*Do you know any TMA academy in your local area that you would consider "legit"?*

There is one in town here where I live now in Montana. My friend took it when he was younger. He made the kids spar. Taught them grappling as well as striking. I've sparred with my friend and he definitely knew how to handle himself having only trained with that old man.
 
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Chinese nationalists made sanda after getting destroyed by Muay thai in the 60's and 70's. They took out elbows added some wrestling throws and emphasise the sidekick just to pretend its not watered down muay thai. They have good fighters now though even though they barely fight outside china because of the shame of losing

This is false. There are no records of this Thai Boxing vs Sanda at this period. Keep in mind as well commie China would have kept strict records of who was coming and going from their country at the time so a team of Sanda fighters heading to Thailand to compete would have been documented.

The truth of the matter is Sanda was inspired by Sambo rather than Muay thai. Though not directly in martial application . The Chinese saw what the Russian government was doing at the time with Sambo and decided they needed to follow suit and synthesize effective martial arts together into one. And after they blended the Kung Fu techniques deemed to be effective they blended it together with Western Boxing rather than MT as commonly thought.
 
Any TMA school that spars hard once in awhile is somewhat legit....at least for self defense purposes. Any training is better than none, but hard sparring or rolling is where you're really gonna learn how to protect yourself.


And as far as training goes, I think gymnastics is probably a fantastic base for transitioning into martial arts training. I kinda wish I'd done some of that when I was younger.
 
Coincidentally I just posted this in the striking forum if anyone is interested in learning Sanda in Beijing, China: http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/sanda-散打-kickboxing-school-in-beijing-china.3873641

Here's a reproduction of the original post for convenience (please see the other thread for more information):

Hi guys, I have a Chinese friend who use to fight professionally in Sanda and has just opened a Sanda school in Beijing.

For those who are not familiar with it, Sanda is the Chinese form of kickboxing, based on traditional Chinese Wushu and wrestling (摔跤 or Shuai Jiao). It's like Muay Thai but with throws. This is what Cung Le, Zabit Magomedsharipov, Muslim Salikhov competed in before they started MMA, and it is the base of a lot of the Chinese fighters now entering the UFC. Here is a Vice article about it, Wiki, but a video says 1000 words.



The school is pretty centrally located next to central Beijing Railway station, within the 2nd ring. It is in the recreation club of a luxury hotel, so there's ultra modern facilities like a swimming pool and hotel quality private bathrooms and showers. It's luxurious compared to a normal gym. Here's some pictures of the pool and hotel (sorry I don't have any pictures of where they set up the gym but its right next to the pool).

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I think this is a pretty nice way to learn real Sanda, in a private, relaxed, and well furnished setting with a real fighter who came up and competed in the standard Chinese national programs. He's also a pretty nice guy. If you happen to be in Beijing and are interested, or have questions, just let me know. I can probably get you a good discount.

How much?
 
It's just a different rule set. Would you call MMA just a watered down version of Muay Thai? No I don't think so. How do you think an elite pure Muay Thai kickboxer would do against even an average MMA fighter under MMA rules? On the other hand, how well do you think an elite MMA fighter would do against even an average Muay Thai fighter under Muay Thai rules? Exactly, neither is better, it's just a different rule set. Which is better for you depends on what you want. Do you just want to learn how to defeat someone if neither of you are allowed to wrestle, then Muay Thai is probably better for you. Do you want to learn how to defeat someone if you can both strike and utilize throws and takedowns, then Sanda is probably better for you. Do you want to learn how to defeat someone if you can strike, utilize throws and takedowns, and also grapple on the ground, then MMA is probably better for you. Last of all, if you are interested in MMA but can not not study it directly, evidence would suggest that Sanda is better for you since it involves wrestling. We've seen several pure Sanda fighters make their way into the UFC (like Cung Le, Zabit, Muslim), but when's the last time we saw a pure Muay Thai fighter successfully transition?

I'm also not sure your information about the history of Sanda is accurate at all. Do you have any source at all? I've actually had a chance to speak to some of the founders of Sanda, and I'm pretty sure it was developed in the 1980's by the Chinese military to provide soldiers with a practical form of unarmed combat. It drew from a variety of traditional Chinese martial arts (Bagua, Qiquan, Shuaijiao, etc.) as well as western boxing. This is probably one of the reasons why there is no ground work, because you're not going to be rolling around with someone on the ground when you're fighting multiple enemies in battle. Also I think you mean the Chinese communists, not nationalists. The nationalists were the ones who lost and were driven out of China after WW2. Get your basic history straight.
Years ago i remember a article had pictures info everything about the history of muay thai vs sanda. Cant find it right now. I know your friend trains sanda and shit relax. Its pretty easy to just look at the style and look at all other kungfu. It did not evolve from kung fu. Chinese nationalists are not driven out though lol you wont find any more nationalist than the chinese. Basicly everyone in mma uses muay thai techniques you dont see any kung fu so i dont know whats more important for mma. Also buakaw was throwing sanda guys around with muay thai no problem
 
Chinese nationalists made sanda after getting destroyed by Muay thai in the 60's and 70's. They took out elbows added some wrestling throws and emphasise the sidekick just to pretend its not watered down muay thai. They have good fighters now though even though they barely fight outside china because of the shame of losing
Competitive SanShou is pretty new. I believe it is as late as the 90s. It isn't a big sport in China.
 
This is false. There are no records of this Thai Boxing vs Sanda at this period. Keep in mind as well commie China would have kept strict records of who was coming and going from their country at the time so a team of Sanda fighters heading to Thailand to compete would have been documented.

