Su Dong Chens work.

[White_Dragon]

Hi everyone,

I have met and trained on numerous occasions with Su Dong-Chen, as his ex-wife and daughter lived in my city for some time and he came to visit his daughter a fair amount. He spoke very little English at this time (early 2000's), so I understand all this through an interpreter that was with him. He was never Yakuza - he is half Chinese and half Japanese and as so is not very popular with either, and highly unlikely would be admitted by the gang. When he lived in Japan, he was a very well known fighter of great repute. Some member(s?) of the Yakuza didn't like this half-Chinese beating all their fighters, so they sent some guys to 'handle' him. It's been a long time since I heard it, and I was in a group of people so I couldn't always hear exactly what was said, but essentially it started in a bar (Master Su loves his Johnny Walker Red!) and turned into a battle royal in an alley where he was running for his life while fighting these guys with knives. He showed us numerous scars on his arms and such, and said basically "Don't mess with a knife and expect not to be cut/killed". Just the fact that he survived speaks to the realism of his abilities. We hosted seminars, and lots of people from many different styles would come, along with MMA fighters and I never heard ANYone who crossed hands with him say that he doesn't have the goods.

FWIW

[Doc Stier]

At my teacher's request, I hosted two weekend workshops for Su Dong Chen at my school in Mpls, Minnesota back in the early 1980's. We trained forms, two person drills and sanda for several hours each day throughout the week in between his workshops. He is a very skilled fighter through and through, not merely a form performer like many IMA teachers. His fighting applications were a very effective blend of Hsing-I Chuan, Pa-Kua Chuan and Shuaijiao, which generally included various combinations of Enter, Trap, Strike and Throw. The opinion expressed by some that he would lose in a "real situation" is ludicrous, imo.

If his training experience has been anything like mine in the years since we met, he is no doubt much more skilled and competent as a fighter now than he was then! Just saying.

[Wanderingdragon]

The demo clips above show opportunity, especially once he went down. I have seen his work as his clips have been up for some time, no doubt he is skilled, I consider him one of the few teachers who actually knows how to fight. My comment was purely on the demo at hand, and again I'll say , I see child's play, and students not committed to making the devasting effort of a real fight. As well Su must surely be going easy, I think these clips are not a good example of multiple attacker defense.

[Wanderingdragon]

I see now the clip I was critical of has been removed, in it I suppose he was practicing his ground defense, but IMO, for a multiple attacker situation he stayed on the floor too long.

[mrtoes]

Moving onwards - now that we have first hand accounts of the obvious (that Su Dong Chen has legit old school badass fighting skills) any chance of an English translation of the original post? I can offer shiny internet karma points

Matthew

[I am...]

Hi everyone,

I have met and trained on numerous occasions with Su Dong-Chen, as his ex-wife and daughter lived in my city for some time and he came to visit his daughter a fair amount. He spoke very little English at this time (early 2000's), so I understand all this through an interpreter that was with him. He was never Yakuza - he is half Chinese and half Japanese and as so is not very popular with either, and highly unlikely would be admitted by the gang. When he lived in Japan, he was a very well known fighter of great repute. Some member(s?) of the Yakuza didn't like this half-Chinese beating all their fighters, so they sent some guys to 'handle' him. It's been a long time since I heard it, and I was in a group of people so I couldn't always hear exactly what was said, but essentially it started in a bar (Master Su loves his Johnny Walker Red!) and turned into a battle royal in an alley where he was running for his life while fighting these guys with knives. He showed us numerous scars on his arms and such, and said basically "Don't mess with a knife and expect not to be cut/killed". Just the fact that he survived speaks to the realism of his abilities. We hosted seminars, and lots of people from many different styles would come, along with MMA fighters and I never heard ANYone who crossed hands with him say that he doesn't have the goods.

FWIW

Thanks for clarifying, I have heard the Yakuza story about him many times, nice to hear where it likely came from.