Hello Everyone,

This video has been posted online for some time and in case you didn't know this
event occurred while I was a student of Kung Fu San Soo. The shirtless man is John
Marsh who is a former mixed martial artist and the man wearing the chinese outfit is
Sean Scott. Sean Scott taught the martial art of Kung Fu San Soo and faced off with
John Marsh in a fight where $5,000 would go to the winner. Sean Scott obviously didn't
win the $5,000 and instead got a broken arm from fighting Marsh.
Sean Scott and a man named Robert Resann led organization called Threat
Management Institute. The website had a great forum where other KFSS guys came to
discuss topics and the TMI guys wrote some pretty good articles. Anyways, after the
results of the fight between Marsh and Scott, TMI put this article out to send a
message to all the San Soo guys. In my opinion, even if there was no size and weight
advantage held by Marsh he still would have won because he studied combat styles
that trained him to fight a non-cooperating opponent unlike Sean who studied Kung Fu
San Soo that didn't prepare him for a real fight!

The article is written below:

Gentlemen,
Why do so many of you take Sean's loss as a threat to you? Sean lost. TMI lost. The
vast majority of you San Soo people out there wanted us to lose. You got your wish.
The Boys from Brazil, starting with the creative genius and physical talent of Helio
Gracie, have been completely kicking the butt of Karate and Kung Fu practitioners for
about seventy years. And Kung Fu guys have been getting their tails handed to them
on TV for about 25 years. Starting with the annual show on ABC Sports of Aaron
Banks World of Martial Arts, in the 70's, where Kung Fu fighters lost every fight to
boxers, all usually in the first round, to the UFC where at least 3 San Soo people have
fought and lost to grapplers. (In the World of Martial Arts telecasts from Madison
Square Garden, the Kung Fu contingent got additional concessions each of the years
the competition was held, to where the Kung Fu guys did not wear gloves while the
boxers did, and the Kung Fu guys could kick below the waist while the boxers didn't,
etc... The boxers simply handed the Kung Fu guys sound thrashings each and every
fight.)
Sean is just the latest to fall to a grappler. It is amazing the amount of internet
coverage that this event has caused, but there are valuable lessons to be learned,
from the $5000 private lesson Sean got from John Marsh last Sunday. And perhaps
some lessons that we all think we already know can be understood more
comprehensively, as we all analyze what nearly all of us consider to be the tremendous
art and science of San Soo.
Lets start with some basic physics...
Take a Volkswagen, pop a souped up engine in it, tune it up perfectly, put the best gas
in it, install all the latest gadgets and computerized equipment, the finest interior and
safety belts and airbags. Make it the most up to date and mechanically perfect
Volkswagen to ever have been put together.
It would all mean nothing when it gets hit head-on by an 18 wheel Mack Semi Truck!
No matter how good of a Volkswagen it is.
Say what you will to dissociate what happened to us at TMI last Sunday from what you
do as a San Soo practitioner. Run down Sean's abilities, if you feel you must. (Just
know that NONE of the anti-TMI posters on this East Hills Forum have met Sean and
worked with him.) Try to find excuses in his "lack" of years doing San Soo. Use any
excuse or issue any criticism you want.
But in your quiet and private moments when you can be honest with yourself, maybe
you might admit to yourself that even assuming (for the sake of argument) that Sean
can hit real hard and kick like a mule, that he is strong and has tremendous
endurance, that he might just have been the Volkswagen in the above example. By the
way, whether you want to believe it or not, Sean is strong and does strike hard. He
could pass the 1st Force Recon indoc requirements today (assuming his right arm was
in working order), but the fact remains that Sean, compared to John Marsh, was the
Volkswagen. A souped up Volkswagen, but to no avail.
Technique is not everything. In your quiet and private moments when you can be
honest with yourself, think about a football player who has the absolute best technique
of playing tackle that has ever been performed by any human in the history of football.
If this man weighed only 155 pounds, then the reality is that he would NEVER play in
the NFL. In fact if this man with the best technique in the history of football weighed
175 pounds or even 200 pounds, guess what? He would never be good enough to
play in the NFL. The inferior but adequate technique of larger and talented men would
prevail and secure the job as tackle.
You know this is true.
