Chinese San Shou

"San Shou is the quintessence of Wu Shu."


Recently I have been reading up on a Chinese style of kickboxing called San Shou, or unrestricted hand. Developed by the Chinese military in the 1960's, it has now become a popular combat sport as well as the martial art used in the army. As far as the military form goes, it seems to do as well as Krav Maga. In its sport form, it doesn't seem to be as vicious as freestyle fighting. It resembles kickboxing because all ranges of combat are permitted, although knees and elbows (not sure about groundwork) are banned in the sport form. Recently some San Shou fighter called Cung Le defeated a Muay Thai fighter in a MMA tourny. Nice.

Should San Shou continue to be pitted against Muay Thai, Karate, Taekwondo and the most prominent martial arts, we may see Chinese martial arts once again come to the fore, like it did alongside Japanese martial arts in the late 20th century.



E.N. For those who are wondering which martial arts are at the fore right now in terms of effectiveness, I would say Brazilian JuJutsu, Mixed Martial Arts, and submission grappling.