Hello Everyone,

Another old post, but good one for the new blog!

The fighting styles I've recommended on this blog are written here.

Striking Styles:
South East Asian Boxing Styles: Muay Thai, Muay Lao, Pradal Serey, Lethwei, and Tomoi

East Asian Boxing Styles: Sanda (San Shou), Kyuk Too Ki, Shoot Boxing, and Yaw Yan.

Western: Dutch Kickboxing, Savate, Western Boxing

Grappling Styles:
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (self-defense type would be better than competition type), Wrestling
(Greco-Roman or Free Style), Sambo (also has a good striking component), Shuai Jiao, Judo, Pankration

Other:
Kali/Arnis/Escrima

I want to discuss the striking style for this post because that will prove my point.

Striking Styles:
South East Asian Boxing Styles: Muay Thai, Muay Lao, Pradal Serey, Lethwei, and Tomoi

East Asian Boxing Styles: Sanda (San Shou), Kyuk Too Ki, Shoot Boxing, and Yaw Yan.

Western: Dutch Kickboxing, Savate, Western Boxing

Believe it or not, but these striking styles have much in common. For example, the East Asian Boxing styles (minus Yaw Yan because it comes from the Philippines and the P.I. is considered Southeast Asia) were developed after martial artists from those countries (particulary China and Japan) went to Thailand to fight Muay Thai fighters and were destroyed!

Dutch Kickboxing and Savate were developed after being exposed to Muay Thai too. Anyway, another common thing is that these striking styles do not have hundreds and hundreds of techniques! They have a few punches, kicks, along with variations of punches and kicks, other strikes, some stand up grappling/sweeps, etc. Generally, depending on how often you train, you can be taught the whole striking system in less than two years for one of these styles (and then it's up to you to develop your skill and physical fitness)!

Also, the reason I recommend these styles is that generally (not always) the teachers of these styles have real fighting experience against non-cooperative opponents (in the ring and/or cage too). So they know what will work and what won't work! I'm not saying that there aren't any Kung Fu San Soo teachers with no ring, cage, or street fighting experience, because I know there are (however, they're few and far between in the San Soo community), but it doesn't make sense to train under a KFSS person that has spent years learning hundreds of techniques and never knowing or not whether they will work against a non-cooperative opponent in the street, hasn't had any fight experience in the ring or cage under a tougher environment that consists of rules (I believe fighting with rules is a lot harder than fighting with no rules), and doesn't know what it feels like to spar and/or roll with non-cooperative people/training partners on a weekly basis!

I can tell you right now that the majority of Kung Fu San Soo teachers/masters have never sparred or haven't sparred an equal amount of time like an average practitioner does in boxing or Muay Thai! Period! There's no debating that point. We all know it's true! TO ALL KUNG FU SAN SOO PRACTITIONERS THAT ATTEND A KUNG FU SAN SOO SCHOOL RIGHT NOW, ASK YOURSELF THIS QUESTION..."when I go to the KFSS school are there 16 oz boxing gloves, shin pads, head gear, mouth guards, etc. being used by the teacher(s) or students?" If not, then get the hell out of that school ASAP!

Most importantly ask yourself this question:
"Have I ever seen my Kung Fu San Soo teacher spar or conduct his techniques against a non-cooperative person?" If your KFSS teacher doesn't spar then how the hell does he know the techniques would work? Just because your KFSS teacher says he does or has doesn't mean anything. The point is have you seen him in action?!? Also, the argument you can't strike the eyes, groin, knees, or throat of training partner is valid, but why does a person have to pay hundreds of dollars a year to learn that and keep on "play fighting" that scenario before the point is finally learned? FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, IT DOESN'T OR SHOULDN'T TAKE MORE THAN A WEEK TO LEARN THE TECHNIQUES AND UNDERSTAND THAT CONCEPT!

Questions or Comments?
JimmyHWoo2016@gmail.com