Irish Sanshou

Niall Keane

The Irish Chinese Boxing Association, a growing collection of clubs and associations interested in promoting sanshou on a national level and Irish Sanshou on an international level are holding an Open Mat Event in the Bridgefoot Street Gym (off Usher’s Quay) on Sunday 7th of June. All are welcome.
The event will kick off with a demo fight, to give those of you wondering what sanshou is a flavour of the sport. The ring will then become available in two minute slots with a ref for anyone wanting to try it out. A second matted area is also provided for those wishing to explore sanshou’s specialty - fast throws and take downs, or whatever aspect you find of interest. ICBA coaches will be available to answer any questions.
We hope this will prove an interesting event for all concerned, and to broaden the awareness of what is soon to be an Olympic event – Sanshou is.
The first internationally recognised (by the PWKA) Irish Sanshou event is to follow on the 5th of July – The East Coast Open (venue to be confirmed, we’re looking at 3 now) this competition will be followed by a West Coast Open and Nationals, winners of which will qualify for the Irish Team.
Unfortunately, the main site www.sanshou.ie isn't quite up and running yet, but further information can be found here:
http://www.freewebs.com/sanshou/events.htm

Killme00

Niall,

Will those who qualify for the Irish team represent Ireland at the Olympics or will further qualification be necessary at an Internation level be necessary similar to Boxing, Judo and Olympic TKD? Are the ICBA recognised by the Irish Olympic council? How many Sanshou players/fighters are there currently in Ireland?

Good luck with this and the same to Wally, Conor, Ken and Gary. I spent many years training with Sifu Dillion when i was younger and i hope it works out brilliantly for you all.

Tom

Niall Keane

Tom,

In reply to your questions:

"Will those who qualify for the Irish team represent Ireland at the Olympics or will further qualification be necessary at an International level be necessary similar to Boxing, Judo and Olympic TKD?"

Given that currently 78 countries field sanshou teams, I expect that it will end up due to the scarcity of time similar to the other disciplines you have mentioned.

Are the ICBA recognised by the Irish Olympic council?

In process at the moment, currently recognised by the PWKA a European Sanshou organisation tied to the IWUF. As for IWUF we are finally at the end of the qualification process, its been ongoing since 2005, a lose cannon spanner in the works having, without ever having competed nor fielded competitors whose name I wont mention, registered - for being the Irish representative, address down as Belfast, I know guess they don't know Belfast is in the U.K. in China. Anyway this guy has caused endless problems including preventing very successful Irish athletes from entering IOC recognised competitions due to his refusal to respond to contact attempts, and an arcane rule in the IWUF allowing "dormant" members. This is finally only since last week being sorted out, hence the delay in getting sanshou up and running in this country. Those on boards who know me, know that I have competed myself in sanshou since the late nineties, eventually ending up ranked 4th in the pro rankings, I never got the chance to try out for the world amateur championships due to this guy. IWUF and Irish Sports Council recognition go hand in hand. But now that the ICBA has more than a dozen Irish associations registered with it the lose cannons will be blown out of the water and official recognition should be a formality. Just got to get through the remaining bureaucracy.

How many Sanshou players/fighters are there currently in Ireland?

If you're talking nationally, I'm not sure; the East Coast Open will be the first proper Irish competition, so we'll see then. Internationally, there are currently 4 members of the Irish team, two of which have already achieved some success, one current BCCMA (IWUF) and IKF British Champion at -75kg, the other silver BCCMA at -65kg. I'll be back myself from November so that will be 5, with a number of others showing interest. Weight categories range every 5kg from 55 to 90 then open, we have a -65kg, -70kg, -75kg, and -85kg and looks like an open in November? No I should get down to 90kg.
Having said that the national team qualifies from the national open, it is a meritocracy, not an automatic right, so who knows who'll be there next December?
Next time I meet them, I'll say hello to Wally and the Ching Wu lads for you, hats off they've been a solid force behind getting this up and running.

Hope this answers your questions,

Regards,

Niall

Killme00

Thanks Niall,

Can i ask, who are the current four members of the Irish team?

Tom

cowzerp

Have you got any links or facts to say that sanshou will be in the olympics?
its extremely hard to get into the olympics and you usually need the nation throwing the event to ask for the event to be entered, With Boxing, Judo, wrestling and TKD in the olympics already and womens boxing looking close to entering the london olympics i dont see where san shou has a hope of been entered, also the sport needs to be heavily participated in 4 out of the 5 continents and san shou is hardly heavily represented on the world scene.

No disrespect meant, im just curious.

Killme00

cowzerp wrote: »

Have you got any links or facts to say that sanshou will be in the olympics?
its extremely hard to get into the olympics and you usually need the nation throwing the event to ask for the event to be entered, With Boxing, Judo, wrestling and TKD in the olympics already and womens boxing looking close to entering the london olympics i dont see where san shou has a hope of been entered, also the sport needs to be heavily participated in 4 out of the 5 continents and san shou is hardly heavily represented on the world scene.

