The under rated sport of San Shou

Everyone is trying to figure out the right balance between brutal, no rules, fighting and a sport that’s interesting and enjoyable to watch. The current trend of UFC/Pride/Etc… makes for much more interesting viewing then a traditional boxing match. The biggest problem, is the ground work.

For an experienced martial artist I love watching the ground work, the chess game that ensues when fighters go to the ground. The problem is for people that don’t have the knowledge of ground work, they just see two guys wrestling around, not seeing the maneuvers for position and the threats of locks and chokes.

So Chuck Norris creates the World Combat League which has a bunch of rules to keep the action going, here’s the short list: No Throws, No Takedowns, No Ground Fighting, No Clinching, No Holding, No Stalling, No Passivity.

Looks like kickboxing to me and there are too many rules. I get that it’s meant to guide the fighters to more action, to keep the crowd engaged. But it’s too much, it feels contrived.

San Shou on the other hand has a nice balance, here are it’s rules: no elbow strikes, no chokes, no joint locks, and clinches are broken quickly. It makes for a rock-em sock-em fight, with dramatic exclamations of sweeps and throws. Who knows, maybe soon we’ll be seeing San Shou on The Ocho.