I had a rough experience fighting a muay thai guy: I had beaten a few other guys up untill that point, it was quite hard but I could handle it. And there he was. Tall, strong, massive, badass. I couldn't land a single hit to save my life. He was like a robot, blocking and dodging even my faster jabs in an outrageous way, landing crazy powerful blows. I got up, again and again and again... and he knocked me down every single time. It felt like being a baby tring to fight an orc. Finally I rage quitted. Street Fighter 1 was horribly programmed.
@@Mishkola Imagine suddenly hearing that muay Thai music in your living room then turning around to see a shirtless santa with full fight gear dropping down your chimney!
Sanda didn't really look different from kickboxing styles for a lot of people (casual people, like me before practicing combat sport) However, Muay Thai has a very distinctive form, outfit, ritual before a game, and brutality (in Thailand). It just has better brand recognition.
陳Chris it’s only branded as more brutal though. The Chinese military use Sanda as their unarmed combat. And the Chinese military is as brutal as it gets.
@@tjsho417 Any combat sport can become brutal, it's just the government and referee group in Thailand allows it, for the brand. Sanda might be brutal in the military, but the Chinese government will never let anything somewhat "brutal" be seen by the public, so we'll never get a chance to see the other side of Sanda and other martial arts in China.
@@tjsho417 another key thing to note, is that Military Sanda is closer to the nasty "dirty" techniques of traditional gongfu, combined with the Sport friendly aspects of Sport Sanda/Sanshou. Wim Demeere has done great articles on this topic. Great martial artist himself.
@@AztecUnshaven i was thinking that sanda could be likened to a practical combat version of the more cultural "traditional" forms of kungfu/kenpo/ whatever its called (sorry if i am ignorant lol) like how tai chi is basically shadow grappling
@@pilot.wav_theory it's kind of a complicated topic, but Kungfu is a general term for hundreds of different martial art styles of Chinese origin. From wrestling, to kicking, hand, elbow strikes, joint locks and everything in between. Sanda/Sanshou is sort of the Communist Party's "standardized" curriculum of base Gongfu/Kungfu techniques (without all the "dirty" stuff, like fishhooking, groin strikes, eye gouging, spiking the opponent on their head, etc).
@@scottbauer71 I'm in SF and I'm in the same boat. Wouldn't you know it, currently a grand total of 0 "MMA" gyms teach MMA classes with sparring... Against all odds, the closest thing to sparring with non-restrictive ruleset right now would be the krav maga gym, which only has about 5 minutes of mma-like sparring per week! Boooo There's also Judo but it's only Tuesdays and Thursdays and leg grabs are forbidden (EDIT: dragon house mma is pretty good.)
It's a highly effective system, but unfortunately it's a bore to watch without a ring, just too many out-of-bounds. And our government hasn't done near enough to promote it within the country, in comparison to e.g. what the Japanese did for Judo and Karate, or Korea for Taekwondo, even when they were not yet Olympic sports. They care about culture, we care more about international medals.
I hate to say this, but Communist clerks dont HAVE culture. I'm in bangladesh and we unfortunately have a similar problem. Our pen pushers aren't communists but they have no soul. We have traditional martial arts that survived the british colonialism, but cant survive politics.
I think the issue is the funding for projects like that in he mainland have a really difficult vetting processes. Selling soft culture to govt officials falls in line with prevailing Chinese ideals. Sanda was really a military sport originally and for a long time it was difficult for the government to come to terms with trying to the make it a amateur sport. Japan path to popularizing Karate and Judo was much more successful since the early founders of those styles in Mainland Japan were educators and felt that push for physical education would benefit the youth. Chinas education system is a meat grinder that doesnt really put a premium on physical fitness of personal development.
Its a problem everywhere. I wish Catch Wrestling would be more promoted in the US or England as much as jiu Jitsu. Surprisingly its more popular in Japan. Catch has some judo and Jiu jitsu stuff in it but there’s still some old English stuff mixed in it that’s probably being forgotten
I think with the rise of fighters like Zhang Weili, Li Jingliang, Song Yadong, Zabit Magomedsharipov, Muslim Salikhov and a few others, Sanda/Sanshou will slowly gain prominence. I don't think it will ever be as big as say Muay Thai, but it will get more well known. I personally think Cung Le was one of the great influencers who opened the doors for it.
I’d love to learn it it’s just not anywhere near me same with combat Sambo. If Sanda became more popular it would be as mandatory as Muay Thai and Boxing.
In my country (France) I couldn't even compete in sanda because I had no opponent in my weight division, it happend to me at the local tournament and then at the national tournament. And I'm 78 kg (around 170lbs) it's not like I'm in an exotic weight division... But In france Sanda is managed by the Karate federation (I know it's weird), and it's in the shadow of Boxing, Wreslting, Judo and K-1 and soon MMA will be legalised and it will put even more pressure on niche combat sports like sanda. My teacher told me 10 years ago, he had around 30 students in his class, now at the end of the year we are barely a dozen...It's kinda sad.
Cus everyone is learning from the original sources, Muay Thai and BJJ. Sanshou, is promoted as Kung fu, but people know what Kung fu looks like and how it doesn’t work in real life. People might get interested in Sanshou, the “Chinese” combat sport, but when they actually see Sanshou, they know instantly it’s just sloppy Muay Thai. So why don’t they just learn Muay thai instead? That’s why Sanshou won’t be as popular as Muay Thai and BJJ.
@@iROChakri yeah It’s true. Since then I started training MT and MMA as well. Sanda could be more popular but it’s badly promoted. I love the Leitai (the platform) on which we fight. It’s like the dragon ball tournament. Anyway Covid is slowing down everything hard at the moment. No group training or competition since more than a year... T_T
@@vonb2792 having moved a lot I did different styles in different gyms. I Sarted with karate full contact, then kick boxing, a little bit of Savate, now Sanda in a Gym and Kick Boxing/MMA with a personal coach. I'm kind of a "Master of none" lol
A simple way to make sanda more popular is to make it more distinct 1, Change the gloves to a MMA style open hand gloves, this would allow many traditional martial arts techniques to be used 2, standardize the Leitai (stage) and do not use boxing rings, this would emphases on throwing your opponents off of the leitai, Shuaijiao techniques is what makes Sanda distinctive to your average viewers
The guy who fought Rick is Changpuek Kiatsongrit. Actually, he was not the top fighter in Thailand, he was just too big and heavy to find any opponent in the same weight class. So fighting big foreigner was his only choice.
Sanda could almost be categorized and practiced as Kickboxing plus momentary takedowns and throws, mostly for winning points. However, Muay Thai is completely a distinctive combat system, deeply rooted in several aspects of south Asian history, politics, mythology and Theravada Buddhism. As a Kyokushin Karate fighter and instructor, I experienced years of sparring and exchanged so many technical concepts with my Sanda and Muay Thai friends. Both are amazing fighting arts. Sanda has another brutal self-defense side, extensively practiced in Chinese military but Muay Thai brings also a lifestyle and in terms of moral values and real-life practicality, is closer to the Japanese concept of Martial Way which is called Budo.
I picked up sanda when I was in my 20s in a mid-sized city in central Europe. It was the time where K1 was a big sport as is UFC today. I was so lucky that we had this martial art that was eye-opening on how fighting works. In my opinion, it's a great martial art to pick up as you have a bit of everything.
Hey I have a question about Sanda. Are you guys trained to kick with your foot like in traditional martial arts or with the shins like in Muay Thai or both? I ask because the only difference that is talk about on the internet is about the takedowns and throws.
@@gersonencarnacion3744 It was a long time ago, but we were thought to kick with the lower part of your shin. Kicking with the foot may cause it to break.
Martial arts still aren't understood or known as much as they should be by the average person. At least in the US, most people think that martial arts are some magical fake fighting system. When Martial arts, no matter the type, just teach you how to efficiently teach you about leverage and how to apply strength. In general, I wish all martial arts where more well known and practiced
I've trained in Shenyang city's Xidong Taiquan gym. It was an amazing and very hard training. They had intra-gym tournaments with really brutal knockouts. When I asked about Sanda as compared to Thai Boxing, I was told: "Forget about Sanda. Muay Thai is the real deal." So I continued to train Muay Thai and forgot about Sanda. But Sanda actually has some very developed sweeps and dumps, which I love and admire! It's a cool system.
Sanda is a great gateway to MMA. I would argue it prepares you better for MMA grappling, you learn how to do your grappling while Someone it trying to knock you out.
Cung Li is another good fighter that used Sanda(formerly known as Sanshou according to a quick search that I did). I use to love watching his fights. Many fighters back in those days weren't used to his unorthodox kicks from what I saw. He had a respectable MMA career.
