Sanda

Sanda or Sanshou means "free fight" and is the real application of the attack and defence techniques of Chinese Gong Fu. Sanda was created similarly to modern Wushu by the Chinese Government in the 60s, grouping masters from all the country and defining a standard fighting style, in order to rationalize the huge heritage of thousands of styles and techniques existing in China.

The techniques employed in sanda are based upon punches, kicks, grappling and locks. The latter two can result rather tricky to learn for those who have - like me - previous experiences in other fighting systems, like kickboxing or savate. As for all the martial arts dedicated exclusively to fighting the learning timeframe is reasonable, and in about 3 yeas a pratictioner is ready to partecipate to the full-contact tournaments. Normal training is based upon a sequence of aerobic warm-up, stretching, basic techniques and combinations (jab, direct, hook, front kick, side kick, etc.), shadow boxing, 2 person drills, free sparring, plus heavy bag, abdominals, push-ups and so on.

There are two versions of sanda, one is designed for full-contact tournament, the second is a hand-to-hand combat discipline taught to the various military groups, like the Chinese Red Army, the police and even the fire brigades. Interestingly enough, while the tournament version is more or less unified, the combat one has generated a series of flavours, as each division of the army, police and so on has developed its own style.

Obviously the difference between the tournament and the combat version are related to the number of techniques allowed: in a tournament the targets can be tights body (back excluded) head (back excluded) it is forbidden to hit knees, groin and throat; a throwing attempt must be successful within 3 seconds (otherwise the referee stops you) and is forbidden to hit the head with more than 2 consecutive techniques of the same kind (that is, if you land 2 punches on your opponent head you have to do something different, like a low kick, before starting punching again).

for tournaments the athlets have to wear safe gear:

• 8-10 oz gloves, depending on the weight (above/over 70 Kg)
• groin cup
• mouthpiece
• helmet
• shin pads
• body armour

The equipment restricts the number of grappling and throwing techniques to those which can be applied with the gloves, which means basically to lock the legs, arms or neck and then applying leg sweeps or hip throws, in a way similar to the various goshi waza of Judo.

Regular tournaments and championships are organised by the various sanda organisations all around the world.
In a tournament you fight for 2 rounds of 2 minutes each, plus a 3rd round in case the first 2 score even. You win if you KO your opponent; otherwise the referee checks the score, where you get 1 point for a fist, 2 points for a kick and from 1 to 3 points for a takedown, depending on the technique used (i.e. if you push him down with force is 1 point, succeding in a nice headlock and hip throwing making him flying over your back it is worth 3 points).
A real match should be done over a raised platform (about half meter); if your opponent falls down you win. It is not uncommon to have sanda matches on a normal tatami square or on a ring.

The combat version doesn't need to have such restrictions and includes also wrestling and ground-fighting skills. Unfortunately I haven't a direct experience of this side of sanda, but I've found and excellent book on this topic, that is "Sanshou kung fu of the Chinese Red Army", Dr.Mizhou Hui, Paladin Press 1996 There was to be a website of Dr. Mizhou Hui school, at http://www.globalserve.net/~nelumbo/sanshou.htm where you can find also some interesting material about biomechanical aspects of kickboxing and similar. Unfortunately it is not available anymore, if anyone has news I'd be grateful

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