Anybody know about San Shou?

[pumpingiron]

From what I've read, it's basically kickboxing + takedowns. Sport San Shou doesn't allow elbows or knees, but some schools will teach them to students. Does anyone have more in depth knowledge than this? What are the takedowns like? Are they similar to freestyle wrestling, greco, judo, sambo, etc.? What about the standup, how does it compare to Muay Thai, Boxing, etc.?

[tidalwave]

If I understand correctly, San Shou, or Sanda, is basically full-contact kung fu + takedowns. Go on Youtube and search for 'san shou' or 'sanda'. There are some spectacular moves being used. The takedowns seem to resemble freestyle wrestling in a lot of ways.. i.e. it's more than the standard mma single/double leg takedown.

Look up this fighter named (i think) Cung Li. I'm at work and my intarwebs access is limited, so I'm sorry for not being able to verify the name. This guy has some great moves (not to mention incredible core strength).

As far as comparing it to MT, boxing, etc, it's looks similar in many ways. There are many shared techniques and strategies. I've seen plenty of knees thrown, although I'm sure elbows are not allowed in most matches. From what I've seen, the clashes seem quicker and more intense/dramatic than most boxing matches. It also seems more dynamic than a standard MT match as well due to the variety of takedowns. In fact, many of these techniques look more like throws than simple takedowns. It's difficult to compare and contrast verbally. Your best bet is to check out some san shou videos online.

The matches are very entertaining and I'm continually amazed by the amount of athleticism displayed.. beyond the ability to take a hit. Some kung fu schools in the West are starting to offer San Shou these days. Probably due to practitioners being drawn away toward mma-type schools. It's definitely something to look into. Hope that helps.

[torofuerte]

San Shou (or San Da as it is also know) is a ruleset for training and competition. It involves striking and takedowns (taken from Shuai jiao, Judo, and different forms of wrestling, both Western and Asian).

It is basically a rule-set to train and compete, and many Kung Fu schools (in particular Hun Gar and Choy Li Fut and N/S Praying Mantis) produce San Shou fighters. If you see a Kung Fu school participating in San Shou, you will know it's a real fighting school, and not one of those fruity-cake dancing-in-payama schools.

Some schools allow elbows in their training, but most competitions do not allow it - this is very similar to Kickboxing where you have amateur rules, "oriental" rules, modified Muay Thai rules and full Muay Thai rules (just to mention a few variations). What this means is that, depending on the school, you may train and spar with less restrictions that those found in actual competitions.

Some clips for your enjoyment:

My favorite San Shou clip - http://youtube.com/watch?v=TcnT3Mx-ZTU
Another great San Shou clip http://youtube.com/watch?v=RIoNA9iKGc8

Cung Le in Action - http://youtube.com/watch?v=3r55mxK2xKc

ps... regarding the throws/takedowns, they mostly come (if I believe correctly) from Shuai jiao - at the end of the day, the human body has four limbs, a hip, a torso, a neck and a head, so all effective arts of throwing people on their heads (Shuai jiao, Judo and all flavors of wrestling) end up looking the same.

This is a clip of Shuai jiao if you guys are curious: http://youtube.com/watch?v=STAzx3dTkaY

[iancobb00]

Most of what has been said seems to be pretty accurate. San Shou isn't too terribly popular in the U.S.--yet?--and most of what one sees is inspired by the aforementioned Cung Le. Although he's a talented fighter, a lot of what he's done are exhibitions against tomatoe can fighters; many of his videos online are similar to live choreography, in which he utilizes very fancy takedowns that probably wouldn't be as effective in the MMA world. ( As a side note,he has a couple of MMA fights...he seemed to do pretty well.) Nevertheless, they're very cool to watch.