Sanda Schools

[BoondocSaint]

Do any of you know of a good sanda school in PA around Philly? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[npk9]

Wow that's first. Well - unfortunately there are not. I teach but we do not have a competition team perse. I volunteer my time at a school off of 202 near Delaware. I do compete myself and hand full of people that have shown interest in doing so and have competited with them. Unfortunately - the closest "school" NYC and in Baltimore DC area. If you are interested please PM and I'll be more then happy to help you. My question to you is - why go San Da when you can go MT?

[bodhisattva]

A chinese art I don't bash at all...

Ah! A chinese martial art based on competition! Isn't san da "fast wrestling"? Don't they compete totally live?

See. I don't hate all chinese martial arts. Fast wrestling always looked pretty coool.


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Oh. Dang. No elbows. No knees. No chokes or joint locks.

Sigh.

[npk9]

LOL - Shuai Chao is the chinese wrestling art. San Da/San Shou is the Chinese equivalent to MT. The differences are:
Clinching - MT = no time limit
SD = 5 sec
Take downs - MT = one step take down (please correct me if I'm wrong)
SD = anytime of take down, hipthrown leg catch, wrestling takedown - as long is its in the 5 sec rule.
Knees & Elbow - MT = allowed of course (pending country and federation)
SD = knees allowed but no elbows (at least here in the states)


To be quite honest with you. China went 2 extremes with there martial arts. One extreme was forms - Wushu compulsory forms (acrobatic and have limited success with there techniques).
Othere extreme - San Da/San Shou - from what I understand this was put together to combat against the other styles - mainly MT but also - kickboxing, full contact karate, TKD and sorts.
My information is limited as I come from a traditional background as opposed to a Wushu background. But if anyone else out there knows more of the history of San Da - please feel free to input.