I am just wondering what eveyrone thinks…yeah, I know…I am laughing as well…
Just want peoples opinions and what they know about them.
I will explain it all later in the thread…
~Wen~
I think it sounds a bit funny too, but all the people I met that study that style were some mean fighters. It’s one of those “too deadly to compete” type of styles (eye gouging, clawing/tearing, etc.), but I think many of them do compete 
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What the heck is it exactly? I know there is a school here that has it. Is it a real type of Kung Fu, or is it a hoakey Shaolin-Do type style? If it’s so lethal, howcome you or other people don’t all go rushing out and join? ( I mean what are the cons of this particular art? )
Isn’t that the style of the KF guy that fought MMA fighter John Marsh. As I recall everything was allowed, including all of those “deadly” techniques.
It’s a made up style, more or less. They try to claim some lineage through a fellow named Jimmy Woo (dead now) that they seem to hold in religious reverence. He may have been a good fighter, but there is no way to document his claims.
ah!! not again!
i will admit there are many guys that claim they are fighters but have not never fought. but i gotta ask what you guys think? i know what i know? as for that guy that fought marsh he was as competant a fighter as a white belt. many people claim a lot in san soo but they have no experience in fighting. it is a fighting art but many don’t fight. there are a few that compete in mma. like king of the cage. you shouldn’t make your views until you have seen it! some real practioners that is. you need to find a good school to look at.
I think san soo comes from kenpo, not any chinese style. That did about as well against John marsh as any other fighter with no takedown defense or ground training.
San Soo is not a style per se’, it is a type of fighting. IMHO, it is a very good style of fighting.
People do train exclusively in San Shou but they are training to compete IN San Soo(Or Shou.).
At least San Soo fighters will compete in ALMOST ANYTHING while other styles of this type only compete in thier own method of fighting in thier tournaments.
Laugh all you want, I am not sure you fully understand just what it is that you are laughing at.
San Soo and San Shou are two completely different things.
Kung Fu San Soo = Jimmy Woo related
Kung Fu San Shou = the Red Army style and also a competition format
Arioch7,
San Soo and San Shou are two totally different things I believe.
Mr.Nemo,
I have to agree with you there, few people without ground experence would have fared much better.-ED
Gerald Okamura does San Soo, he was in a couple of magazines. It looked pretty impressive. He seems to be the big boss of san soo at the moment, he also knows alot of chinese weapons. In the magazine he was using the twin hooks. He also hosts a martial arts festival called dragon fest.
OK. Explain the differences to me please.
I know about the fierce border conflicts between the Soviets and the Chinese but I think my understanding of San Shou/San Soo is accurate.
Correct me on my mistake on San Soo/San Shou. To me, it is a matter of Chinese dialect but I am probably wrong.
Arioch7,
San Soo is a martial art that the Woo family claims to have been taught by a Chinese monk and has handed down in there family from generation to generation. I think of SCARS when I think of San Soo as they look very similar, which is mainly because Jerry Peterson is a San Soo blackbelt.
San Shou is a competition format invented and created by the chinese to show case there martial arts.
"OK. Explain the differences to me please.
I know about the fierce border conflicts between the Soviets and the Chinese but I think my understanding of San Shou/San Soo is accurate.
Correct me on my mistake on San Soo/San Shou. To me, it is a matter of Chinese dialect but I am probably wrong."
It is not a matter of chinese dialect, they’re two completely different things.
Ah! So it is similar to Shaolin-DO, in the respect that both have lineages that are often questioned. If San Soo is so lethal, why does no one seem to want to train in it?
Something doesn’t need to be popular to work you know. If that were the case many Kung Fu styles would be in trouble.-ED
I dig it, Thanks! 
San Soo is not related to Shaolin-Do:rolleyes:
Back when I lived in Orange County, CA I used to mess around with some of the San Soo guys there, they were really nice guys, no ego, no big ticket to sell, open to anything, and to boot a few of them were pretty tough characters.
The one major complaint I have about San Soo as a system is the fact that there is NO continous free-sparring at all, there are modified/advanced two man drills like one step but much more aggressive but no free-range sparring as well as no grounfighting or knife/stick work.
Otherwise they seem like a good bunch of guys, as for there lineage, they seem to be pretty sure of that and it is a big world out there, San Soo has those very old Woo family manuels to back up what they preach.
My final point being if you have not trained with them, then don’t make judgements based on nothing, I don’t think they are lethal but they are a far-cry above any mall-karate school.
I studied San Soo in Orange County for a few years. It’s (IMO) an aggressive, effective style. I make no claims about it’s authenticity as a traditional Chinese style, however. What Black Jack says is true of the training (in regards to a lack of free-sparring), and that was perhaps my biggest complaint during my study.
Nemo, if I ever get off my butt and come up to train with you and Jeff, I’ll be happy to show you some San Soo. As much as I try to focus solely on Bagua now, it’s not uncommon for many of San Soo’s throws and takedowns to make appearances in my workouts.
About the whole Jon Marsh vs. San Soo fight, keep in mind that Marsh was bigger, stronger, faster, younger, and more experienced.