Size, strength, speed, power, quickness all matter. A good big man will beat a good
small man almost every time. We are not talking a big slob versus a skilled smaller
man. We are talking a big talented man vs. a smaller man.
---------------------------
There is a horrible and evil myth that is common in San Soo. The belief that size
doesn't matter. It allows San Soo people to say and teach that a "petite woman" (to
quote a recent post) could, if she had a good reason, cripple John Marsh (or someone
like him).
I use the phrase "horrible and evil" because to have students believe this utter and
complete nonsense can get them killed. There is NO petite woman on earth who has a
reasonable chance of defeating John Marsh. In a quiet private time alone with nothing
but your honesty, you know this is true.
There is a scene in the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz. As Dorothy is discovering that
the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz is nothing more than an imposing projection
controlled by a man working the Wizard controls in a room off to the side, the "Wizard"
says, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"
With our smackdown last Sunday, I would have expected more gloating out there in the
San Soo community. Instead, there is the expected ridicule and derision. (And concern
that Grapplers don't respect San Soo. News flash. They never did.) But there seems to
be a mild panic and a scramble to find answers on how to deal with a grappler.
Because in your quiet times alone with nothing but your honesty, you know that you
would not want to face John Marsh. That your San Soo, unless you are big, strong and
very experienced and well trained, would, with respect to John Marsh, be just like the
Wizard. You would like to "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" But you
know in those quiet times that you must pay attention to the man behind the curtain.
And he is a mere mortal.
Another myth is that since San Soo is for real fighting and not competition, that to add
rules like no eye gouging and biting, as in the original UFCs, makes San Soo
ineffective. I daresay that most street fights throughout the history of San Soo that
have been won did not hinge on the act of biting or poking. Rules like not biting and
eye gouging are a limitation to be sure. But everything else is available. San Soo
allows a whole lot of things, does it not? Does the power of San Soo only lie in the
ability to poke and bite? I think not. And in your quiet times alone with just your
honesty, neither do you.
Anyway, take one of San Soo's petite females getting out of her car in a mall parking
lot, and a ticked off John Marsh is coming at her with terminal intentions. She can bite
and poke all she wants. I guarantee you that it will do no good. In your quiet time you
know this to be true.
Here is a piece of information you do not know. Sean, while pushing Marsh's head
away, to try and keep him from finishing him off, had his thumb accidentally go all the
way to the first joint in Marsh's eye. Marsh's response? He moved his head. Big deal.
Even if Sean had had intentions of trying to gouge his eyes, he could not as he had a
house with arms on him. But with that being said, Marsh is one of those people who if
you did poke his eye out, he would kill you as punishment. In your quiet time alone with
your honesty, imagine fighting someone like that.
And in your quiet time you know that the most likely outcome if a motivated-by-badintentions
Marsh was coming at you. You get out of your car, he is enraged and
coming at you. How can you say that he will kick your butt in competition but that you
will magically prevail in the street? In this street scenario he is ready and coming for
you. The element of surprise is virtually gone. Remember, John Marsh is a
professional fighter, a large, talented and extremely strong man. And he can hit and
kick hard as well. You are not just facing a pure grappler. Not that the outcome would
be any different if he was limited to just grappling. But in that parking lot he can do
anything he knows how to do. He trains hard everyday. He fights almost every week.
San Soo people do not. We are advised by cross trainers like Jeff Frater, Chris
McCune, and even Eric (ESANDY) Johnson, who know the power of grapplers that
hard training is advisable. If you think that two hours a day, three or four days a week
that the average dedicated San Soo practitioner spends practicing will prepare you for
a professional fighter, then "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." The
above named gentlemen, among many others, have been telling everyone what they
already knew from experience about the Boys from Brazil.
But also note the following in your quiet private time when you are honest with yourself,
