In The Beginning

When I found Grandmaster Woo In 1962 I was very impressed with what I saw. I
had some idea of combat as I was raised in Compton, boxed as a young
teenager in Golden Gloves and studied Ju Jitsu at a Recreation center, I
knew this guy was good. Back then there was very little martial arts taught,
maybe 4 or 5 schools in all of the Los Angeles area. I had seen a Kung Fu
Master who showed me some moves but said it was not for white men to learn,
it was for Chinese only. It was then when I began searching for an
instructor for over 2 years, I asked every Chinese I could find, I asked all
over Chinatown until I found Grandmaster Ark Wong. Within a week or two
someone told me about Jimmy H. Woo in El Monte who I went to see. I felt
that GM Woo’s Kung Fu blended with what I already studied while GM Wong was
more oriented to form practice. I joined the class, it was brutal, I went
home each time to heal the cuts, lumps and bruises but I loved it. I have
studied to this day and would do it again if I could go back, would I change
some ideas, you bet as I age I have changed many of my views. So let’s look
at why I decided to share my views. San Soo has been drifting, the First
Generation is beginning to die off without transferring the higher levels of
knowledge. Most of the videos posted on YouTube are substandard and make
little sense as to what was really taught and the why or how the techniques
should work. We owe the truths to the future generations and I hope to share
what I have learned in my lifetime. I will not lie or BS, if I do not
believe something, I will not say it. I also don’t intend to argue with
trolls or people who don’t want to discuss real issues. If intelligent
questions are asked, I will do my best to answer them however I will chose
which ones that will be posted. I am getting older and don’t know how long I
will be around so we just can not waste the time.

Let’s start with our arts name, “Kung Fu San Soo” which is not a name of an
art as someone mentioned, “KFSS is a verb not a Noun”. It is what we do, it
means “a highly skilled man trained in the art of combat”. Through research
and interviewing his instructors son (who was also his classmate) we found
that the only art he knew when he left China was Choy Li Fut. We are certain
that he blended another art with his knowledge which created a hybrid art
that was taught in the USA. The blend was dynamic and superior to what was
taught in the USA at that time however we are not sure when those arts were
blended, there are theories that which are reviewed in detail in the book
and which we will present later on this site.

San Soo has many pronunciations due to the various dialects used in China,
San Shu, San Sao, San Siu and San Soo are all the same words, check it out
using the Chinese characters. When we first heard him use term he also said
San Suie. In fact he never said San Soo but that is what the first student
wrote down and that is what we began using, he said “San Siu”, listen to him say
it on video. I will discuss more about the roots of our art and how it has
evolved through the many years, as a student of the art or someone who loves
the history of martial arts, I think you will find it interesting. It is
common for Asian Masters to embellish and build stories to create some
mystique with their students however, I believe GM Woo’s life already
contained many real action stories. Being new to the country and speaking
little English he embellished some knowing he needed to create income for
himself and his family, I understand and respect him and the art that he
gave us. He did self correct most of those few stories in his later years.
Almost all of the famous Asian instructors both shared embellished
stories and created their own hybrid arts, to name a few, Bruce Lee, Wally
Jay, Ed Parker etc.

If you have questions about what has been presented so far let me know but
stay on point so we don’t jump all over the place. I plan on going through
the entire system on things we now know to be fact.