This reminds me a lot of the Philippines' National Sport, *"Arnis"* and how its not as popular to Filipinos compared to other Sports such as Basketball, there are probably even more Filipino Boxers or Taekwondo practitioners than there are Arnisadors out there. Arnis is also one of those Sports when you look at it from an outside perspective and you're just like, _"They look like kids just quickly bashing each other with sticks!"_ Which I completely understand. The ruleset in relation to the protective gears used still have much to be improved on. I just wish more of my fellow Filipinos take more interest in our own Sport.
And many Arnis schools and teachers internationally are more interested in teaching the flowy, almost performance art side of Arnis than the nitty gritty combat side of it. Danny Guba Doce Pares student here.
A fellow Filipino here, too. I can relate too to the hypocrisy of fellow Filipinos who only focus on the "main sports" of the Philippines (basketball,volleyball, boxing, taekwondo), especially in Olympic championships. But when weightlifters, MMA athletes, arnis practicioners start taking the spotlight, this fellow Filipinos starts to get into the bandwagon hype, especially in the SEA games. This is also the main reason why grappling arts in martial arts gym are merely absent because of the fame of boxing and taekwondo here in the Philippines (thanks to Manny Pacquiao and other Pinoy boxers, Japoy Lizardo and other taekwondo athletes), and Filipinos have this romanticized idea of stand-up striking arts are "masculine" and ground-game is "homosexual". Luckily, there are still some MMA gyms near my area so I can atleast train Jiu-Jitsu once this quarantine has passed.
@@glennnolasco2475 it's a wakeup call when Filipino fighters in ONE Championship go up against western fighters with a background in BJJ and wrestling and get dominated on the ground. "Grappling is homosexual" sounds like insecure posturing to cover up for the fear of getting of dominated on the ground and fair enough, because there is no emasculating feeling like getting choked out on the ground. It's like drowning underwater.
@@DPham1 The ideology of "grappling is homosexual" is the reason why jiu-jitsu/wrestling/Judo/Sambo gyms exists very little here in the Philippines. It sucks
IMO Sanda could be a better fit for MMA than Muay Thai. Simply because it already has throws and takedowns integrated into the art. While in MT you only have sweeps and you have to manage to make it work for MMA, which can be tricky. With Sanda, you just have to add a bit of BJJ ground game and submissions and you have a very decent MMA fighter.
There used to be a Sanda community in the states. It mainly fell apart due to politics, in-fighting, and troubles hosting events rather than lack of interest. Some big names associated with it: Cung Le, Pat Barry, Asa Ten Pow, KJ Noons, Mike Altman, Scott Sheeley, David Ross, and Rudi Ott. If you don't recognize some of these names, you may recognize some of the fighters they've coached.
I learned about Muay Thai from Street Fighter character Sagat and from a guy who actually trained in that MA. Saw my very first Muay Thai fight because of my friends friend who practiced. I was shocked to see how violent it was but I had a lot of respect for it.
I love your show Ramsey. When I first started watching ONE FC they allowed kicks and knees to the head of a downed opponent. This is when I became more interested in Sanda. In order to use that very effective technique you have to take someone down while staying on your feet. This could really be a useful skill set for self-defense situations when you want to take someone down and run away or give them a good soccer kick before they get up. Sanda doesn’t teach kicking a downed opponent or running away but there is advantage to staying on your feet while your opponent is down.
ramsay can you please do a video showing the exact part that you make contact in a hook kick/ spin hook kick landing with the heel @RamseyDewey nobody has done a good video about this it would really help @@RamseyDewey
What was really interesting (perhaps unconsciously) back in the 90s was that kicks to the thigh were so greatly associated with a martial art from country where its name and national sport literally had the word "thigh" phonetically spelled in them. "Thigh boxing!"
"We need a fighter who can just throw guys and walk away every time" I feel like in his prime and if he'd brushed up on his ground work Liu Hailong would've been perfect for this
Bit late to the party I know, but I have practiced sanda since I was a kid and always thought I was learning kung-fu. I never realised until my teacher told me it was actually sanda mixed with muay-tai and other arts he had picked up throughout his life.
Dennis Alexio played the older brother in Kickboxer. He was a legit kickboxer. Off the top of my head he was Heavyweight Kickboxing Champion at one point. Love your energy. So calm and soothing.
Ramsey, I'd love for you to make more videos about Sanda. Its a niche for your channel that would get a lot of interest IMO. And, would give us the exposure needed to get more people interested. Sanda is proven effective in the UFC, is very highlight reel friendly and gives a unique set of advantages to a stand up fighter. Show it off for us and give this art the recognition it has earned! Without people like yourself, creating videos like this, our community will remain small and stiffle the potential of our art. I feel the answer to this videos subject, is the video itself.
Having been born and grown up in SE Asia (Cambodia) I'd known Muay Thai since a very young age. But I've only heard of Sanda about four years ago by seeing Cung Le on UA-cam. I was instantly impressed - it was like watching MT with throwing allowed. As I learned more about Sanda I also wonder Why hadn't I heard of Sanda before? I was also surprised it was quite popular in the Philippines.
Thank you so much for this video Sifu! I love Sanda and wish it would be more popular in North America! Also, stay safe Sifu! We’re here on COVID lockdown and going through what you guys have been going through in China for the past two months! I miss my gym and all my martial arts classes. I’m suffered workout withdrawals lol! :(
I practiced a bit in my twenties while I was practicing Wu Shu and Tai ji. I had a lot of fun. There are some amateurish tournaments every now and then, with limited contacts, protections and KO's are banned. I guess that way it will never become the next big thing.
Sanda may not be so popular in 'Murica, but here in Romania it's the most popular full contact martial art since the 90s. The main problem is that Sanda tournaments are organized as regular sports events, so like all other mainstream sports they're tagged as "amateur" fighting, rewarded just with medals and token prizes, as opposed to "professional" fighting like K1 or UFC where people basically fight for money. I'm not convinced that these "professional" fights are objectively better than sports events of the same type, but because they involve a lot more money they're much better promoted and covered in the mass media, hence getting ever more popular. Here in Romania most "professional" fighters are former Sanda champions who got some mixed training after dropping off the competition ladder. Even people mostly known as "kickboxers" or K1 champions like Ciprian Sora or Catalin Zmarandescu are actually ex-Sanda fighters (kickboxing wasn't even practiced around here until the late 2000s), both of them won a couple of European Sanda tournaments before getting into the money fights. So, in my opinion, the only way Sanda can get as popular as K1 or UFC is to make a dedicated "professional" event for it, with licensing, tickets, betting, media coverage and all other aspects that make this a business rather than a regular sport. But there are a lot of coaches and practitioners who resent turning a regular sport into a money grabbing fest, justifiably so i.m.o.
As someone who trains Muay Thai, I'm not fully aware of Sanda rules: all I know is that punches and kicks are allowed, to the body and to the head/face at least. As someone who trains or knows about Sanda(you), are leg kicks legal in that sport? Also are knee strikes legal and used? From the Sanda matches Ive watched I see A BUNCH of push kicks and side kicks, and spinning kicks sometimes; and roundhouses too but used FAR LESS than we use them in Muay Thai(we use mostly roundhouse and teeps in muay thai, as all know; far from the only types of kicks we use though). Cause I wonder if many of the tactics in Muay thai would work just as well in a Sanda competition. I'd compete if I knew my skills in muay thai would transfer over, and it appears they very well might.
@@chucknorris202 First please understand that it's been about 20 years since I last competed in Sanda, so some rules might have changed in the mean time. Nowadays most of my contact with the sport is through my profession, I'm a radiologist and some of the guys I trained with back then are now coaches who call me to examine their injured fighters. So, back in my days the basic rules of leg kicking were: no knee strikes (as in not using your knee to kick with, otherwise you're free to target the opponents knees with foot kicks if you want), no purposely aimed kicks to the neck or the groin and no kicking an already downed opponent (on the ground). That's it, you were free to try anything else. Oh, and unlike Muay Thai, you can't grab, hold and kick, you're only allowed to grab swiftly for throwing. In my experience Muay Thai fighters are quite a match for Sanda fighters (at comparable skill levels). Switching over from one to the other shouldn't take more than a couple of months, it's more about changing habits and combinations rather than radically different techniques (there are some of those too, but you catch up quickly if you're already trained in a similar art).
