Sparring

[David]

I think "San Shou" is the Mandarin version of the Cantonese "san sao" I know. It means "bare-hands" so is an uncopyrightable name.

"San Soo"... dunno but it seems like the same thing again.

Rgds,

David

[ovine king]

i) san soo is a style that was brought to america.

the original name given to the style is (please correct me if i'm wrong) Tsoi Li Ho Fut Hung. the more i hear about this, the more i want to see it. unfortunately, it seems to be very rare in the UK.

ii) san shou is in one instance, a sort of kickboxing.

i see it as a rules-set for that kind of fighting environment, just as full 'muay thai rules' would be.

it was originally devised as an environment that people from all (chinese) styles can participate in. in particular, it is the 'official' all-styles fighting format of the wushu associations around the world.

because the san shou fighting is actually quite different to the styles' actual fighting methods, it has also become something that you train as a style/system by itself.

i have done a bit of san shou rules fighting in my time and the place i did it teaches mainly tai chi. i am mainly a wing chun person and a few of the guys that also attend the san shou are european rules kick-boxers and also a few san shou only guys.

we can all step into the ring together comfortably despite what we do in and out of the ring being different.

it's quite a good mix of rules except i'm not allowed to forearm or elbow..... which is my official excuse for being the resident punch bag.

iii) the characters for san shou means (literally) 'loose hands' and refers to loose/separate fighting techniques

i.e simple punch/kick/block combinations and whatnot.

taking wing chun as an example, the common tan-dar can be taken/taught as a simple 'loose hands' technique, as can nearly all of the techniques.

if someone was to come to me asking to be taught a few things that might come in use, i would teach him/her in 'loose hands' way.

if someone was to come to me asking to be taught wing chun, i would teach him/her the 'complete' way.