San Soo and five families

[SIFU RON]

Your questions ( which date back to 10/25/2010 ) are old news to us here on the forum.

I have a question for you Grasshopper 101

who are you ?

what is your contact information other than this froum ?

thank you

Ron Shewmaker

[Grasshopper101]

Your questions ( which date back to 10/25/2010 ) are old news to us here on the forum.

I have a question for you Grasshopper 101

who are you ?

what is your contact information other than this froum ?

thank you

Ron Shewmaker

I'm sorry if this is old news to all you guys, but I just wanted to know. I appreciate any and all information you all can pass on, and obviously I need to become more adept at using the search feature.

[JamesC]

I'm sorry if this is old news to all you guys, but I just wanted to know. I appreciate any and all information you all can pass on, and obviously I need to become more adept at using the search feature.

Your biggest hurdle is probably the spellings. There are numerous ways to spell the pronunciation of the same words.

Refer to my previous post for more info.

[JamesC]

Your questions ( which date back to 10/25/2010 ) are old news to us here on the forum.

I have a question for you Grasshopper 101

who are you ?

what is your contact information other than this froum ?

thank you

Ron Shewmaker

He's allowed to ask.

Here's a link on Chin Woo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chin_Wo...ic_Association

Here's one on the Central Guoshu Institute: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Guoshu_Institute

That's wikipedia, so take it with a grain of salt, but it should at least get you started and help you with finding more info if you so desire.

[Grasshopper101]

He's allowed to ask.

Here's a link on Chin Woo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chin_Wo...ic_Association

Here's one on the Central Guoshu Institute: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Guoshu_Institute

That's wikipedia, so take it with a grain of salt, but it should at least get you started and help you with finding more info if you so desire.

Thanks for the info! I see why I didn't find it - goushou vs guoshu

[Grasshopper101]

Ok, more digging turned up more info, and I've pretty much distilled my findings into a few points:

* Jimmy Woo and Ark Wong's "five families" are one and the same.

* Jimmy and Ark may have actually been related - cousins

* Jimmy had probably around 6-14 years of formal kung fu training (some in Choy Li Fut), but was a poor student and discarded those elements he didn't find useful for actual fighting, namely forms. He also learned some other style(s) related to the Chin family.

* Jimmy was a well known troublemaker and brawler, and was only interested in teaching what he felt really worked in real fights, and arranged his style accordingly when he named it San Soo.

* Later, when his American students craved a more "Chinese" connection and a "complete art," he went to his buddy/relative Ark Wong and picked up empty hand and weapons forms and added it to what he already knew from his early years. That would also explain why the San Soo weapons forms are clumsy, and hand forms can be done with both a weapon or empty handed. That doesn't really make sense, and while that can work with small weapons such as knives or sticks, looks nothing like most weapons sets from any other kung fu style. I should point out that this theory is completely mine alone, and I haven't seen anybody else suggest it directly, but I'm going to take the leap and wait for the smackdown.

My conclusion is Jimmy's San Soo is based 100% on CMA he learned in China, and was a great fighter in his own right, and essentially did with Kung-Fu what Bruce Lee tried to do later - distill down what actually works in a real fight to defend your life.

I have a question, though: Ark wong taught Five element fist and Hop Gar Lama in addition to his Five Family and Five Animals styles. Where did he pick those up, and after watching Hop Gar Lama on YouTube, doesn't some of the movements look kind of like what Jimmy Woo was doing in early San Soo videos? Just a little?

[lkfmdc]

It's funny, the ONLY people I have ever heard make claim that Ark Wong did Hop gar are the SAN SOO PEOPLE

No offense to Ark Wong (who is respected) but no one in the Lion's Roar/Lama/Pak HOk/Hop Ga community has ever heard of him doing our tradition

Might I add, there has NEVER been a single SHRED of evidence that Jimmy Woo ever trained under Chan Siu Hung

[Mulong]

David the same goes for Wong Shifu relationship with huhng kyuhn, but if you look closely he immigrated to the states in the 1920’s, making unlikely he practiced Wong Fei Hung version of Huhng Fist or Lama.

[lkfmdc]

David the same goes for Wong Shifu relationship with huhng kyuhn, but if you look closely he immigrated to the states in the 1920’s, making unlikely he practiced Wong Fei Hung version of Huhng Fist or Lama.

But he could have EASILY done any other version of hung fist

[Grasshopper101]

It's funny, the ONLY people I have ever heard make claim that Ark Wong did Hop gar are the SAN SOO PEOPLE

No offense to Ark Wong (who is respected) but no one in the Lion's Roar/Lama/Pak HOk/Hop Ga community has ever heard of him doing our tradition

Might I add, there has NEVER been a single SHRED of evidence that Jimmy Woo ever trained under Chan Siu Hung

I got the Lion's Roar/Lama/Pak Hok/Hop Ga info off Ark Yuey Wong's wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ark_Yuey_Wong

Just to appease the tin foil hat alliance, I did not edit that wikipedia page!

[lkfmdc]

I got the Lion's Roar/Lama/Pak Hok/Hop Ga info off Ark Yuey Wong's wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ark_Yuey_Wong

shirley, you must be joking