@@chucknorris202 The basics transfer over, and yes leg kicks are legal, but you need to realize Sanda scores by point, not by damage, so a sidekick or a push kick score as much as a roundhouse despite doing less damage. Also, if a kick is caught and then the kicker is thrown, it does not score even if it DOES damage. So you'll need to adjust your mt kicks for speed and make sure it doesn't get caught, or it will be like Kaoklai vs Hussein Ojhagi (watch that fight) where the former gets his kicks caught and dumped over and over.
It's so boring, as a Sanda fighter, here in Italy, I never find any serious Sanda competion at all and I have to compete in KickBoxing. After 6 years I've done just 3 sanda amateurs fights and a lot more in Kickboxing. That makes me really wanna go into MMA.
@@CanaleAV Si il karate va forte, ma possibile che nessuno fa Sanda a Roma? Dovrebbe esserci la palestra di Shaolin del maestro Shi Yan Hui, alcune palestre di shaolin fanno anche sanda... come noi ad esempio
The same happens in Argentina....many of the most important Sanda fighters move on to other sports like Kick boxing or Jiu Jitsu, MMA, etc. These sports have many more competitors and much more recognition. Sad...
Io invece faccio Muay Thai. Adesso a casa alleno sempre thai e ho iniziato a fare anche Nippon kempo. Ma Sanda mi interessa. Sembra uno stile più completo rispetto alla muay thai. Confermate?
Cung Lee Is probably the most famous recent Sanda fighter who made it work in MMA on the strikeforce promotion might be wrong on that but was the same show Fedor was on. Personally always loved Sanda kickboxing and combat sambo
Hi Ramsey, I like your videos. I have some questions about MMA. 1) How is the grade system in MMA? [Many traditional martial arts use the color belt system that it was popularized from Judo. What is the equivalent in MMA?] 2) Is there a MMA standardized program, syllabus or curriculum? 3) If not, are there different "schools"? 4) If there are different schools, how many? 5) How is the process to create a new MMA school? Do you need to register a new MMA school in a world MMA organization? Do you need to register its study program? 6) Are there technical differences between MMA schools? Are there unique techniques in MMA schools that differentiate one school from another? I have these doubts because everyone use the term MMA like a standardized and unified system of combat. However, I think it would be difficult standardized and unified so many fighting techniques and principles in one discipline. Probably, that was the dream of many combat masters in the past. I think that MMA could be similar to traditional martial arts, where it is possible to find different schools with different techniques and different organizations.
Kung Lee was a really great example of Sanda, that’s how I found out about it. I bet if enough people watched his fights and encouraged him to train them, we’d see a huge resurgence. I see huge potential in that style and would rather learn it than Muay Thai.
ONE fighters like the Team Lakay and Catalan are Wushu - Sanda fighters. Catalan even thought it in China. Weird, a Filipino teaching the Chinese their national sport similar to a foreign guy teaching us Arnis.
I think I learned of muay thai from tony jaa movies: ongbak and the protector. Ii probably heard of it before then but didn't know anything about it. The movies show what these styles are like. Also video games like tekken and mortal kombat and street fighter. These games had fighters from almost all popular styles. That's how I learned of capoeira, and mantis kungfu I believe. Was from games.
Wu Ling Fan tried to make Sanda popular although, I think over the years, they tried to spread Sanda to thin, between trying to get it into the olympics and trying to make it as big as K1, then ditching it becasue K1 became international, especially back in the 90s. Im not surprised anymore when I met chinese people that don't know what Sanda is, then again, being italian, they flip when they realize I don't play or follow football like 99.9% of the rest of italians that do, it's funny how people assume you do or don't do something based on your nationality. Btw I love Sanda, it is the most fun I had competing next to K1, I think it is a bit more popular in middle eastern countries and russia, I guess because they are closer to China.
I think the two biggest things is the fact that muay thai burst into the striking scene in the late 80s and became integrated into the world wide modern combat sports scene(cu of K1), so thats a huge marketing advantage. Two , muay thai is a huge part of the thai identity, sanda like ramsey said only has 10,000 in ppl in china competing in it. So two huge advantages.
@@daniel-zh9nj6yn6y its still more than boxing, muaythai, kickboxing, sumo, kyokushin and sanda... And those are good martial arts and combat sports, even with the lack of ground game... So, in the end, kudos groundgame is just a plus on a very interesting martial art
Takes heart to actually support(with such enthusiasm) the guy that technically cheated (no Matter how you justify it, he knew what was up and what the use for the tape was, as did you, but he proceeded to load his wraps anyway) and ended your career as a pro fighter because he fought with loaded wraps and you didn't... You are a genuinely good man Ramsey, with a kind, forgiving heart, and although i respect everything you say and do, if i were in your shoes i might not have been as supportive of someone like him. May you get whatever you desire in life, and may you keep spreading your knowledge and wisdom amongst us for a long time to come
Since Changpuek Kiatsongrit (The legendary thai who basically showed the world the effectiveness of muay thai), that is the start of it's shining glory. Kiatsongrit fought in the US and Japan where kickboxing is very popular. Sanda didn't have that kind of publicity which is why it's not as popular.
Ramsey Dewey: The Man, The Myth...The Voice. Truly, he has one of the most listen able larynxes on the UA-cams. I could listen to him read e-numbers off a sweets packet...
Bruce Lee would love the internet, he wanted people to be able to honestly express themselves. No not everyone's honest online, but it sure gives you the opportunity. (He'd especially love the wealth of information on the combat arts as he only had books)
There's another element to it: China does not develop sport San Da for export. It's mostly there to retain some of the combative parts to the overall "kung fu" brand, and for internal competition between the various sports academies as part of the national athletics institutions, with some smaller promotions for a domestic audience, but as far as international outreach goes, the PRC prefers wushu and tai chi for that. One day, maybe, the Wushu Association might make it a priority, but I think at this point, it won't be as successful as muay thai simply because the environment has evolved past singular styles.
I started training with Muay Thai with Master Toddy in the late 70s ( I was also training in Traditional Savate, Boxing, and Judo), and this was around the time everyone seemed to be doing karate and judo, and karate and judo and kung fu was all anyone knew here in the UK at that time about martial arts. You are right though, I do think JCVD helped promote it with flicks like No Retreat No Surrender and Kickboxer.
Hi Ramsey. PokemonGO player here. We, as a population, may not know how to fight a lick but I am 100% certain that we have the sheer, overwhelming numbers in a straight up brawl.
You can actually make an Irl replica of the Niko Style (alltough it won't be as cool in irl as it is in Kengan) Adamantine Kata: Kyukushin Karate/Muay Thai Flame Kata: Boxing (because of footwork) Redirection Kata: Judo (i know Redirection Kata is more like Aikido but Aikido doesn't work in irl so Judo is the closest thing to it that does work) Water Kata: BJJ/Wrestling If you trained all of this you could practically recreate the Niko Style irl and be unstoppable in MMA
Actually, I have been living in Henan for the last 5 years and it's quite popular. I was teaching at the University and training sanda. All my students knew about this sport. And there were plenty of sanda training schools in Nanyang city. My shifu had more than 2000 students. So, I think that your information about only 10000 people practice sanda is totally wrong.
@@RamseyDewey That would mean the competitive scene is way smaller but not because of a lack of practitioners. Sounds like they need more competitions or events.
@@RamseyDewey Also, according to a Quora answer, "Every year there are tens of thousands of students like him graduating from the Wushu schools. And only a tiny number of them could be selected and competing in the institutional Sanda championship (city, province), and only a tiny number of them would get into the national team of Sanda, and based on the year Xu graduated, only a tiny number of the province and city Sanda teams could get to fight in the Sanda King (Professional Sanda) and only a tiny number of them could be selected to fight in the China-Thai competition against Muay Thai which was very popular in the early 2000s." Thus the competition requirements look terribly, terribly strict or narrow. So many get filtered out.
Wow. Truly excellent and insightful video. Because of this quarantine I think you're getting really close to a purple belt in UA-cam. Obviously PewDiePie would be the grandmaster coral belt
According to an article in Kung Fu Tai Chi magazine the state of California had given the fight license,the legal ability to hold fights as a spectators sport, exclusively to an mma organization. This action is what brought Cung Li, whom practiced sanda in America, into mma. It's been a long time since I've read the article. I could be wrong.
Hi Ramsey great talk from you I am from England UK and there are classes near where I live and I will go soon I have been now four times and will keep going
I live in Qingdao, and the main Sanda school teaches 90% Muay Thai, and the coach just brags about his world champions that he claimed to have trained. But, when I see the videos they look very amateurish. Not to mention he doesn't seem to be a good coach. I would have loved to train Sanda, but unfortunately, as you said they are hard to find. I ended up sticking with an MMA school because the coaching at least there was good, and the did focus on good form, and sparred.
