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Kung Fu San Soo (功夫散手) is a martial art based on techniques from all over China, both Northern and Southern Chinese martial arts systems, acoording to Grandmaster Woo in a 1970s interview. The 5 Family Fist (五家拳), practiced in the Taishan region of the Guangdong province. Kung Fu San Soo has many traditional forms and isometric exercises in its training regimen. Typically, the 5 Family Fist style is taught along with a set of animal styles. Chin Siu Dek (Jimmy H. Woo), the man responsible for bringing Kung Fu San Soo to America, did not believe in the animal styles and hence taught only the 5 family styles (蔡李何佛雄). His words were, "We fight like men, not animals." The name "Kung Fu San Soo" itself was chosen by Woo to simplify the pronunciation and meaning for American students, rather than using the complete names of the 5 families. In many other styles, there are sparring components which are referred to as San Soo or San Shou(散手). They are the same words in Chinese, but their context is different, meaning only sparring, and are not representative of an entire style as in Kung Fu San Soo. Kung Fu San Soo was designed for military combat. The techniques are designed for the immediate disabling of an attacker. Consequently, there are no competitions or tournaments for San Soo Kung Fu.
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Kung Fu San Soo was brought to America by a Chin Family practitoner, Chin Siu Dek, Chan Siu Duk, or Chen Shou Jue (陳壽爵, Chen2 Shou4 Jue2), depending on the dialect. Entering the United States under the Chinese Exclusion Act, and leaving China on the eve of the Japanese Occupation, Chin Siu Dek took the name, "Jimmy Haw Woo" as a lifetime pseudonym. Most believe he was born around 1905–10. He died in Southern California in February 1991, and is credited with bringing the Five Family Style (五家拳) of Tsoi Li Ho Fut Hung (蔡李何佛雄), or San Soo Kung Fu to America after learning primarily from his Great-Uncle, Chan Siu Hung, at the Hung Sing Goon school in Taishan, China Guangdong Province. Kung Fu San Soo tradition holds that Chin Siu Dek lived and grew up just across the river from this school in the village of Sanba. Sadly, this school was later destroyed by the communists in the cultural revolution. Also, one of his classmates was Chan Siu Hung's own son, Chan Sai Mo (Chen Shi Wu [Mand]). As Jimmy H. Woo, Chin Siu Dek opened his own studio in El Monte, California to teach his family art in about 1959.[1]
Tsoi Li Ho Fut Hung San Soo was not created or taught as a tournament sport. The basic premise of San Soo is there are no rules in a fight, so the style incorporates techniques to remove a threat as quickly as possible through the seizing the initiative and using a free-flowing variety of throws, joint breaks, strikes, and pressure points to exploit an adversary's natural reactions. Like many martial arts, San Soo claims it can be used by smaller or weaker persons against larger or stronger assailants as it does not rely on brute force.
Kung Fu San Soo does not attempt to emulate the motions of animals. Techniques are made up of Chin Na leverages, Throwing, Choking, Joint-locking, Strangling, Da, or strikes, and quick Takedowns. Targets include the eyes, nose, throat, base of the skull, neck, liver, spleen, kidneys, groin, and knees, and for this reason, most San Soo practitioners do not spar or engage in full contact fighting, preferring to practice the techniques in unrehearsed 'freestyle workout' sessions with carefully controlled contact. San Soo practitoners claim this method of training builds an automatic and flexible response in much the same way we learn language a few words at a time until we have full and versatile vocabularies. Training methods, historic interpretations, and modifications exist from school to school among the modern descendants of Chin Siu Dek's Kung Fu San Soo.
Kung Fu San Soo also incorporates training with the use of many traditional Chinese weapons. These include the staff (5', 7' and 9'), broadsword, hooking or ripping swords, butterfly swords, three-section staff, tai-chi sword, knife, spear, kwon do, chas and chain. The baton, not a traditional Chinese weapon, was a weapon that Jimmy Woo specialized in and incorporated into the art.