The truth of the matter is Sanda was inspired by Sambo rather than Muay thai. Though not directly in martial application . The Chinese saw what the Russian government was doing at the time with Sambo and decided they needed to follow suit and synthesize effective martial arts together into one. And after they blended the Kung Fu techniques deemed to be effective they blended it together with Western Boxing rather than MT as commonly thought.
Spoken like a true chinese nationalist. i have to find that shit again lol. There was a bunch of black and white pictures of kung fu guys in pants and chinese clothes breaking bricks etc in the ring before the fights. Also extensive history about fighters names etc. After this Sanda got created to have a chance vs the thais and karate guys.. You believe what u want though. Tell me which chinese style have kicks like muay thai? Knees like muay thai? It does not exist before sanda
 
Competitive SanShou is pretty new. I believe it is as late as the 90s. It isn't a big sport in China.
Yes as i said it got created after the regular kung masters got beaten pretty handedly by muay thai and kyukushin. Sanda would not exist if not for muay thai and kyukushin.. Kyukushin was also inspired by mt
 
Spoken like a true chinese nationalist. i have to find that shit again lol. There was a bunch of black and white pictures of kung fu guys in pants and chinese clothes breaking bricks etc in the ring before the fights. Also extensive history about fighters names etc. After this Sanda got created to have a chance vs the thais and karate guys.. You believe what u want though. Tell me which chinese style have kicks like muay thai? Knees like muay thai? It does not exist before sanda

Nah im not chinese and i do muay thai but the fact still remains youre regurgitating a popular myth. The Thai vs Sanda fights happened far after the styles creation not in the 60s and 70s.

As for your comment the Sanda guys dont kick like Thais . As for knees styles like Baji are knee heavy though if i recall right most Sanda competitions do not permit knee strikes so your attempt at making a point is odd.
 
Nah im not chinese and i do muay thai but the fact still remains youre regurgitating a popular myth. The Thai vs Sanda fights happened far after the styles creation not in the 60s and 70s.

As for your comment the Sanda guys dont kick like Thais . As for knees styles like Baji are knee heavy though if i recall right most Sanda competitions do not permit knee strikes so your attempt at making a point is odd.
I have never seen a baji practicioner throw legit knees with the hip like muay thai. If u have footage please show me. Also im not talking about muay thai vs sanda. Im talking about muay thai vs real kung fu masters. There was a bunch of black and white pictures of the fights. After all the brutal losses sanda got made...
 
My local karate dojo practices Shotokan Karate.

We did a shit ton of cardio and quite a bit of full-contact sparring. I never got any higher than white belt because of cost, however. The original instructor moved to another town and gave the gym to the co-instructor who now focuses it on MMA. He's 1-1 in amateur MMA so take that how you will.

I got my first concussion there when I was 17 while sparring. Good times.
 
Yes as i said it got created after the regular kung masters got beaten pretty handedly by muay thai and kyukushin. Sanda would not exist if not for muay thai and kyukushin.. Kyukushin was also inspired by mt
Nah I think the other dude is right. It's russian combat CQC like a military thing. I don't think the 60s thing is even true about China. The communist party banned martial arts sparring for a long time since martial arts was involved in many rebellions in the past century. China up to the communist revolution is pretty much a collection of states ruled by warlords in different regions so the martial artists sort of acted as order or organized bandits. The government purged many martial artist schools for the common "good " during 60s-70s. I don't think they were doing much international competition.
I only trained in Muay Thai and I can see there are some differences working with fellows from that background. I have never thrown a sidekick and can't even do it if I wanted to do.
 
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I have never seen a baji practicioner throw legit knees with the hip like muay thai.
Once again Very few Sanda comps even allow knee strikes so it feels like your'e a casual observer here and now you are moving the goal post once your lack of knowledge was exposed. You have to engage your hip to throw knee strikes regardless and again much like how Sandas kicks differ from Thai boxers so does the knee strikes on the rare chance they are even allowed in a match.

I. If u have footage please show me. Also im not talking about muay thai vs sanda. Im talking about muay thai vs real kung fu masters. i.

What exactly is a "real" lung fu master and how is this relevant to our conversation or your original post or my rebuttal. This is about The sandas origins not some random Kung Fu practitioners vs a Thai.

No,as i said again Sanda was created due to the USSR influencing communist China. Theres zero evidence of any formal competition being staged at the time you noted. Given Sanda was created decades prior to the 60s and 70s it seems you aren't even aware of when the art was founded and again are resorting to moving goal posts by claiming you are now talking about random kung fu stylists not Sanda.
 
Once again Very few Sanda comps even allow knee strikes so it feels like your'e a casual observer here and now you are moving the goal post once your lack of knowledge was exposed. You have to engage your hip to throw knee strikes regardless and again much like how Sandas kicks differ from Thai boxers so does the knee strikes on the rare chance they are even allowed in a match.



What exactly is a "real" lung fu master and how is this relevant to our conversation or your original post or my rebuttal. This is about The sandas origins not some random Kung Fu practitioners vs a Thai.

No,as i said again Sanda was created due to the USSR influencing communist China. Theres zero evidence of any formal competition being staged at the time you noted. Given Sanda was created decades prior to the 60s and 70s it seems you aren't even aware of when the art was founded and again are resorting to moving goal posts by claiming you are now talking about random kung fu stylists not Sanda.
there is a big difference in throwing a regular knee vs a real knee strike thrown by a legit muay thai practicioner. Seems like u have no idea what you are talking about. Ive seen sanshou fights with knees thrown. You stuck on that lol. Could be late 40's or 50's also i remember reading the history years ago. The chinese can deny it as much as they want but muay thai influenced sanda or sanshou or wtf u want to call it. You just twisting my words now.. AS i said kung fu vs muay thai is the origin of sanda or Sanshou. You keep saying this is about the origins of sanda and its exactly what im saying. You like a crazy leftist sjw twisting words for your agenda
 
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