Hi Ramsey, Just wanted to share as well. If you watch ONE FC, two-time lightweight champion Eduard "the landslide"Folayang is from my country the Philippines is a Sanda Fighter. In fact, their entire team called "TEAM LAKAY" are Sanda Fighters and they train Sanda FIghters in the Philippines. Folayang is quite popular in the Philippines for MMA enthusiasts but you would be surprised that even until now, a lot of people think that he is a "Muay Thai" practitioner. Here, when you mention "Sanda" people will give you a blank face but they actually know what Kickboxing and Muay Thai are. All the best to you and stay safe.
In "The Quest" movie the countries are correctly named by the chronology if I recall correctly. Thailand is named Sian and the Japanese karate guy came from Okinawa, not Japan. The earliest VanDamme's movie 1986 "Bloodsport" had a Muay Thai fighter called Pako starred as Paulo Tocha. This guy was one of the firsts westerns to train MT, he competed in small leagues back in the day.
Hey coach, serious question...is sanda an actual "martial art" with its own philosophy(like karate, muay thai, etc.), or is sanda just the name of a competition with a certain set of rules that any competant martial artist can do?
It’s a martial art but not traditional like Muay Thai is by that I mean it borrows things from other martial arts primarily for Sanda Chinese Kung fu it’s basically like American kickboxing
It’s a sport with a specific rule set. Sanda fighters cross train in boxing, wrestling, Muay Thai, and taekwondo. It has much less to do with Chinese kungfu than people think.
It's a specific rule set and people cross train, but there are certain ways that people throw kicks, etc, a little differently than other forms, plus they use Shuaijiao takedowns... So the answer is yes to both. It's a specific rule set for fighting with cross training, but it also adds its own flavor in certain ways. So it's a yes to both.
Ramsey Dewey I would agree and disagree with that assessment as sanda coaches are generally x Kung fu masters of a certain style and usually teach that style along with sanda(Cung le And Pat Barry’s teacher was a northern shaolin Kung fu monk/master)which is a culmination of the different techniques of traditional Kung fu and infact most traditional Chinese martial arts schools in China use the ruleset of sanda to sparr and even have there fighters compete with sanda fighters infact there is a sanda champ who also practiced Chinese northern long fist.However they do cross train in different martial arts styles from across the world(though I believe the do more traditional stuff) and that’s what makes them better fighters but also remember cross training is the thing everyone’s doing it now judo schools are cross training with BJJ aikido with jujutsu and even the japan Karate association has there practitioners cross train .
The Gracies understood this as well. That’s why Rorion Gracie went to America and to work in Hollywood and also why he helped found the UFC whether you like him or not.
Sanda is very popular in Eastern Europe and ex Soviet Union republics like Kazahstan, Azerbaijan, Dagestan (is a Russian Federation republic) and also Middle Orient countries like Iran, Iraq, Afganistan.
There's a channel named Wushu TV, you can watch the World Championship fights. The most technical Chinese fighters (men and women) are in the 50-70 kg weight classes.
@@danieldunlap4077 it matters because as a christian we are surround ourselves with decent people and have no fellowship with evil. A debate would be ok
Daniel Dunlap Whether or not God exists, Who He is and what kind of God He is, and how to serve Him are the most important questions in the entire world, because they define everything else in relation to themselves, including our purpose. Having an authentic conversation about anything that isn’t pretty basic or peripheral between a very religious person and an atheist will result in contradictory world views and values slamming into eachother. You can’t come to the same conclusions if you have completely different fundamental foundations for your worldview. That’s not to say that a theist and an atheist can’t have a great conversation, Jesus ate and drank with sinners all the time, but if the theist lives his faith well, then they won’t be able to look at much in the same way. This world exists only for the purpose of and in relation to the Heavenly world, and that affects how we see everything in this world.
Hey Ramsey I was wondering if you could tell us the logistics of running a mma gym what you spend your money on the profit margin equipment and what the promotion and everything. Thank you great channel
![Method Writing: The First Four Concepts - Jack Grapes [FULL INTERVIEW]](/img/n.gif)
I had a rough experience fighting a muay thai guy: I had beaten a few other guys up untill that point, it was quite hard but I could handle it. And there he was. Tall, strong, massive, badass. I couldn't land a single hit to save my life. He was like a robot, blocking and dodging even my faster jabs in an outrageous way, landing crazy powerful blows. I got up, again and again and again... and he knocked me down every single time. It felt like being a baby tring to fight an orc. Finally I rage quitted. Street Fighter 1 was horribly programmed.
What were you ‘using’? Western boxing? 😅
I'm not gonna lie, you had me in the first half
@@Yos115 hahahahaha!
If he was tall maybe he was not asian
@@gabrielgabriel5177 It was a joke.
At first I thought it said why isn’t “Santa” as popular as Muay Thai. 😐
Santa could be popular if he practiced Muay Thai
@@Mishkola
Imagine suddenly hearing that muay Thai music in your living room then turning around to see a shirtless santa with full fight gear dropping down your chimney!
@@Mishkola Muay Thai Santa isn't real but can hurt you!
Rotflmao
me too man
Sanda didn't really look different from kickboxing styles for a lot of people (casual people, like me before practicing combat sport)
However, Muay Thai has a very distinctive form, outfit, ritual before a game, and brutality (in Thailand).
It just has better brand recognition.
陳Chris it’s only branded as more brutal though. The Chinese military use Sanda as their unarmed combat. And the Chinese military is as brutal as it gets.
@@tjsho417 Any combat sport can become brutal, it's just the government and referee group in Thailand allows it, for the brand.
Sanda might be brutal in the military, but the Chinese government will never let anything somewhat "brutal" be seen by the public, so we'll never get a chance to see the other side of Sanda and other martial arts in China.
@@tjsho417 another key thing to note, is that Military Sanda is closer to the nasty "dirty" techniques of traditional gongfu, combined with the Sport friendly aspects of Sport Sanda/Sanshou. Wim Demeere has done great articles on this topic. Great martial artist himself.
@@AztecUnshaven i was thinking that sanda could be likened to a practical combat version of the more cultural "traditional" forms of kungfu/kenpo/ whatever its called (sorry if i am ignorant lol) like how tai chi is basically shadow grappling
@@pilot.wav_theory it's kind of a complicated topic, but Kungfu is a general term for hundreds of different martial art styles of Chinese origin. From wrestling, to kicking, hand, elbow strikes, joint locks and everything in between.
Sanda/Sanshou is sort of the Communist Party's "standardized" curriculum of base Gongfu/Kungfu techniques (without all the "dirty" stuff, like fishhooking, groin strikes, eye gouging, spiking the opponent on their head, etc).
I would join a Sanda gym in a heartbeat if one with a good coach opened in my area.
Same for Shuai Jiao.
Where you at?
@@scottbauer71 I'm in SF and I'm in the same boat. Wouldn't you know it, currently a grand total of 0 "MMA" gyms teach MMA classes with sparring... Against all odds, the closest thing to sparring with non-restrictive ruleset right now would be the krav maga gym, which only has about 5 minutes of mma-like sparring per week! Boooo
There's also Judo but it's only Tuesdays and Thursdays and leg grabs are forbidden
(EDIT: dragon house mma is pretty good.)
@@MaxLohMusic closest authentic Shai Jiao I know of, apart from relatives, is 20 miles East of Beijing
@@MaxLohMusic you guys have one bro
@@MaxLohMusic sf is a kungfu hub... U didn't look hard enough lol
It's a highly effective system, but unfortunately it's a bore to watch without a ring, just too many out-of-bounds. And our government hasn't done near enough to promote it within the country, in comparison to e.g. what the Japanese did for Judo and Karate, or Korea for Taekwondo, even when they were not yet Olympic sports. They care about culture, we care more about international medals.
I just went to watch some fights from the Sanda World Cup & thought it was pretty fun
I hate to say this, but Communist clerks dont HAVE culture.
I'm in bangladesh and we unfortunately have a similar problem. Our pen pushers aren't communists but they have no soul. We have traditional martial arts that survived the british colonialism, but cant survive politics.
It seems like they're focused on pushing Shuaijiao. Shuaijiao is seriously picking up steam.
I think the issue is the funding for projects like that in he mainland have a really difficult vetting processes. Selling soft culture to govt officials falls in line with prevailing Chinese ideals. Sanda was really a military sport originally and for a long time it was difficult for the government to come to terms with trying to the make it a amateur sport.
Japan path to popularizing Karate and Judo was much more successful since the early founders of those styles in Mainland Japan were educators and felt that push for physical education would benefit the youth. Chinas education system is a meat grinder that doesnt really put a premium on physical fitness of personal development.
