The 2007 Beijing City Dongxu Cup was held at the Tianchi Chinese Wrestling Center on the 22nd of December.

The Dongxu Cup is a local competition attended by athletes representing most of Beijing’s Shuaijiao clubs.

The day started early with registration at 0800 but ran smoothly with all the fights and prize giving completed by 1630.

As expected Tianchi came out on top in terms of medals, but each of the clubs put on a fine display of technique with some sensational throws.

Throw of the day was from Li Junlei a Sanda fighter from the Beijing Sanda Team. A perfectly executed “tao tui” movement which sent his opponent flying for 3 points. I wasn’t fast enough with my new video camera so i failed to catch it on tape. I got the rest of the fight, but it seems that my memory card is faulty and needs to be reformatted… so i guess that means i’ll lose that footage, along with a special Christmas message i taped for you all from Master Li Baoru

Another hightlight was National Champion Wang Yanlong of the Tianchi team winning his weight class easily. Putting on a show of some very subtle movements that won point after point after point. Each of his matches including the final was stopped in the first round due to a 9 point advantage, which is automatically declared a win in Shuaijiao.

I may have lost the video, but i did manage to get some nice photos…hope you enjoy.

Warmest Christmas Greetings to you all,

Michael Wix

ps. Tianchi Shuaijiao Center is a sensational place to learn and master Shuaijiao. Their champions train 6 days a week two or three times a day with awesome coaches. If that sounds like something you would like to experience in 2008… email me!

In the 2007 rule revision, Xiao De He now MUST succeed in throwing the opponent. If not, you lose 1 point.

Although he lost, it didn’t stop the guy in red from succeeding with it twice in this bout

National Champion Gao Yu in Niujie fighter’s corner

Da Kui in blue attempts the double leg. He is an ex-Army National level freestyle wrestler

He did manage to beat his opponent in this match, but this was the result of several of his tackles. His opponent was considerably better at Shuaijiao than Dakui but he wasn’t used to fighting freestyle wrestlers.

Everyone’s favorite referee - Baibai

I love this photo… these two 100kg+ competitors ran out of gas halfway through the first round much to the crowd’s displeasure

Beautiful Jizhuang executed with amazing speed

Coach Ma from Tianchi Shuaijiao Center is a National Taiji Push Hands champion and Shuaijiao master. Current Shuaijiao National champions are fodder for this guy. Master Li to the right.

Coach Liu Haoxue, head referee for this event, is an 11 time National Freestyle Champ and Shuaijiao expert.

Master Li Baoru enjoying the fights and overseeing the competition

Coach Xu Gang - the Beijing Sanda Team’s Shuaijiao coach - not impressed by the conditioning of some of the competitors

Coach Yao Dongjun. Coach Yao is the owner and manager of the Tianchi Shuaijiao Center.

My favourite photo of the day: National Champion Wang Yanlong and team mate Yao Honggang. Both training and fighting for the Tianchi Team

Liu Zuguang - a.k.a. Da Guang - wins the 10okg+ class.

National Champ Wang Yanlong of Tianchi won each of his fights including the final easily by 9-point advantage - the Shuaijiao equivalent of a KO.

Li Junlei of the Beijing Sanda Team accepting his silver medal. He forfeited his first match and the gold at his coach’s request as a sign of respect to his mates at Tianchi. Junlei received my throw of the day award for his 3-point taotui against a Niujie fighter. Junlei will turn pro as of 2008.

Li Junlei with Coach Li Deshun. Coach Li is Li Baoru’s student and many times National and Beijing Champion. Junlei is one of my sparring partners every Sunday with Master Li and Coach Ma. Coach Li’s mastery of grip fighting is astounding…he is someone you DEFINITELY need to (and can) learn from.

The winning team from Tianchi. 5 golds and 1 silver. A great bunch of guys to train with, all good at different things and all a pleasure to hangout with.

a post by Chet Quint

(Left to right: Ma Jianguo, Li Baoru, Chet Quint) 

My Shuai Jiao
By Chet Quint

As a BJJ black belt and former fighter, I am often asked, “Why do you train Shuai Jiao?”. The answer to this is simple: It works.

I was first introduced to Shuai Jiao through articles in Black Belt Magazine. They described this devastating style that was used on the battlefields of ancient China and Mongolia. These articles with which I was so fond of talked about neutralizing an attacker with the ground and using the body’s natural handles to execute joint-breaking throws and body slams.

All that made sense to me at that point in my life as I was working as a professional bouncer. I had already identified the need to develop skills to neutralize an opponent but still stay in the fight. Punching people in the face was most often NOT the first appropriate response to a problem and going to the ground in a bar was likewise a last resort. Letting the ground finish the fight for me made sense. Intrigued, I set about the task of finding someone to teach this style of Kung Fu to me.

My first glimpse of Shuai Jiao was through Daniel Weng of Cupertino, CA. Since I was living in Salt Lake City at the time, I had to be content with videos, so I purchased his entire set of Shuai Jiao videos which included instructionals and actual competition footage. I thought the instructionals were interesting but I was somewhat disappointed with the tournament footage. Here I was expecting to see this kick-ass-and-take-names martial art from Genghis Khan’s arsenal, but instead what I found was a competition more in tune with Judo. Not wanting to dismiss this out of hand, I made the decision to train the techniques and at the first possible opportunity go to Cupertino and try it out for myself.

