Help from San Da players, (plus Taijiquan practitioners)

**meataxe** · Posted On: 7/26/2007 7:21pm

Originally Posted by jackrusher

Also, here's some solid kick catching advice from one of the better athletes in the sport:
(Cung Le videos)

Reaching down like that to catch a leg kick leaves the head kinda open.

**Ronin.74** · Posted On: 7/26/2007 9:38pm

Originally Posted by meataxe

Reaching down like that to catch a leg kick leaves the head kinda open.

This is correct, as a general rule I don't try to catch leg kicks, focus on catching body kicks, trying to catch anything below your waist could get you punched in the face.

**Permalost** · Posted On: 7/27/2007 1:19am

Originally Posted by seanyseanybean

I learnt it as this

http://www.judoinfo.com/images/anima...kataguruma.htm

That's the one.

**Cuchulain** · Posted On: 7/27/2007 10:27am

It is required that fighters wear headgear and a tkd body armour thing (hogu?). I don't own either. Will it matter if i buy cheap crappy ones?

I have the option to wear shin guards. I'm thinking i may as well. It will mean i can unleash leg kicks more without fear of clashing shins, and seeing as we will have Hogu's on i can't imagine being able do any damage to the ribs with kicks anyway.

**Arbiter** · Posted On: 7/27/2007 11:53am

Originally Posted by seanyseanybean

It is required that fighters wear headgear and a tkd body armour thing (hogu?). I don't own either. Will it matter if i buy cheap crappy ones?

I have the option to wear shin guards. I'm thinking i may as well. It will mean i can unleash leg kicks more without fear of clashing shins, and seeing as we will have Hogu's on i can't imagine being able do any damage to the ribs with kicks anyway.

Buy a good leather olympic style/amature boxing headgear, don't get the cheap sporting goods store kind they suck. worth getting good protectiion for your head, it won't turn, fall off or get twisted up in the clinch like the cheap stuff does, and you will look like a more serious full contact fighter to the judges if you use good equipment. not sure what prefered brands they use in England but get something like similar to what you'd get from Title http://store.titleboxing.com/headgear.html , www.ringside.com or www.fairtex.com in the $50-60 range will last and be good for future sparring and comps as well.
The event will likely supply the chest protector, find out ahead of time. Too bad some orgs still require those stupid things. the kind that is typically used in amature san shou is different from the tae kwon doe kind, they are much thinner and feel like a bullet-proof vest, not like those big foam things, although i'm not sure what theyd use in England at your tournament. get a san shou specific vest if you can if you need to provide your own, they are much lighter and less intrusive then the TKD kind and you'd barely know you had it on. Like any serious sport with a risk element it is worth investing in good quality gear, and its not really all that expensive compared to other sports.

Wear the shin guards unless you have pro-fighter level shin conditioning/tempering, and even then would be a good idea to wear them if you are fighting tournament style where you may fight multiple matches. Adrenaline might get you thru one fight, even if your shins get dinged up, but plan to preserve / conserve yourself for the later fights. If you make it to the final then consider going w/o shin guards for last fight.

**Arbiter** · Posted On: 7/27/2007 12:22pm

Originally Posted by Ronin.74

Quote:
Originally Posted by meataxe
Reaching down like that to catch a leg kick leaves the head kinda open.

This is correct, as a general rule I don't try to catch leg kicks, focus on catching body kicks, trying to catch anything below your waist could get you punched in the face.This is correct, as a general rule I don't try to catch leg kicks, focus on catching body kicks, trying to catch anything below your waist could get you punched in the face.

This is generally true, although there a few low kick catches that are reliable and nasty but there is obviously risk involved, especially if youre not real familiar with them so you should plan to shin block all low kicks for your upcoming match. If you wanted to learn more san shou throws for future events you may be able to incorporate these techniques. there is one that we do that is relatively low risk trapping the kick off of your quad and driving forward with a throw, it drives MT people who arent used to that crazy. Since you don't have much time to learn new things, just train what you know because thats what you will be able to excecute under pressure.

**Arbiter** · Posted On: 7/27/2007 1:14pm

Good advice from the guys above. A few more things i could add:

Considering the training time left and your experience, focus more on being hard to throw and catch than on trying to quickly learn more throws and catches.

Think of the throws and catches more as opportunistic than a strategy; if one presents itself go with it, otherwise concentrate on striking.

Realize that is fairly easy to throw/takedown someone who is trying to knee you (unless they train with throws and have good root) and beware of that.

Work on kicking w/o being caught if you can find someone good at catching kicks.
Realize that you can get thrown while throwing a leg kick, and train not to be.

Work on maybe 2 or 3 basic throws like single/double leg and a clinch-trip, work on excecuting from the clinch and having someone try to do them on you while resisting. And work on your sprawl.

Realise that Tai Chi is more closely related and relevant to Sanda/sanshou than most people assume, and work on push hand drills and sensetivity drills from the clinch. If you really know the 'snake creeps down' and 'brush knee' applications then incoportate those into full-contact fully resisting training, because those work and some of our techniques are straight out of Tai Chi Chuan and sim. arts.

Mix a lot of burpee type drills into your training and have someone hang on you in the clinch while you push them off and kick/punch &/or double-leg and lift/carry them repeatedly. Work on having to get up off the mats while you are gassed, mix these type of strength and jumping up & down drills into your cardio conditioning, because there is something about the blend of the striking and grappling while throwing and getting thrown that stresses your heart waaay harder than pure striking and you never get a chance to relax in a clinch. Simulate this stress and much and as closely as you can in your conditioning and it will pay off big time. Also if you are comfortable getting thrown and getting right back up and fighting you won't get caught off your game as much, which often pure strikers are.

Press the action; one common mistake people coming into san shou from tcma do is they are often too evasive and not used to facing heavy pressure straight on, so if you get matched up with someone like that it can be the deciding factor with the judges, especially if you can dictate the pace of the fight.

I'm not sure what the level of competition will be like where you are fighting, that could make all the differnce in the world with your experience there. PM this dude Liokalt who posts here occationally, he has a lot of experience with the San Shou scene in England and could provide you with a lot of good info.