Its a problem everywhere. I wish Catch Wrestling would be more promoted in the US or England as much as jiu Jitsu. Surprisingly its more popular in Japan. Catch has some judo and Jiu jitsu stuff in it but there’s still some old English stuff mixed in it that’s probably being forgotten
My first experience with Muay Thai was the Sagat, from Street Fighter
He was pretty awesome in champion edition!
Tiger knee was so hard to land but it was so satisfying landing both hits
I think with the rise of fighters like Zhang Weili, Li Jingliang, Song Yadong, Zabit Magomedsharipov, Muslim Salikhov and a few others, Sanda/Sanshou will slowly gain prominence. I don't think it will ever be as big as say Muay Thai, but it will get more well known. I personally think Cung Le was one of the great influencers who opened the doors for it.
They need to make.movies to promote sanda
Just like kickboxer and ong bak for muay thai
@@jundean5292 There is one, it's called Xanda and it is pretty good.
@@LINKchris87 i will check it out
yup i got to know of sanda and then later train sanda because of Cung Le and Liu Hailong
The Chinese do a poor job of promoting the sport. It’s more cultural for them
I've been practicing Sanda for about 2 years now and It would be nice if more people could learn about what it is
I’d love to learn it it’s just not anywhere near me same with combat Sambo. If Sanda became more popular it would be as mandatory as Muay Thai and Boxing.
Did a few years of sanda in highschool first martial art I did where we were getting thrown on concrete🤣
In my country (France) I couldn't even compete in sanda because I had no opponent in my weight division, it happend to me at the local tournament and then at the national tournament. And I'm 78 kg (around 170lbs) it's not like I'm in an exotic weight division... But In france Sanda is managed by the Karate federation (I know it's weird), and it's in the shadow of Boxing, Wreslting, Judo and K-1 and soon MMA will be legalised and it will put even more pressure on niche combat sports like sanda. My teacher told me 10 years ago, he had around 30 students in his class, now at the end of the year we are barely a dozen...It's kinda sad.
Cus everyone is learning from the original sources, Muay Thai and BJJ.
Sanshou, is promoted as Kung fu, but people know what Kung fu looks like and how it doesn’t work in real life. People might get interested in Sanshou, the “Chinese” combat sport, but when they actually see Sanshou, they know instantly it’s just sloppy Muay Thai. So why don’t they just learn Muay thai instead? That’s why Sanshou won’t be as popular as Muay Thai and BJJ.
@@iROChakri yeah It’s true. Since then I started training MT and MMA as well.
Sanda could be more popular but it’s badly promoted. I love the Leitai (the platform) on which we fight. It’s like the dragon ball tournament.
Anyway Covid is slowing down everything hard at the moment. No group training or competition since more than a year... T_T
You do Savate (french kickboxing) or Dutch kickboxing ?
@@vonb2792 having moved a lot I did different styles in different gyms. I Sarted with karate full contact, then kick boxing, a little bit of Savate, now Sanda in a Gym and Kick Boxing/MMA with a personal coach. I'm kind of a "Master of none" lol
@@iROChakri this simply is not true, look at Sanda beating MT fighters and MT beating Sanda fighters, it's not the art, but the athelete.
Cung le brought sanda to ufc, but he was older by the time he reached ufc
a3spirit yeah I remember seeing him do some weird throws
Older, but still great
@@skuo118 he was a freestyle wrestler.
@@luongthanh105 I thought I’ve seen The same throw from the San Dao style
@@luongthanh105 he was San da gong fu practitioner and fighter.
A simple way to make sanda more popular is to make it more distinct
1, Change the gloves to a MMA style open hand gloves, this would allow many traditional martial arts techniques to be used
2, standardize the Leitai (stage) and do not use boxing rings, this would emphases on throwing your opponents off of the leitai, Shuaijiao techniques is what makes Sanda distinctive to your average viewers
Also add knees (like in King of Sanda rules), so there's a good counter to leg throws
The guy who fought Rick is Changpuek Kiatsongrit. Actually, he was not the top fighter in Thailand, he was just too big and heavy to find any opponent in the same weight class. So fighting big foreigner was his only choice.
The same way Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is more famous than Catch Wrestling back in the early days of mixed-martial arts
Hopefully we see more Sanda and Shuai Jiao plus others like Karate/Judo/Taekwondo/Sambo I'm tired of the standard Muay thai/BJJ/Greco-Roman Wrestling
Yes But sanda is better then muay thai. The thing is that muay thai is famous because of movies and Sanda is not
@@hungniirulfur920 make a film about Sanshou? Already writing one
@@silferbuu86 seems legit. Make a good one
Hungniir úlfur that’s why Buakaw slaughter all the sandsa kids
Sanda could almost be categorized and practiced as Kickboxing plus momentary takedowns and throws, mostly for winning points. However, Muay Thai is completely a distinctive combat system, deeply rooted in several aspects of south Asian history, politics, mythology and Theravada Buddhism. As a Kyokushin Karate fighter and instructor, I experienced years of sparring and exchanged so many technical concepts with my Sanda and Muay Thai friends. Both are amazing fighting arts. Sanda has another brutal self-defense side, extensively practiced in Chinese military but Muay Thai brings also a lifestyle and in terms of moral values and real-life practicality, is closer to the Japanese concept of Martial Way which is called Budo.
Muay Thai vs. Kickboxing: "The Legendary Fight That Changed History"
^ It's up on Lawrence Kenshin's channel.
which is why we have k1 now, which is far superior to the older kickboxing
Or they can watch the full match.
pooooo !!
You dont know shit
@@ezassegai4793 which is superior? muay thai or k1 kickboxing?
I picked up sanda when I was in my 20s in a mid-sized city in central Europe. It was the time where K1 was a big sport as is UFC today. I was so lucky that we had this martial art that was eye-opening on how fighting works. In my opinion, it's a great martial art to pick up as you have a bit of everything.
Hey I have a question about Sanda. Are you guys trained to kick with your foot like in traditional martial arts or with the shins like in Muay Thai or both? I ask because the only difference that is talk about on the internet is about the takedowns and throws.
@@gersonencarnacion3744 no we kick like kickboxing of course
@@ultraghost3870 So with the shin right?
@@gersonencarnacion3744 It was a long time ago, but we were thought to kick with the lower part of your shin. Kicking with the foot may cause it to break.
Ramsay: "[Curling] is an obscure weird sport"
Half of Canada: *gets offended*
Martial arts still aren't understood or known as much as they should be by the average person. At least in the US, most people think that martial arts are some magical fake fighting system. When Martial arts, no matter the type, just teach you how to efficiently teach you about leverage and how to apply strength. In general, I wish all martial arts where more well known and practiced
I've trained in Shenyang city's Xidong Taiquan gym. It was an amazing and very hard training. They had intra-gym tournaments with really brutal knockouts. When I asked about Sanda as compared to Thai Boxing, I was told: "Forget about Sanda. Muay Thai is the real deal." So I continued to train Muay Thai and forgot about Sanda. But Sanda actually has some very developed sweeps and dumps, which I love and admire! It's a cool system.
you went to a MT gym, of course they are going to say that
Sanda is a great gateway to MMA. I would argue it prepares you better for MMA grappling, you learn how to do your grappling while Someone it trying to knock you out.
Cung Li is another good fighter that used Sanda(formerly known as Sanshou according to a quick search that I did). I use to love watching his fights. Many fighters back in those days weren't used to his unorthodox kicks from what I saw. He had a respectable MMA career.
This reminds me a lot of the Philippines' National Sport, *"Arnis"*
and how its not as popular to Filipinos compared to other Sports such as Basketball,
there are probably even more Filipino Boxers or Taekwondo practitioners than there are Arnisadors out there.
Arnis is also one of those Sports when you look at it from an outside perspective and you're just like, _"They look like kids just quickly bashing each other with sticks!"_
Which I completely understand.
The ruleset in relation to the protective gears used still have much to be improved on.
I just wish more of my fellow Filipinos take more interest in our own Sport.
There’s like a good number of Boxing or TKD gyms in every city. Arnis schools are harder to find
And many Arnis schools and teachers internationally are more interested in teaching the flowy, almost performance art side of Arnis than the nitty gritty combat side of it.
Danny Guba Doce Pares student here.
A fellow Filipino here, too. I can relate too to the hypocrisy of fellow Filipinos who only focus on the "main sports" of the Philippines (basketball,volleyball, boxing, taekwondo), especially in Olympic championships. But when weightlifters, MMA athletes, arnis practicioners start taking the spotlight, this fellow Filipinos starts to get into the bandwagon hype, especially in the SEA games.
