History of Sanshou and the Sport in Ireland

paul moran

History of Sanshou
Sanshou, meaning “Free Hand” or Sanda its more traditional name meaning “Free Fighting”

China’s influence on battles both inside and outside its borders have influenced the change of weapons and hand-to-hand combat.
Chinese martial arts proceeded to incorporate different philosophies and ideas into its practice, expanding its purpose from self-defense to health maintenance and finally as a method of self cultivation.

As time passed martial arts was being practiced outside of military forces but again as a means of self defence. The Shaolin Monks defending their monastery against bandits around 610 CE is a notable story. The visit of Bodhidharma (Da Mo) to the Shoalin Temple is mentioned here where he is claimed to have taught the monks two sets of exercises to toughen them up so they could meditate for longer periods. This was known as Zen Buddhism.
Between the 16th and 17th centuries there were at least 40 extant sources which provide evidence that not only did the Shaolin monks practice martial arts, but it had become such an integral element of Shaolin monastic life that the monks felt the need to justify it by creating new Buddhist lore.
Around 1900 there were the rebels that practiced martial arts who opposed the Manchu’s during the Qing Dynasty and would also use their skills against foreign powers.

During this Republic period between 1912 to 1949 Chinese martial arts became more accessible to the general public as many practitioners of martial arts were encouraged to openly teach to the public. At that time, some considered martial arts as a means to promote national pride and build a strong nation. As a result, many Schools and academies were created and training manuels were published.

It was during this Republic period that modern day Sanshou developed through the Chinese military. It was based upon intense study of techniques and applications from various traditional martial art fighting systems such as Bagua, Drunken Boxing, Eagle Claw, Five Animals, Hsing I, Hung Gar, Lau Gar, Monkey, Bak Mei Pai, Praying Mantis, Fujian White Crane, Wing Chun and Tai Chi Chuan.

The Chinese endeavored to create a similar method of training their military forces. The program was perhaps more important to the Chinese who lacked an industrial base and access to most modern warfare technology. The Whampoa military instructors who studied the traditional martial art styles combined them with the modern training methods and created Sanshou and the decision was made to use a Kickboxing like format when practiced.
Ground fighting was never introduced at this time as they believed that most self defense situations are initiated from a standing position. Furthermore, being on the ground for long periods makes you more venerable to attack and the surface itself could present numerous dangers especially when falling. Therefore Sanshou was developed to avoid confrontation on the ground focusing on skills in striking, kicking, wrestling, throwing and takedowns as well as joint locking and seizing. The idea was to stay on your feet the most effective way possible.

To further improve military personnel the Whampoa Academy would frequently hold competitive events between the soldiers to test and practice their barehanded martial skills, ability and techniques. These bouts would be fought on a raised platform called a “Lei Tai”. Historically, “Lei Tai” fights dates back centuries in China where challenge matches would be fought both barehanded and with weapons. Often these bouts would end in serious injury or death.

With Sanshou being taught and practiced on a wider scale outside of the military the Central Wushu Institute was established in Nan Jing (or Nanking) in 1928 and a National Chinese tournament was held featuring competitions in long weapons, short weapons, Sanshou and Shuai Jiao (Chinese wresting). The fights on the “Lei Tai” were so brutal that the final 12 contestants were not permitted to fight through fear of killing off some of the great masters of that time. There was also a tournament held in 1933 with a similar outcome so changes were needed.

Modern Sanshou developed into a sport at the same time as modern Wushu during the 1960’s and protective equipment was introduced. Gloves, head-guards and body armours would now be worn during competitive bouts. Also, a set of rules were introduced to reduce the risk of serious injury. These rules would allow for a wide array of full contact punching, kicking, takedowns and throws taken from the traditional applications but the use of knees, elbows, chokes, joint locks and submission holds would be excluded.
Officially regulated competition of Sanshou began in 1979 and became an international event at Wushu competitions in 1988. Wushu which literally translates as "martial arts" composes of two disciplines: Sanshou or Sanda (Free Sparring) and Taolu (forms). Since 1991, at the first World Wushu Championships in Beijing, Sanshou has played a major role in the development of Wushu. The participation of Sanshou has steadily increased at World and European tournaments since and the first World Sanshou Cup was held in Shanghai in 2002.

Professional Sanda would also develop in China and in the USA with tournaments such as King of Sanda. Those who finished in the top 4 places at the World Wushu Championships would be invited to compete at this prestigious event with all fighters of all weights fighting each other producing the ultimate Sanda Champion. Famous Sanshou fighters from all over the World have emerged through such events such as Cung Le, Rudi Ott and Marvin Perry from the professional circuit.

Sanshou and Wushu would continue to grow and the 2007 World Wushu Championships held at the Olympic Gymnasium, Beijing, China was the highest participated event in the sports history. This was largely due to the selection from this event to compete the following year at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. A Wushu tournament was sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) which ran parallel with the Games, due to Wushu's place in traditional Chinese culture. Other than substituting the Olympic symbol with the International Wushu Federation's symbol, all other elements such as medal design, award ceremony and volunteers of the tournament were identical to the Olympics. Athletes and coaches were even allowed to stay in the Olympic village.

Sanshou and Wushu continued to attract people on a world wide scale and for the first time a World Wushu Championships were held outside of the Asian continent with Toronto, Canada hosting the 2009 event. Wushu’s push to become an official Olympic event continues with 2020 the hopeful year of its official introduction to the Olympic Games.

Now here in Ireland under of the Irish Chinese Boxing Association we have Sanshou in Ireland backed by the International Wushu Federation. Our events are made up of all styles of Martial arts, such as Kung Fu, Jeet kune Do, Tae kwon do, Karate, Kickboxing, MMA etc and it is open for all styles to compete under our Terms & Conditions. Therefore it is not exclusive to Schools of Chinese background but is also available to non Chinese martial arts. Join our next event on the 9th of February!

If you want to get involved please get in touch with the ICBA https://www.facebook.com/icbasanshouireland any of the coaches will be delighted to meet up and go through the Sanshou rules and seminars



Sanshou Scoring
• All kicks above waist = 2 points All other strikes above knees = 1 point
• Opponent thrown / knocked down clean = 2 points
• Down first in throw where both land on ground- then first down is scored against 1 point
• In Sanshou on lei tai only push outs now, so a fight out is considered a push out and scored 2 points, 2 push outs in a round = win the round
• 3 x 8 counts (strikes down) in a fight (2 or 3 rounds) and fight is awarded

In Ching Da (novice light contact format)
Same rules as Sanshou except
• Only 1 round
• Clean throws are 3 points
• Its on mats so there is a difference between
"push out" and "fight out"
• Push out = 1 point Fight out = 2 points and 3 x in round and round is awarded.
• A fighter is disqualified if they knock out or draw blood on opponent with strikes.