No disrespect meant, im just curious.

It'll be in the Olympics as a demo sport. Its happens at every Olympics, demo sports i mean not sanshou.

Some info about demo sports at the Olympics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonstration_sport
Glima sounds interesting.

cowzerp

Killme00 wrote: »

It'll be in the Beijing Olympics as a demo sport. Its happens at every Olympics, demo sports i mean not sanshou.

That was last year! and a demo sport??

Killme00

cowzerp wrote: »

That was last year! and a demo sport??

Yeah i copped that as i was searching for info about other demo sports.

Niall Keane

http://www.freewebs.com/sanshou/results.htm
Current Members:
Declan Gannon (-75kg) British BCCMA 2008 winner, British IKF 2009 winner, ranked #2 in Europe PWKA semi-pro
Karl Kidd ( -60kg) British BCCMA silver
Daren Lowry (-70kg) British IKF 2009 silver
Kiaran? (-80kg)

“4 out of the 5 continents and san shou is hardly heavily represented on the world scene.”
http://www.iwuf.org/member.asp
Above is a link to member associations, I guess the facts override your opinion. When I fought in Milan in 2005 for the IMAF worlds, 78 countries were represented. IWUF have over 120 countries with registered associations.
As I’ve said previously on boards, Sanshou is well established in eastern and central Europe, with plenty of amateur, semi-pro and pro competitions/ fight nights. Often the “sanda extreme” “Sanda” “Sanshou Extreme” etc. fight nights are combined with Muay Thai nights, as often Sanshou lads will fight in Thai competitions and vice versa. North Africa and the Middle East have many teams of excellent quality. Peru and Brazil amongst the South American teams have v. Strong team for years. The USA team has never been that good; perhaps that is why it doesn’t get much attention from the Anglo-Saxon media?
As for the Olympics, I only know what’s been relayed to me. It was supposed to feature at the Chinese Games, but internal politics F’*:ed it up. Instead the competition was allowed to be held 3 weeks before the games in Beijing, a concession and slap on the wrist at the same time. The fact that it was allowed within the normally banned period for sporting events in the hosting city of the Olympics says a lot. The old guard responsible for the mess has been replaced; the Chinese probably shot them knowing that country. Anyway from what I’m told it’s likely that a demo will present itself in London with sanshou competition to become a regular feature after that. I am not a member of the IWUF or IOC council, for more specific information, maybe you could ask them, but I doubt anyone will commit in writing to a definite answer. I believe that the process in joining the games is a difficult one, one step forward, two steps back, but the IWUF have stated that they have met all criteria.
http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/BCK/WS/47929.shtml
Hope this answers some of your questions,
Regards,
Niall

JohnMc1

San Shou is a great sport. I hope it takes off here.

007phoenix

If you like Sanshou, Shifu Yang dong is the man to train with, classes most days in Dublin give him a buzz number will be on his website www.jilindragon.com

wudangclan

007phoenix wrote: »

If you like Sanshou, Shifu Yang dong is the man to train with, classes most days in Dublin give him a buzz number will be on his website www.jilindragon.com

then he should send his students along on 5th july.

Niall Keane

Update:

The East Coast Open will be held as previously posted on Sunday the 5th July 2009 at:

National Training Centre, Leisurepoint Sport and Fitness Centre, Cardiffsbridge Road, Finglas,
Dublin 11

This is an amateur competition, IWUF standard rules will be adopted.

http://www.iwuf.org/upfile/Rules_of_Sanshou(English).doc

I will post again on a link to application forms,
Regards,
Niall

Niall Keane

http://www.sanshou.ie/

Above the Irish Chinese Boxing Association website, now up and running. Rules for the forthcomming competition "East Coast Open" can be found there.

A downloadable application form will be linked shortly, they'll also be available hardcopy at this sunday's Open Mat event 11am - 1pm in the Bridgefoot Street Gym.

Regards,

Niall

oldkungfuman

do you have to be part of a particular association to compete in this east coast open san shou tournament or can any one willing to abide by and enjoy the rules enter?

OLDMAN1

Anyone from any style or club can enter the east coast challenge or any of the I.C.B.A competitions. anyone can enter the light contact continous (Quingda) on the day but fighters that wish to enter the Sanshou (full contact) has to register with the I.C.B.A bye the 27th of june at a cost of 25 euros, but that includes the entrence fee for the competition, this has to be done for insurance reason.if i can be of any futher help just email me, or fone my number is on the I.C.B.A website aswell as all the rules for the competition. the registration form will be on the website soon or i can email it to anybody that is intrested.