Pearls of Wisdom

Some call it a sport. Some call it a martial art. Some call it Chinese Kickboxing.  What exactly is San Da?

The term “San Da”, also known as San Shou, translates to “free fighting” and is a modern hand-to-hand self-defense system and combative sport. San Da includes kicks, punches, throws, locks, grappling, and submission techniques. It is seen as a component of traditional Chinese martial arts systems and is usually taught alongside other kung fu fighting techniques.

The early forms of San Da were usually bare-knuckle brawls on a raised platform called a Lei Tai Mat. San Da would then be adopted by the Chinese military as a way to practice empty handed martial arts skills, techniques, and ability. Later on the use of rules and protective equipment were incorporated and San Da became a more formalized combative sport.

The modern versions of San Da can be seen at various tournaments alongside forms competitions. In amateur San Da matches, competitors wear the full array of safety equipment including gloves, headgear, mouthpieces, cups and shin guards. Referees supervise the matches and strictly enforce the rules. Competitors score points for clean kicks and punches, takedowns, and for forcing the opposing fighter out of the ring. Today, it is not uncommon to see San Da fighters participate in a variety of modern day combative arts competitions including kickboxing, Muay Thai and mixed martial arts (MMA) tournaments.

Weather you call San Da a sport, a martial art, or just plain Chinese Kickboxing, San Da always places an importance on real world fighting ability and is seen as a way to practice Kung Fu theory, application and training methods.

Learn more about San Da, Kickboxing, MMA or Grappling in San Diego: whitedragonmartialarts.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at 5:40 pm and is filed under Kung Fu Kickboxing MMA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.