Lkfmdc, great information. Does San Da have
an amatuer division or is San Da only for professionals who have experience in San Shou and Muy Thai? When training people at your gym do you seperate the San Da training from the San Shou training or is it intergrated?
In a San Da format (ie with the knees and elbows) you still have the same clinching methods that we have in the current san shou format. These are 1) arm and waist 2) front body lock and 3) arm and neck
The difference is that one must be prepared to defend against knees when doing these clinches. One may also learn to throw knees from these clinches.
For San Da fighters who like to knee, there is a version of the double neck hold (plum). The difference is that the hips are held back more to prevent shooting against the hold.
The mixture of the skills is not as hard as it seems. When doing it a while it becomes instinctive to adjust as the other fighter adjusts their attack, ie defend throws when they are attempting to throw, defend knees when they attempt to knee.
The combination also sets up combinations that don't exist in the other formats, ie stranding grappling tactics set up knees very well. cross face, shuck, etc all set up nice knees.
Knees also set up throws. Throw a knee, then step down and across into a head and arm throw, very illegal in Muay Thai, but cool technique none the less :)
currently, only professionals seem to be doing this sort of format but I'd like to start doing amateur fights with a similar format but more gear...
We like to train our people in everything, and prepare for specific matches as they pop up (like now half our team is doing Thai, half is doign san shou in prep for major events coming up)