This is also the main reason why grappling arts in martial arts gym are merely absent because of the fame of boxing and taekwondo here in the Philippines (thanks to Manny Pacquiao and other Pinoy boxers, Japoy Lizardo and other taekwondo athletes), and Filipinos have this romanticized idea of stand-up striking arts are "masculine" and ground-game is "homosexual". Luckily, there are still some MMA gyms near my area so I can atleast train Jiu-Jitsu once this quarantine has passed.
@@glennnolasco2475 it's a wakeup call when Filipino fighters in ONE Championship go up against western fighters with a background in BJJ and wrestling and get dominated on the ground. "Grappling is homosexual" sounds like insecure posturing to cover up for the fear of getting of dominated on the ground and fair enough, because there is no emasculating feeling like getting choked out on the ground. It's like drowning underwater.
@@DPham1 The ideology of "grappling is homosexual" is the reason why jiu-jitsu/wrestling/Judo/Sambo gyms exists very little here in the Philippines. It sucks
IMO Sanda could be a better fit for MMA than Muay Thai. Simply because it already has throws and takedowns integrated into the art. While in MT you only have sweeps and you have to manage to make it work for MMA, which can be tricky. With Sanda, you just have to add a bit of BJJ ground game and submissions and you have a very decent MMA fighter.
There used to be a Sanda community in the states. It mainly fell apart due to politics, in-fighting, and troubles hosting events rather than lack of interest. Some big names associated with it: Cung Le, Pat Barry, Asa Ten Pow, KJ Noons, Mike Altman, Scott Sheeley, David Ross, and Rudi Ott. If you don't recognize some of these names, you may recognize some of the fighters they've coached.
@Ramsey Dewey - you've got a serious troll issue in the comments of this one. Sanda haters out in full force.
Sanda is very popular around the first week of December typically.
I learned about Muay Thai from Street Fighter character Sagat and from a guy who actually trained in that MA. Saw my very first Muay Thai fight because of my friends friend who practiced. I was shocked to see how violent it was but I had a lot of respect for it.
I love your show Ramsey. When I first started watching ONE FC they allowed kicks and knees to the head of a downed opponent. This is when I became more interested in Sanda. In order to use that very effective technique you have to take someone down while staying on your feet. This could really be a useful skill set for self-defense situations when you want to take someone down and run away or give them a good soccer kick before they get up. Sanda doesn’t teach kicking a downed opponent or running away but there is advantage to staying on your feet while your opponent is down.
I just want to add my support for curling here.
Curling is a fantastic sport, great fun, interesting to watch, dramatic, and unlikely to hurt you lol.
Unlikely to hurt…except in the wallet!
I box and wrestle, I would love to learn sanda , looks cool but its hard to find a school/gym close, nevertheless a legit school.
“Woah let’s go to Evolve MMA” reminded me that ONE and Evolve are owned by the same guy
Yep
ramsay can you please do a video showing the exact part that you make contact in a hook kick/ spin hook kick landing with the heel @RamseyDewey
nobody has done a good video about this it would really help
@@RamseyDewey
What was really interesting (perhaps unconsciously) back in the 90s was that kicks to the thigh were so greatly associated with a martial art from country where its name and national sport literally had the word "thigh" phonetically spelled in them. "Thigh boxing!"
I love training Sanda, I just think it's too limited by rules.
Military Sanda is what I'd prefer to train if it was an option.
I agree!
"We need a fighter who can just throw guys and walk away every time" I feel like in his prime and if he'd brushed up on his ground work Liu Hailong would've been perfect for this
First heard about many Thai in my early working life (1970s) from vets coming back from southeast Asia.
Bit late to the party I know, but I have practiced sanda since I was a kid and always thought I was learning kung-fu. I never realised until my teacher told me it was actually sanda mixed with muay-tai and other arts he had picked up throughout his life.
Fun fact: The brother in Kickboxer was undisputed Heavyweight champion Dennis Alexio.
Love the content, keep up man!
Dennis Alexio played the older brother in Kickboxer. He was a legit kickboxer. Off the top of my head he was Heavyweight Kickboxing Champion at one point.
Love your energy. So calm and soothing.
Tony Jaa had a huge influence with his Ong Bak series. So much so that fight actors like max zing incorporate his moves into their fight choreo.
Like my Sensei used to day: "You do your Sanda, I'll drive my Panda."
Ramsey, I'd love for you to make more videos about Sanda. Its a niche for your channel that would get a lot of interest IMO. And, would give us the exposure needed to get more people interested. Sanda is proven effective in the UFC, is very highlight reel friendly and gives a unique set of advantages to a stand up fighter. Show it off for us and give this art the recognition it has earned!
Without people like yourself, creating videos like this, our community will remain small and stiffle the potential of our art.
I feel the answer to this videos subject, is the video itself.
Having been born and grown up in SE Asia (Cambodia) I'd known Muay Thai since a very young age. But I've only heard of Sanda about four years ago by seeing Cung Le on UA-cam. I was instantly impressed - it was like watching MT with throwing allowed. As I learned more about Sanda I also wonder Why hadn't I heard of Sanda before? I was also surprised it was quite popular in the Philippines.
I trained Sanda in east London for 4 years with a chinese monk!! loved it!
And how about the result?
Thank you so much for this video Sifu! I love Sanda and wish it would be more popular in North America!
Also, stay safe Sifu! We’re here on COVID lockdown and going through what you guys have been going through in China for the past two months! I miss my gym and all my martial arts classes. I’m suffered workout withdrawals lol! :(
Three months
Ramsey - your insights are so amazing and unique!
Coach, could you make a video about how to do the Dempsey roll and use it in MMA? Is it even useful in MMA ?
I practiced a bit in my twenties while I was practicing Wu Shu and Tai ji. I had a lot of fun. There are some amateurish tournaments every now and then, with limited contacts, protections and KO's are banned. I guess that way it will never become the next big thing.
Sanda may not be so popular in 'Murica, but here in Romania it's the most popular full contact martial art since the 90s. The main problem is that Sanda tournaments are organized as regular sports events, so like all other mainstream sports they're tagged as "amateur" fighting, rewarded just with medals and token prizes, as opposed to "professional" fighting like K1 or UFC where people basically fight for money. I'm not convinced that these "professional" fights are objectively better than sports events of the same type, but because they involve a lot more money they're much better promoted and covered in the mass media, hence getting ever more popular.
Here in Romania most "professional" fighters are former Sanda champions who got some mixed training after dropping off the competition ladder. Even people mostly known as "kickboxers" or K1 champions like Ciprian Sora or Catalin Zmarandescu are actually ex-Sanda fighters (kickboxing wasn't even practiced around here until the late 2000s), both of them won a couple of European Sanda tournaments before getting into the money fights.
So, in my opinion, the only way Sanda can get as popular as K1 or UFC is to make a dedicated "professional" event for it, with licensing, tickets, betting, media coverage and all other aspects that make this a business rather than a regular sport. But there are a lot of coaches and practitioners who resent turning a regular sport into a money grabbing fest, justifiably so i.m.o.
As someone who trains Muay Thai, I'm not fully aware of Sanda rules: all I know is that punches and kicks are allowed, to the body and to the head/face at least. As someone who trains or knows about Sanda(you), are leg kicks legal in that sport? Also are knee strikes legal and used? From the Sanda matches Ive watched I see A BUNCH of push kicks and side kicks, and spinning kicks sometimes; and roundhouses too but used FAR LESS than we use them in Muay Thai(we use mostly roundhouse and teeps in muay thai, as all know; far from the only types of kicks we use though).
Cause I wonder if many of the tactics in Muay thai would work just as well in a Sanda competition. I'd compete if I knew my skills in muay thai would transfer over, and it appears they very well might.
@@chucknorris202 First please understand that it's been about 20 years since I last competed in Sanda, so some rules might have changed in the mean time. Nowadays most of my contact with the sport is through my profession, I'm a radiologist and some of the guys I trained with back then are now coaches who call me to examine their injured fighters.
So, back in my days the basic rules of leg kicking were: no knee strikes (as in not using your knee to kick with, otherwise you're free to target the opponents knees with foot kicks if you want), no purposely aimed kicks to the neck or the groin and no kicking an already downed opponent (on the ground). That's it, you were free to try anything else. Oh, and unlike Muay Thai, you can't grab, hold and kick, you're only allowed to grab swiftly for throwing.
In my experience Muay Thai fighters are quite a match for Sanda fighters (at comparable skill levels). Switching over from one to the other shouldn't take more than a couple of months, it's more about changing habits and combinations rather than radically different techniques (there are some of those too, but you catch up quickly if you're already trained in a similar art).
