The Kung Fu School

San Shou or Sanda means “Unbound or Free Hand” or “Free Fighting”. San Shou is the application of Kungfu in free fighting. Although San Shou is found in all Kungfu, it most often refers to the sport of Chinese kick boxing, and where the term Sanda is more popular (Sanda is the older term, which lost then regained favour).

San Shou is not a style, but rather one part of Kungfu training. Generally, traditional Kungfu instruction would include fitness, drilling basic patterns, linking patterns into forms (taolu), teaching the applications of patterns within the forms, sparring to practice to learn to apply the applications in combat, and then finally testing the students skill in free fighting or San Shou. The various applications of Chinese Wushu (martial art) Kungfu, are “hidden” within the forms (taolu), and so the techniques are not immediately evident. Forms become a library of techniques for transmitting knowledge from one generation to the next. Unfortunately, because the applications are not always straight forward, many are lost in time.

Most Wushu Kungfu styles include all aspects of  combat, albeit to varying degrees: da (hit or punch), ti (kick), qin na (seize and control), shuai jiao (throw and trip) and weapons. The testing of skill in Chinese martial arts dates back to as early as the Shang dynasty (1766–1066 BCE). San Shou contests were held on a Lei Tai (see image), or early variations thereof, and were often fought to the death. The contests were presided over by a referee on the platform and judges on the sides, and fighters lost if the surrendered, were incapacitated, or were thrown off the stage. The winner was literally the last man standing. He stay on the Lei Tai until all challengers were beaten, and when there were no more challengers, he would become the champion.

Modern San Shou can be divided into two broad groups: Sport San Shou or Sanda and military San Shou (which led to the development of a civilian self defence version). The Chinese government tasked several Kungfu masters to create a close-quarters-combat curriculum for the Chinese military. The result was the development of a standard taolu (forms) and standard San Shou (free fighting) syllabus. In modern sport San Shou, where there are now heavy restrictions on what techniques can be used in competition, many aspects of combat have been removed (much like in judo, where many of the lethal jujitsu techniques have been removed).

San Shou, or Sanda, is an important part of Wushu Kungfu training – even the sport version with its limitations contributes to our Kungfu growth – one must just remember that it is just one aspect of our overall training.

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