that Mr. Frater, Mr. McCune and Mr. Johnson - with all their extensive training and
hard, hard work - would not bet on themselves in a real street fight against a man like
John Marsh. And they know their stuff. Do you doubt that they know a whole lot of
grappling and are quite good at it? And they would avoid a street fight with Marsh if at
all possible. Jeff and Chris are young men too. With all their skills they are too small to
prevail over a Marsh. (Please note that in our forum disputes with Mr. Jeff Frater we
did not say that what he said to do in a fight against a grappler was wrong. We were
simply trying to make the point that at about 160 pounds, a San Soo fighter - or even
another jiu jitsu based fighter - would get whooped-on in a street fight with John
Marsh.) Very few people can be legitimate giant killers like Helio and Royce.
Size matters people. Sean was only half kidding when he made the comment about
shotguns being invented for people like John Marsh. Man developed all weapons to
overcome better opponents as well as to make victory over inferior opponents easier.
San Soo is a tool. It is not the ULTIMATE WEAPON. You have to use your body in a
fight. San Soo doesn't fight for you. You use it. You use the principles and mechanics
and techniques you have learned and practiced. But if you are a normal human being
and you encounter a professional, highly trained fighter in the street who wants to kick
your hind end into next week, or into eternity, then just like Sean last Father's Day,
you, too, will be nothing more than a fly on the windshield of the car name John Marsh.
Treat an encounter with a Marsh type opponent like you would if you encountered an
opponent with a knife or if you encountered multiple opponents.
Exit stage left. If you cannot run away, do your best. But don't count on making it home
for dinner with the wife.
San Soo is a powerful tool that if needed by the vast, vast majority of us will be used
against someone who is probably not a skilled professional. It is ideal for most of those
situations.
Sean said that he would not trade the experience with Marsh for all the tea in China or
all the Soccer balls in Brazil. We knew that size matters. The article of that name (Size
Matters) was published on our website about two years ago. Our biggest mistake was
not that we didn't believe it then when we published it, but that we didn't believe it
enough.
Do not treat San Soo as anything more than what it is. An excellent tool. Don't tie your
ego up with it having to be the ULTIMATE WEAPON that will defeat everything in all
circumstances. To repeat, you are the one doing the fighting, not San Soo. If you feel
the need to be able to defeat whomever you might have to go against, then start
taking steroids and lifting weights for starters. Then train your ass off like Jeff and
Chris and others do.
If you are not realistic about your abilities and think that San Soo will allow you to
always prevail, you may not end up as lucky as Sean did with only a sprained elbow
and a black eye.
Now assuming you are realistic about your abilities and want to improve your ground
fighting skills, then take advantage of the knowledge of talented instructors out there in
our San Soo community...
The argument that ground fighting is "in" San Soo may be true. But it was never taught
to any large extent. No doubt Ron Gatewood is correct when he says that had Jimmy
lived long enough to see the ascendancy of the Gracies that we would have been
exposed to much more grappling and anti-grappling based techniques. But he didn't
live long enough and we weren't.
Bottom line, you have to rely on folks such as the following for the information.
In the Inland Empire you have Dave Hopkins and Bill Vigil. You can find Jeff Frater at
Bill Lasiter's school. Lari Beebe is out there somewhere too. Near the L.A. - Orange
County border you have Bill Hulseys studio where you can find accomplished
competitive grappler Luis Trasvina, as well as Eric Johnson and William Cannon.
I'm sure that there are more of these San Soo instructors who are quite competent at
grappling. You can use this forum (East Hills) to network as you already do.
Here in the South Bay you can find the Gracies, the Machados and Professor Caique.
As an aside, if you want to drop by TMI and see a clear copy of the video and talk to
someone who has been there, done that; if you might be interested in learning what
strategies and such that Sean successfully used - as funny as that may sound, or just
to talk about San Soo in general or specifics, you guys are welcome to get the
information straight from the horses mouth.
This invite is genuine and sincere. We tend to do what we
say.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5l2aBKGUxE&t=4s

Questions or Comments?

JimmyHWoo2016@gmail.com

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