@@chucknorris202 The basics transfer over, and yes leg kicks are legal, but you need to realize Sanda scores by point, not by damage, so a sidekick or a push kick score as much as a roundhouse despite doing less damage. Also, if a kick is caught and then the kicker is thrown, it does not score even if it DOES damage. So you'll need to adjust your mt kicks for speed and make sure it doesn't get caught, or it will be like Kaoklai vs Hussein Ojhagi (watch that fight) where the former gets his kicks caught and dumped over and over.
It's so boring, as a Sanda fighter, here in Italy, I never find any serious Sanda competion at all and I have to compete in KickBoxing. After 6 years I've done just 3 sanda amateurs fights and a lot more in Kickboxing. That makes me really wanna go into MMA.
Da noi in tanti si buttano su karate e lotta greco romana. Io sono di Roma, e non ho mai visto una palestra dove facciano sanda.
@@CanaleAV Si il karate va forte, ma possibile che nessuno fa Sanda a Roma? Dovrebbe esserci la palestra di Shaolin del maestro Shi Yan Hui, alcune palestre di shaolin fanno anche sanda... come noi ad esempio
@@Killzoatheranimator di sicuro qualcuno ci sarà, è che non ne ho incontrati io. :)
The same happens in Argentina....many of the most important Sanda fighters move on to other sports like Kick boxing or Jiu Jitsu, MMA, etc. These sports have many more competitors and much more recognition. Sad...
Io invece faccio Muay Thai. Adesso a casa alleno sempre thai e ho iniziato a fare anche Nippon kempo. Ma Sanda mi interessa. Sembra uno stile più completo rispetto alla muay thai. Confermate?
Cung Lee
Is probably the most famous recent Sanda fighter who made it work in MMA on the strikeforce promotion might be wrong on that but was the same show Fedor was on. Personally always loved Sanda kickboxing and combat sambo
Hi Ramsey, I like your videos. I have some questions about MMA.
1) How is the grade system in MMA?
[Many traditional martial arts use the color belt system that it was popularized from Judo. What is the equivalent in MMA?]
2) Is there a MMA standardized program, syllabus or curriculum?
3) If not, are there different "schools"?
4) If there are different schools, how many?
5) How is the process to create a new MMA school? Do you need to register a new MMA school in a world MMA organization? Do you need to register its study program?
6) Are there technical differences between MMA schools? Are there unique techniques in MMA schools that differentiate one school from another?
I have these doubts because everyone use the term MMA like a standardized and unified system of combat. However, I think it would be difficult standardized and unified so many fighting techniques and principles in one discipline. Probably, that was the dream of many combat masters in the past. I think that MMA could be similar to traditional martial arts, where it is possible to find different schools with different techniques and different organizations.
Kung Lee was a really great example of Sanda, that’s how I found out about it. I bet if enough people watched his fights and encouraged him to train them, we’d see a huge resurgence. I see huge potential in that style and would rather learn it than Muay Thai.
CUNG LE replied San shou.
Liu Hailong had some amazing fights with Thais. His footwork and distancing was just... Insane.
sanda is popular in the phillipines
ONE fighters like the Team Lakay and Catalan are Wushu - Sanda fighters. Catalan even thought it in China. Weird, a Filipino teaching the Chinese their national sport similar to a foreign guy teaching us Arnis.
not really.. but Ph has prominent schools brought by Team Lakay and Catalan. They are relatively known by MMA enthusiasts
Isn't it called Yaw Yan in the Philippines?
I think I learned of muay thai from tony jaa movies: ongbak and the protector. Ii probably heard of it before then but didn't know anything about it. The movies show what these styles are like. Also video games like tekken and mortal kombat and street fighter. These games had fighters from almost all popular styles. That's how I learned of capoeira, and mantis kungfu I believe. Was from games.
Sanda is the ideal sport for self defense in subway platforms
Wu Ling Fan tried to make Sanda popular although, I think over the years, they tried to spread Sanda to thin, between trying to get it into the olympics and trying to make it as big as K1, then ditching it becasue K1 became international, especially back in the 90s.
Im not surprised anymore when I met chinese people that don't know what Sanda is, then again, being italian, they flip when they realize I don't play or follow football like 99.9% of the rest of italians that do, it's funny how people assume you do or don't do something based on your nationality.
Btw I love Sanda, it is the most fun I had competing next to K1, I think it is a bit more popular in middle eastern countries and russia, I guess because they are closer to China.
What Sanda needs is an ambassador like Jean Claude Van Damme! 😅
I think the two biggest things is the fact that muay thai burst into the striking scene in the late 80s and became integrated into the world wide modern combat sports scene(cu of K1), so thats a huge marketing advantage. Two , muay thai is a huge part of the thai identity, sanda like ramsey said only has 10,000 in ppl in china competing in it. So two huge advantages.
It would be awesome if sanda was as well known as muay thai... Same with kudo... Kudo should br more popular
And shoot boxing! How didninforget about shoot boxing
I love watching Kudo videos, but ground-fighting is rudimentary, when compared to MMA.
The head gear for kudo cost a couple hundred dollars though.
Kudo is really unknown! Just a few years ago I saw it the frist time. I really like it. Very fast and exciting fights.
@@daniel-zh9nj6yn6y its still more than boxing, muaythai, kickboxing, sumo, kyokushin and sanda... And those are good martial arts and combat sports, even with the lack of ground game... So, in the end, kudos groundgame is just a plus on a very interesting martial art
Takes heart to actually support(with such enthusiasm) the guy that technically cheated (no Matter how you justify it, he knew what was up and what the use for the tape was, as did you, but he proceeded to load his wraps anyway) and ended your career as a pro fighter because he fought with loaded wraps and you didn't... You are a genuinely good man Ramsey, with a kind, forgiving heart, and although i respect everything you say and do, if i were in your shoes i might not have been as supportive of someone like him. May you get whatever you desire in life, and may you keep spreading your knowledge and wisdom amongst us for a long time to come
Brother Ramsey! Haha randomly came across your video on UA-cam , was searching Sanda, hahahh. It’s Shipeng,attended Shanghai Branch from 2017-2018
China is farther than Thailand to the US
duh. Just kidding, gotta watch the video 😉
Since Changpuek Kiatsongrit (The legendary thai who basically showed the world the effectiveness of muay thai), that is the start of it's shining glory. Kiatsongrit fought in the US and Japan where kickboxing is very popular.
Sanda didn't have that kind of publicity which is why it's not as popular.
I haven't heard of Sanda until I found your channel
My first exposure to Muay Thai was Streetfighters. It's partly how I got into martial arts
Ramsey Dewey: The Man, The Myth...The Voice. Truly, he has one of the most listen able larynxes on the UA-cams. I could listen to him read e-numbers off a sweets packet...
Bruce Lee would love the internet, he wanted people to be able to honestly express themselves. No not everyone's honest online, but it sure gives you the opportunity. (He'd especially love the wealth of information on the combat arts as he only had books)
love your channel man
There's another element to it: China does not develop sport San Da for export. It's mostly there to retain some of the combative parts to the overall "kung fu" brand, and for internal competition between the various sports academies as part of the national athletics institutions, with some smaller promotions for a domestic audience, but as far as international outreach goes, the PRC prefers wushu and tai chi for that.
One day, maybe, the Wushu Association might make it a priority, but I think at this point, it won't be as successful as muay thai simply because the environment has evolved past singular styles.
There are sanda fighters in the Ufc..Zabit Magomedsharipov.. he was one of the best
What?
@@RamseyDeweyalso Zang weili
I started training with Muay Thai with Master Toddy in the late 70s ( I was also training in Traditional Savate, Boxing, and Judo), and this was around the time everyone seemed to be doing karate and judo, and karate and judo and kung fu was all anyone knew here in the UK at that time about martial arts. You are right though, I do think JCVD helped promote it with flicks like No Retreat No Surrender and Kickboxer.
Hi Ramsey. PokemonGO player here. We, as a population, may not know how to fight a lick but I am 100% certain that we have the sheer, overwhelming numbers in a straight up brawl.
what do you think of niko style?
