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Wushu Competition -
Sanda
Sanda or Sanshou means "free fight"
and is the real application of the attack and defence techniques of Chinese Gong
Fu. Sanda was created similarly to modern Wushu by the Chinese Government in the
60s, grouping masters from all the country and defining a standard fighting
style, in order to rationalize the huge heritage of thousands of styles and
techniques existing in China.
The techniques employed in sanda
are based upon punches, kicks, grappling and locks.
The latter two can result rather tricky to learn for those who have previous
experiences in other fighting systems, like kickboxing.
As for all the martial arts dedicated
exclusively to fighting the learning timeframe is reasonable, and in about 3
yeas a pratictioner is ready to partecipate to the full-contact tournaments.
Normal training is based upon a
sequence of aerobic warm-up, stretching, basic techniques and combinations (jab,
direct, hook, front kick, side kick, etc.), shadow boxing, 2 person drills,
free sparring, plus heavy bag, abdominals, push-ups and so on. |
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There are two versions of sanda, one
is designed for full-contact tournament, the second is a hand-to-hand combat
discipline taught to the various military groups, like the Chinese Red Army, the
police and even the fire brigades. Interestingly enough, while the tournament
version is more or less unified, the combat one has generated a series of
flavours, as each division of the army, police and so on has developed its own
style.
Obviously the difference between the
tournament and the combat version are related to the number of techniques
allowed: in a tournament the targets can be
- tights
- body (back excluded)
- head (back excluded)
it is forbidden to hit knees, groin
and throat; a throwing attempt must be successful within 3 seconds (otherwise
the referee stops you) and is forbidden to hit the head with more than 2
consecutive techniques of the same kind (that is, if you land 2 punches on your
opponent head you have to do something different, like a low kick, before
starting punching again).
for tournaments the athlets have to
wear safe gear:
- 8-10 oz gloves, depending on the
weight (above/over 70 Kg)
- groin cup
- mouthpiece
- helmet
- shin pads
- body armour
The equipment restricts the number of
grappling and throwing techniques to those which can be applied with the gloves,
which means basically to lock the legs, arms or neck and then applying leg
sweeps or hip throws, in a way similar to the various goshi waza of Judo.
Regular tournaments and championships
are organised by the various sanda organisations all around the world.
In a tournament you fight for 2 rounds of 2 minutes each, plus a 3rd round in
case the first 2 score even. You win if you knock out your opponent; otherwise
the referee checks the score, where you get 1 point for a fist, 2 points for a
kick and from 1 to 3 points for a takedown, depending on the technique used
(i.e. if you push him down with force is 1 point, succeding in a nice headlock
and hip throwing making him flying over your back it is worth 3 points).
A real match should be done over a raised platform (about half meter); if your
opponent falls down you win. It is not uncommon to have sanda matches on a
normal tatami square or on a ring.
The combat version doesn't need to
have such restrictions and includes also wrestling and ground-fighting skills
Click here for an
example of Sanda tournament rules (From the PWKA, Italy)
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