"

"that would be 1931,he was also a china town thug .Frank was his first white student and the best,and he fought all the time.Frank didn't do san soo .what he did was better,just look at the vids.He did what he called Realkungfu and IT IS different.More powerful and deadly.It had to be because he wasn't fighting noodle armed Han Chinese like Jimmy did .He was fighting big,strong scrappers.Americans! not under fed peasants and china town "wee people"

Frank was way better than "Jimmy"."

"Jimmy was a Manchu,KFSS is an exonym of the

Han Chinese for the fighting art that has no name.

it was wrong for him to teach anyone who was not Manchu. It did not come from buddhist temples in south china . Jimmy left china after the "Warlord Period" before Mao .Until the end of the "Last Empire" all martial arts were OUTLAWED upon pain of Death.Only Manchus could Practice Martial arts.Jimmy was a Manchu!not Chinese!Chin So Dik took his American name from a Marvel comic book hero Jimmy Woo."

"No studio, no masters, no salute, no belts, no business address, no telephone, no studio theorist, no inexperienced fight virgins, no character building, no children's class, no first generation... No Bullshit..."

Apparently I've stumbled across the JFS of KFSS.