YES
Aaaaw a man of culture I see
You can actually make an Irl replica of the Niko Style (alltough it won't be as cool in irl as it is in Kengan)
Adamantine Kata: Kyukushin Karate/Muay Thai
Flame Kata: Boxing (because of footwork)
Redirection Kata: Judo (i know Redirection Kata is more like Aikido but Aikido doesn't work in irl so Judo is the closest thing to it that does work)
Water Kata: BJJ/Wrestling
If you trained all of this you could practically recreate the Niko Style irl and be unstoppable in MMA
Actually, I have been living in Henan for the last 5 years and it's quite popular. I was teaching at the University and training sanda. All my students knew about this sport. And there were plenty of sanda training schools in Nanyang city. My shifu had more than 2000 students. So, I think that your information about only 10000 people practice sanda is totally wrong.
Practice ≠ compete
@@RamseyDewey That would mean the competitive scene is way smaller but not because of a lack of practitioners. Sounds like they need more competitions or events.
@@RamseyDewey Also, according to a Quora answer,
"Every year there are tens of thousands of students like him graduating from the Wushu schools. And only a tiny number of them could be selected and competing in the institutional Sanda championship (city, province), and only a tiny number of them would get into the national team of Sanda, and based on the year Xu graduated, only a tiny number of the province and city Sanda teams could get to fight in the Sanda King (Professional Sanda) and only a tiny number of them could be selected to fight in the China-Thai competition against Muay Thai which was very popular in the early 2000s."
Thus the competition requirements look terribly, terribly strict or narrow. So many get filtered out.
Wow. Truly excellent and insightful video. Because of this quarantine I think you're getting really close to a purple belt in UA-cam. Obviously PewDiePie would be the grandmaster coral belt
According to an article in Kung Fu Tai Chi magazine the state of California had given the fight license,the legal ability to hold fights as a spectators sport, exclusively to an mma organization. This action is what brought Cung Li, whom practiced sanda in America, into mma. It's been a long time since I've read the article. I could be wrong.
I've only heard of Sanda about about a year ago and I've trained MMA muay thia karate 15years combined
Sanda & Sanshou is a recent sport made in late 1970s by the PLA.
Hi Ramsey great talk from you I am from England UK and there are classes near where I live and I will go soon I have been now four times and will keep going
I got a desire for taekwondo but I like a foundation to be able to fight and later taekwondo for kicks
I live in Qingdao, and the main Sanda school teaches 90% Muay Thai, and the coach just brags about his world champions that he claimed to have trained. But, when I see the videos they look very amateurish. Not to mention he doesn't seem to be a good coach. I would have loved to train Sanda, but unfortunately, as you said they are hard to find. I ended up sticking with an MMA school because the coaching at least there was good, and the did focus on good form, and sparred.
How about Van Damme using Sanda in an action movie about Curling . Uffda .I'd see that one
If it is an effective martial art then only time will bring it popularity
Hi Ramsey,
Just wanted to share as well. If you watch ONE FC, two-time lightweight champion Eduard "the landslide"Folayang is from my country the Philippines is a Sanda Fighter. In fact, their entire team called "TEAM LAKAY" are Sanda Fighters and they train Sanda FIghters in the Philippines. Folayang is quite popular in the Philippines for MMA enthusiasts but you would be surprised that even until now, a lot of people think that he is a "Muay Thai" practitioner.
Here, when you mention "Sanda" people will give you a blank face but they actually know what Kickboxing and Muay Thai are.
All the best to you and stay safe.
Yep. I met Eduard at an MMA event we were both fighting for in Singapore once. I was on the undercard, he was the main event. He’s a good guy.
"He had a fight with this Thai fighter and kinda got his butt kicked." Probably should have brought an X-Wing
Man this answer is an entire video. Dang I thought I was on my second Ramsey video of the day.
In "The Quest" movie the countries are correctly named by the chronology if I recall correctly. Thailand is named Sian and the Japanese karate guy came from Okinawa, not Japan.
The earliest VanDamme's movie 1986 "Bloodsport" had a Muay Thai fighter called Pako starred as Paulo Tocha. This guy was one of the firsts westerns to train MT, he competed in small leagues back in the day.
Paco. I mimicked his style when I started thaiboxing and still to day. 😂
Hey coach, serious question...is sanda an actual "martial art" with its own philosophy(like karate, muay thai, etc.), or is sanda just the name of a competition with a certain set of rules that any competant martial artist can do?
It’s a martial art but not traditional like Muay Thai is by that I mean it borrows things from other martial arts primarily for Sanda Chinese Kung fu it’s basically like American kickboxing
It’s a sport with a specific rule set. Sanda fighters cross train in boxing, wrestling, Muay Thai, and taekwondo. It has much less to do with Chinese kungfu than people think.
It's a specific rule set and people cross train, but there are certain ways that people throw kicks, etc, a little differently than other forms, plus they use Shuaijiao takedowns...
So the answer is yes to both. It's a specific rule set for fighting with cross training, but it also adds its own flavor in certain ways. So it's a yes to both.
@@RamseyDewey thanks coach and all other folks that replied. I understand more now.
Ramsey Dewey I would agree and disagree with that assessment as sanda coaches are generally x Kung fu masters of a certain style and usually teach that style along with sanda(Cung le And Pat Barry’s teacher was a northern shaolin Kung fu monk/master)which is a culmination of the different techniques of traditional Kung fu and infact most traditional Chinese martial arts schools in China use the ruleset of sanda to sparr and even have there fighters compete with sanda fighters infact there is a sanda champ who also practiced Chinese northern long fist.However they do cross train in different martial arts styles from across the world(though I believe the do more traditional stuff) and that’s what makes them better fighters but also remember cross training is the thing everyone’s doing it now judo schools are cross training with BJJ aikido with jujutsu and even the japan Karate association has there practitioners cross train .
It makes me wonder what would have happened if they had lethwei in those older movies instead of muythai. Maybe headbutts would stikk be in the UFC
Maybe, but the New Jersey state athletic commission still banned 12 to 6 elbows from the UFC which are fair game in Muay Thai.
@@RamseyDewey Well I mean you have to ban that, havent you seen those Karate guys break stacks of concrete with that technique. Its too deadly
Obviously. Fighters would just explode on impact with those deadly brick breaking elbows.
@@RamseyDewey why they're at it ban punches too. I watched one punch man and punches can disintegrate people.
The Gracies understood this as well. That’s why Rorion Gracie went to America and to work in Hollywood and also why he helped found the UFC whether you like him or not.
McDonald was the same story! Hollywood people launching a fast-food chain. Anyway, the gracies promotion paid off
"The floor is not lava my friends"
-Ramsey Dewey 2020
I started watching Sanda recently, coolest thing ever. As a guy with little to no martial arts training, it's hard to tell it apart from Kickboxing.
I started JKD 'cause of Bruce Lee, and MMA cause of you, and I still love both.
Sanda is very popular in Eastern Europe and ex Soviet Union republics like Kazahstan, Azerbaijan, Dagestan (is a Russian Federation republic) and also Middle Orient countries like Iran, Iraq, Afganistan.
Yes, but brother why is it so?
Don't really know much about Sanda. I'd be interested in learning more about it though. Do you know of any Sanda youtubers?
There's a channel named Wushu TV, you can watch the World Championship fights. The most technical Chinese fighters (men and women) are in the 50-70 kg weight classes.
Hi! Chek out my channel, I have some Sanda videos that you will enjoy.
Kickvoxer 2 vs Bryan is brutal AFwith the scariest soundtrack. So underrated
Very interesting!
Bruce Lee would start a UA-cam channel which features his daily warm-up, 7 days a week, live.
When are you gonna have Joe Rogan on your show?
why would a christian want a foul mouthed cussing antitheist on his show?
@@ezassegai4793 I agree, I don't know if Rogan could really understand Ramsey.
@@ezassegai4793 why does fact that he's an atheist matter when you're doing a discussion in this realm?
@@danieldunlap4077 it matters because as a christian we are surround ourselves with decent people and have no fellowship with evil. A debate would be ok
Daniel Dunlap Whether or not God exists, Who He is and what kind of God He is, and how to serve Him are the most important questions in the entire world, because they define everything else in relation to themselves, including our purpose. Having an authentic conversation about anything that isn’t pretty basic or peripheral between a very religious person and an atheist will result in contradictory world views and values slamming into eachother. You can’t come to the same conclusions if you have completely different fundamental foundations for your worldview. That’s not to say that a theist and an atheist can’t have a great conversation, Jesus ate and drank with sinners all the time, but if the theist lives his faith well, then they won’t be able to look at much in the same way. This world exists only for the purpose of and in relation to the Heavenly world, and that affects how we see everything in this world.
Hey Ramsey I was wondering if you could tell us the logistics of running a mma gym what you spend your money on the profit margin equipment and what the promotion and everything. Thank you great channel
Back in the 80s when we here in the USA did PKA kickboxing--a champion went over to Thailand and got CREAMED. That started real interest in MT.