San Shou

---

---

San Shou is the official full contact fighting sport of modern Wushu which has seen a substantial growth in popularity throughout the world. 

San Shou has been an important event at the World Wushu Championships since its introduction in 1991. Fighters are competing in San Shou tournaments held in over 75 countries. 

Modern San Shou was developed into a sport by the Chinese Government about the same time as modern Wushu during the 1960’s. 

Here in America, San Shou has recently debuted as a professional sport. It is practiced as a combat sport, meaning that the use of safety equipment is neccessary due to the potential damage that can be inflicted with San Shou strikes. Competitions are conducted under a set of rules which restrict some of the techniques for the safety of the participants.

San Shou is a complete martial art system that includes striking techniques such as: front and side kicks, low and mid leg kicks, hand striking, grappling, sweeps, takedowns, and throws. Currently, the sport of San Shou does not include the deadly knee and elbow strikes of Muay Thai but many San Shou gyms (like mine) teach these effective techniques as well.

Sport San Shou utilizes striking, kicking, and takedowns, but does not allow submissions or ground grappling. Knee and elbow strikes were originally practiced in military San Shou competitions. Due to the serious damage knee and elbow strikes are capapble of, they have been removed from the international sport version in 1991 before the first world championships.

Nowadays, professional San Shou matches are conducted similar to Muay Thai matches without the use of protective gear and are held in a boxing ring type setting.

Meaning: "free hand" or "free fighting"