I organized a group of several bouncers that I was working with and immediately started training. I took the techniques that were taught and applied them in a way that was described in the magazines. That is, I used it as a combat system and I eliminated all sporting aspect to the training. At nights, I would use the techniques when I was dealing with problems in the bar. Any technique that wasn’t working was quickly deleted or re-examined. This was a great time for me, as I was crafting this ancient style to a modern environment and more importantly, it was really working!!

The bar I worked was a pretty rowdy country bar so nightly fights and parking lot brawls were common. Fortunately, I had an extensive Wrestling, Jiu-Jitsu and Judo background to guide me. My interpretation of Shuai Jiao was used in around 40 or 50 real life situations and in that time it never really failed me. A few times I went to the ground while throwing my opponent (thank God for Jiu-Jitsu) but most guys never got back up to fight after the throw.

In my training I focused on the throws that that took guys down the hardest and locked out the arm on the way down. I was convinced that this is the ultimate bouncer-system. When I finally got to go to Cupertino I had the chance to at last train with real Shuai Jiao guys. Though they were entirely training Shuai Jiao as a sport, I was still very impressed with their grappling skills. I started going to California on a regular basis and in 2002, I relocated to Monterey and started training in Cupertino regularly.

At this point the only styles I still actively trained was BJJ and Shuai Jiao. Even though, I had no real interest in sport Shuai Jiao, the guys at the club taught me to appreciate the true importance of sport sparring as a critical training aid and my skill started to really develop.

When I moved to Beijing in 2005, I started to look for a Shuai Jiao school. With the help of my good friends, Mike Wix and Zhao Yiping, I was introduced to Master Li Baoru. Through him, I have been learning the mainland style of Shuai Jiao. But again the emphasis is all sport. This time, however I was more prepared.

Master Li showed me things that really took my Shuai Jiao understanding to another level. Now I have come to really appreciate the sport of Shuai Jiao, though my training, my own personal interpretation of Shuai Jiao (and my Jiu-Jitsu for that matter), is all about street fighting. When I train for myself, all my clinch fighting is fought from a Shuai Jiao perspective but always with the street in mind. My real fighting experiences helps keep me on track and the Shuai Jiao training techniques we use here develops my grappling skill to a deeper level. In China there is a saying; “One year of Shuai Jiao is worth five years in a fist style.” I tend to agree.

Chet Quint is a Li Baoru student and a Gracie Jiujitsu Blackbelt living and teaching in China

I know the event has finished, but i still haven’t managed to get my hands on the official results and name-list.

I have managed to find an overview of the results from tom dot com.

Here they are:

Team Results: 1st - China First Team, 2nd-China Second Team, 3rd - Mongolia.

The China First Team, comprised of a mixture of national champions and other outstanding athletes, dominated the tournament winning 13 out of 14 classes (including the 6 women’s classes). In addition they took 4 second places, and 1 third place, and a team score of 138 points.

The China Second Team, comprised of students attending the Taizhou Sports School, did very well winning 2 second places and five 3rd places along with many competitors in the top 8 of each weight class, and a team score of 81 points.

The Mongolian Team won 1 first place, 4 second places, and 3 third places for a total team score of 65 points.

In the team competition, 4th place went to USA First Team with 44 points, 5th to the Taipei First Team with 37 points, and 6th to the Canadian Team with 34 points.

Interestingly , the reporter asks Master Li Baoru - the head technical consultant - to comment on the gap between the Chinese competitors and those Shuaijiao fighters overseas and he had this to say:

“们使用的都是中国上世纪三四十年代的技术，是我小时候用的。最近50多年，中国跤的手法、身法、步法和技战术以及规则都有了巨大的变化，中国跤更先进、更文明、更精彩了。”

My translation of this is:

“They [the overseas fighters] are using techniques from the 30’s and 40’s of last century, what i used to practice when i was a kid. In the last 50 or so years, Chinese Wrestling’s handwork, movements, footwork, techniques, strategies, and rules have changed tremendously. Chinese Wrestling today is more modern, civilized, and exciting”

I welcome anyone who can translate this with a little more patience than the 2 minutes it took me… but the message i think is pretty clear. Chinese Wrestling has evolved in China… but not outside of China.

Here’s hoping that China can host more international events that not only promote Shuaijiao but also allow competitors to learn and improve their technique so that one day we might see a European, American, or even a New Zealand Team come out on top in Shuaijiao as the Chinese have in Women’s Judo.

photos generously supplied by European Shuaijiao Union President Antonio Langiano

Alessio Pasciulli and Latengsue in the 75kg Final

Well, Master Li is back in Beijing and my internet connection is back to normal today. I don’t think those two things are connected in anyway but i do think that there were plenty of connections made between the Shuaijiao brothers and sisters of the world at the 2007 Taizhou Shuaijiao Internationals.

75kg Champion: Latengsue (China), 2nd place: Alessio Pasciulli (Italy), 3rd place: Nick Masi (USA)

The 2007 Taizhou Internationals Referees and Officials

The President of the European Shuaijiao Committee Antonio Langiano presenting a plaque to the President of the Taizhou Shuaijiao International Organizing Committee

European Shuaijiao Union President Antonio Langiani with European Shuaijiao Union Secretary Robert Simpson

Thanks again to Antonio for providing us with photos. And Shuaijiao.tv welcomes any other photos or reports about the event from those present.