By: Master Bill Hulsey
“San Soo” means hand-to-hand combat.
Several years ago, a local cable television channel had as their guest speaker Jimmy H. Woo. After a short demonstration by a few of Woo’s students, the camera focused on Woo and his interviewers. After his introduction, and a short personal history, the interviewer asked Jimmy what did San Soo mean – his response was simple and crisp. Woo said, “San Soo means hand to hand combat.”
Well then, why is Kung Fu San Soo considered to be a combat art, as opposed to a sport technique? The answer is multi-fold:
- The first consideration is that it is usable by a smaller person to successfully fight against a larger, more powerful person?
- Secondly, does it provide some degree of protection from an opponent’s aggressive attack while allowing you to strike him?
- Thirdly, can the system of fighting be used anywhere, at any time, and under any condition?
- Fourth, does it have weapons applications?
- And finally, can the fighting style be used effectively against multiple opponents?
The answer has to be “yes” to all five of the previous questions before the system in question can be considered a true combat art, and not a sport.
A sport such as boxing or wrestling requires that both opponents be of compatible size, strength, and skill level. In boxing, the taller man with the longer reach is at an advantage over a person of smaller height. In wrestling, a man of greater strength and body weight has the advantage. There is of course exceptions to every rule, but here we are speaking in generalities.
Sports also have rules. A set of codes and regulations that the opponents are bound to recognize and uphold. There is also a governing body of some kind to insure that the rules are held to, such as a referee. There are also restrictions on the number of opponents on each side. Both teams have an equal number of players. Of course in combat there are no rules.
Kung Fu is different than a sport because we are attacking the body’s central nervous system.
It doesn’t make any difference how large a practitioner of Kung Fu happens to be. Anyone can kick a man in the groin hard enough to cause pain. Anyone can hit a man in the throat, and render him incapable of fighting. One of the main differences between a sport and real combat fighting is that the opponent’s size is not a factor in your ability to defeat him.
Kung Fu is different than a sport because we are attacking the body’s central nervous system. Unlike a sport, Kung Fu is designed to create the greatest amount of damage to our opponent, in the shortest amount of time. We are taught how to move and how to generate tremendous power with a punch. I’ve broke my opponent’s bones on more than one occasion with a single roundhouse punch. It’s not unusual for a person skilled with Kung Fu to rupture someone’s organs with a properly delivered blow. This is one of the things that distinguish our fighting style from a sport. Our size doesn’t matter; we can still beat a bigger person.
Another difference often commented upon by new students, is that we follow up on a downed opponent. Yes, we kick a man when he’s down. And very well I might add! The harsh reality of fighting is that you don’t want an opponent getting back up from the ground. If he gets up, you have to fight him again, and this time his friends may join him, or he may pull out a weapon. In either case, the situation has just got a whole lot more intense. We are talking about survival in an inhospitable world. There are no referees to blow a whistle, or throw down flags. Either you walk away after a fight, or he does.
Sports like boxing or fencing allow for protection against the other guy’s strikes. Boxing brings up the arms, and tucks in the head in order to protect your body. Fencing for instance, requires that you stand with your side to you opponent, giving a smaller target, and exposing less targets at the same time. Fencing also keeps your body as far away from your advisories weapon as possible.
Kung Fu also protects us from the blows of an opponent. It may do so by the use of powerful blocks such as a up-windmill, or by ducking under a punch thrown by your attacker, or by deflecting a strike. Of course we can take our abilities up one level, and strike him as he’s drawing back his arm to try and hit us, but this is less protection than just good tactics.
It also brings us in close to our opponent’s body. Pressing close to him retards his movements and renders him powerless. We also move around an advisory, allowing us to strike from behind, and well out of his effective punching range.
Then there is the question of whether the fighting style can be used in any geographical location, and under unfriendly circumstances. In other words, can this be used anywhere, at any time, and under any conditions. Kung Fu can be used very effectively in crowded bar rooms, back alleys with scattered broken glass, street gutters, from inside of cars, at the dinner table, in gravel pits. It can be used in bright sunlight, and pitch-dark hallways. Weather has no effect on Kung Fu.
Take a moment to imagine what it must have been like during a war in ancient China. Broken ground, rocky hillsides, muddy terrain, snow, ice, in the middle of burning villages, all in all, some pretty rough environmental conditions to have to fight through.
“…in the real world of fighting; there are no rules.”
There is the added ability to fight with weapons. There are a few sports that use weapons, for instance fencing. But there are rules of engagement, in the real world of fighting; there are no rules. Every technique in Kung Fu can be performed with weapons, such as a knife or a club, in your hands. Use of weapons is integral within each movement of Kung Fu because these were originally used in the battlefields of China.
Also, one of the main advantages in Kung Fu is your ability to fight against multiple opponents. The facts of real street fights are that you will very rarely be in a situation where you only have to fight one other person. I myself have been in dozens of real fights, and only twice has it been against only one opponent. People don’t fight fair, and having more players on their team gives them an advantage. Kung Fu is designed to fight multiple opponents. We are taught to attack in Fut Ga, how to throw one opponent into another in Toy Li Ho, and how to block a punch and then drop our attacker in Ah Soo. Combined these skills allow us to effectively fight against a larger number of advisories.
The effectiveness of Kung Fu is remarkable. That’s because its ability does not lie in theory, or the production of an individual, but instead in thousands of years of practice and testing. Kung Fu has been put to the test in the most severe and fierce conditions possible, in open combat. Kung Fu has been used for over four thousand years in combat, against hundreds of thousands of people. Kung Fu is still around after all that time because it works in real fights, and works well.
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by Master Bill
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