Is Wushu Sanda considered REAL Kung Fu?

[Shojiko]

The ONE championship is the most I can say of actually witnessing Kung Fu being utilized in MMA. As evidenced by the Team "Lakay" fighters that are based out of the phillipines, their bios shows their styles as "WUSHU"

Their striking looks as if they mainly use wide looping hooks etc.

Would you say this is authentic traditional Kung Fu?

[tatsujin]

The ONE championship is the most I can say of actually witnessing Kung Fu being utilized in MMA. As evidenced by the Team "Lakay" fighters that are based out of the phillipines, their bios shows their styles as "WUSHU"

Their striking looks as if they mainly use wide looping hooks etc.

Would you say this is authentic traditional Kung Fu?

Yeesh! That is a whole potential can of worms!

So, technically, when the term wushu is used, that does translate to military/martial art. Kung fu (or gongfu) would be translated as "hard work".

Personally, whenever I start to hear "wushu", I begin to cringe a little. The reason for that is here recently, the term wushu is more and more often heard when referring to a combination of dance, gymnastics and martial arts. Meaning, something more modern and competition based, aesthetically pleasing as opposed to practical.

So, it would, (in large part) depend upon the person using the term and what they actually do. I have seen wushu folks do baguazhang and I could tell that what they were supposed to be doing was bagua since they were walking in circles and doing something that vaguely looked like a palm change. But it was, as one of my sifu called it, "empty gongfu". Further defined, devoid of all martial components.

Wushu Sanda (or Sanshou) is still modern, but more a form of kickboxing or Muay Thai...but has more grappling and take downs. Traditional? No. Based on traditional arts, yes (in most instances). But more effective than modern wushu.

I would not call most of what is called wushu nowadays as being traditional. But, I am a fan of ONE and the fighters there are not doing "wushu" to look nice and score points. But, even then, I'd venture to say that most of them are not doing a "traditional" art.

So, it's like someone that does Tae Kwon Do and saying that they do karate. Is it "traditional". To me, no...not as I would define a traditional martial art. Actually, TKD is a really good example as much of what you see nowadays for that are is also sport and competition based. Shoot, one of the TKD folks got disqualified in their fight for the gold medal. Traditional? No. MARTIAL art? No.

https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/incapacitated-ganjzadeh-awarded-kumite-gold-opponent-dqd-kicking-too-hard

Chinese arts are even tougher in the breakdown of internal vs. external, traditional vs modern, northern vs. southern, etc.

Confused now? LOL!

Does that help any?

[Shojiko]

Thank you for the explanation! As I understand it, Its very similar to the situation in Karate hehe.

I see that both arts (wushu sanda/sports Karate) are effective in their own merit when it comes to competition. Both remain with the criticism that they are not traditional when being utilized, but have elements from their root arts. I will still say, that I am quite intrigued by the Sanda style used in combat sports by the likes of e.g (Cung le, Kevin Holland, Roy Nelson, Lakay fighters) The strikes look hook/loop oriented as opposed to Karate's linear straight punches.

I would love to get my feet wet, and train at a school that teaches that style of fighting. I actually checked around before, and I mostly come across the "traditional" schools and are not sure if is the same type of style that's used by the practitioners as mentioned above. It would be a whole new world for me, as I come from a Karate background, and I notice there is a good amount of acrobatics and "deeep" stances involved (based on the promo vids Ive seen of the schools I curiously viewed) Forgive me if I sound totally clueless of Kung Fu in general, as I only know based on being a spectator of MMA and schools Ive viewed.