Classes

Weekly Kung Fu San Soo lessons are taught just off of Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood. At this time the San Soo classes are meeting once a week on Saturday afternoons for two hours minimum. (What “minimum” means is that, if students want to stay longer, Master Wally Bagot will teach longer and quite often does.)

The Saturday class time: 3:00pm-5:00pm.

The following is a description of a typical class:

At Sunset San Soo our classes are structured into four segments: Movement fundamentals, paired workouts, the day’s lesson for each belt ranking and practicing the current San Soo form. (It’s recommended that students arrive a few minutes early to do some light stretching before class begins.)

In the first segment the instructor leads the class through a series of drills utilizing stances specific to this art in conjunction with a series of “windmill blocks”, punches and kicks. This is followed by a choreographed sequence of movements utilizing all of the San Soo stances and transitions from one to another. This sequence is known as the “Twenty-four Footwork” and is really a way of practicing the very foundation upon which all of the San Soo art is built. This segment is concluded with a brief period of students practicing forward-rolls and somersaults. Now the class is ready for the next segment.

In second segment students pair up with one another and “workout”. In truth, this “workout” is actually fighting each other using a repertoire of techniques developed from past lessons and previous workouts. In our class’s colloquialisms we call this “working 2’s”.

The way this segment works is that one student will attack his/her partner with a punch, kick, elbow, grab, sweep, etc and the other student will defend with whatever technique they summon for the situation. The contact with all strikes is real as are all throws, sweeps and other assorted take-downs. One of the main principles at play here is that only through real application of technique will one know if their technique works effectively or if further polish is necessary. Also, each student learns how to react more effectively from being struck or thrown in terms of minimizing the damage to themselves as well as turning the situation to their advantage and at the same time each student learns how the body will move from the strike, for example, so that they can utilize this to “set-up” their opponent for the next best move.

Each student attacks twice and defends twice. They fight each other this way taking turns back and forth for anywhere from thirty to forty-five minutes. In this school, we encourage differing belt ranks to work together which is usually mutually beneficial.

Though San Soo uses very aggressive techniques and real contact, control is also used along with care of and respect for one’s fellow student.

Segment number three is the “lesson” segment. Here the instructor teaches a different and specific lesson designed for each belt rank.

The instructor selects a student to use to demonstrate the lesson and then executes it several times. The students learning the lesson stand alongside the instructor facing the same direction and they attempt to emulate his/her movements to perfection. Next the instructor will have that lesson’s students pair-off and practice the lesson back and forth until the instructor determines that each student “has it”.

Generally the lessons are taught from the most junior level upward to the most advanced level of students present that day. Often senior students are encouraged to learn the “more junior” lessons as well as their own rank’s lesson.

This fourth segment concerns itself with the learning and practice of the current San Soo “Form”. The “Form” is a twenty-six move sequence taught in two parts of thirteen moves each. The entire class learns and tries to perfect this sequence together.

The first thirteen moves are taught at the end of a particular class and practiced for two weeks as thirteen moves. The first class after those two weeks the second thirteen moves are taught and the form is then practiced as a twenty-six move  sequence for the remaining six weeks of a two month period.

The purpose of these forms is to help the student refine and perfect his/her San Soo using total body movement for each and every move in the San Soo art. This means moving and using the entire body for every block, strike, take-down and the transitions in between. This is the underlying movement principle employed from the first opening strike in the form to and including the twenty-sixth move, the closing salute.

These four segments comprise the general course of activity in a normal two-hour class at Sunset San Soo in West Hollywood.

Presently Master Wally Bagot has plans to open up a Tuesday evening class. The proposed times could be 6:00pm-8:00pm or  possibly even 7:00pm-9:00pm. Of course as the need builds, more times for more classes will open up.  He also teaches private sessions for those with 6 months or more of San Soo training.

Master Wally Bagot offers San Soo weapons training privately for those with adequate San Soo background. He offers weapons training for groups of two or more as well.

Please contact Master Wally Bagot for more information.