Wicked Triangle. Kyle has Adam in his guard (1) Kyle rids himself of Adam's left arm and locks the triangle (2-3) Kyle now lifts his hips and grabs his free shin (4) Kyle inserts his instep into Adam's inner right thigh (5) Kyle will now post up and extend his left leg to cause a dish-ragging effect on Adam's spine (6)

You're in the heat of a fight. Your opponent thinks he has you in a submission hold, but you know better. You easily leverage your way out of it, toss him over and then knock him out cold. The element of surprise worked well for you. Your opponent is caught off guard, especially since you just used his own move against him. Victory is sweet. But beating someone at his own game? Now that's a taste to savor.

This is what must have been going through Kyle Olsen's mind when he defeated Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Rafael Salamao at the Mixed Martial Arts Championship in Guadalajara, Mexico. The victory gave him the world title in the lightweight division of the King of the Ring. It's not the first time this third-degree kung-fu san soo black belt utilized his unique skills at a jiu-jitsu or mixed martial arts tournament and came out on top. His training with kung-fu san soo master Jeff Frater and grandmaster Bill Lasiter has helped Olsen marry the no-holds-barred technique of san soo with the strategic rules of submission grappling. That's his edge. And that's how he emerges victorious time and again.

A World of Difference

One might ask where the benefit lies in combining two seemingly different techniques. Frater likens it to the third world of fighting-learning to fight in water.

"It's an element that most martial artists don't dwell in, but important because you never know when you're going to get attacked," he explains. So you could be an expert on land, but if pitted against a water polo player underwater, he could have the upper hand because suddenly you're in his territory and everything you know is not going to serve you well when surrounded by an environment completely unfamiliar to you.

So what do you do? Adapt. Make sure you're as natural in that environment as the people who grew up surrounded by it. Do that and the power balance shifts. Suddenly you have the upper hand.

 "You need to understand how to fight in different elements as well as how to fight in your own," Frater says. So in the same manner a san soo fighter would learn to fight underwater, Frater and Olsen learn to fight san soo in a jiu-jitsu world. It's an interesting combination-the art with no limits combined with the concentrated flow of jiu-jitsu. But it works. Brutally Effective

First, you have the brutally effective fighting style of kung-fu san soo, founded by grandmaster Jimmy H. Woo, a style that is popularly associated with the phrase, "Tread lightly, and carry a big stick." This is not a sport or a game, but a warrior discipline. While some martial arts styles focus on a specific technique-as with judo for throws and karate for kicks and punches-san soo teaches the full family of techniques, which allows the fighter to adjust their style according to the situation they are in. The punches and kicks, the leverages, the nerve attacks, the takedowns-all directed to vital parts of the body-are executed in a perfect rhythm that can make the flow of movement compelling, even beautiful, to witness. But at its very core is also a raw brutality that emphasizes the san soo focus on self-defense.

 "San soo is to the point," describes Frater. "You go for the most critical, vulnerable points of the body. You eye gouge, you bite, you try to kick the joints out; you do things as brutally as you possibly can to get to the end of the fight as quickly as possible. Maximum results with minimal effort."

Olsen echoes the fierceness that characterizes the art of san soo.

 "It teaches you to discipline your mind, identify attacks from any angle, ward off and defeat multiple assailants, and defend against weapons drawn in a streetfight. Its vicious nature allows an almost scary accuracy and speed in taking out an assailant."

Not a Spectator Sport

This is not a spectator sport. San soo is a savagely effective fighting style that trains the warrior to instantly adapt to any combat situation. But it's probably that very nature of adaptability that inspired Frater to incorporate facets from jiu-jitsu, thus adapting the no-limits art to the limits of competitions and tournaments.

Jiu-jitsu, particularly Brazilian jiu-jitsu popularized by the infamous Gracies, is a more strategic style of fighting that follows the phrase, "Position first, then submission." Likened to a physical game of chess, it makes sense why this is a martial art that works well in tournaments. With a focus on takedowns and grappling, the fighting style is as much about strategy as san soo is about in-your-face brutality. Jiu-jitsu tournaments commonly see opponents moving from the ground, fighting to gain position and adjusting their weight accordingly to set a trap for their rival. The successful fighters tend to be three to five moves ahead of their opponents. The core of the art involves improving, maintaining or defending ground positions in an organized technique that ultimately leads to submission.

How it is then that two such markedly different styles can work so well together, even complement one another, in a fight? Although they are different approaches, there are similarities. There is an inherent flow to both styles, one based on strength and adaptability, the other based on technique and strategy. For both, if you execute them correctly, the movements flow together until the opponent is caught within them. And if you combine the elements of both, the styles can flow together to ultimately result in a ferocious stream of movement-a potentially deadly one if not for the rules of the tournaments to keep things in check.

Frater, who enhanced his san soo training from grandmaster Bill Lasiter with Brazilian jiu-jitsu techniques learned from world-renowned fighters (including Larry Beebe, Betiss Mansouri, Javier Vasquez and Roger Machado), also sees a similarity in structure among the two styles.

"Some people ask me, 'What's the most important part of kung-fu?' and I answer with, 'What's the most important tire on your car?' San soo is based on four components-basics (kicks and punches), techniques, forms and workouts. If you take one of those away, then the rest of your san soo will suffer. But if you have all four, you have a more complete style. Jiu-jitsu's the same thing; you have your basics, you have your technique, you have your sparring and you have your drills. They are similar in style, as you need all four working together."

So it looks like the two divergent styles are more similar than one might imagine. And Frater and Olsen continue to perfect the art of bringing the best of both worlds into one. And that very combination-the brutality with the strategy, the fierceness with the focus-has worked for Olsen as the unique element that catches his one-track-mind opponents off-guard.

"Kung-fu san soo is the perfect base art and will forever remain my base art," Olsen insists. "Jiu-jitsu redefines the game and introduces a new element not everyone is prepared for. By combining the two, you create a dangerous fighter capable of anything."

"You have to think of fighting not just as styles but as worlds," Frater notes,  when asked how the two styles merge together.

The world of jiu-jitsu is on the ground, so Frater adapted the kung-fu san soo style to the ground, and ultimately demonstrated how it can emerge victorious even when structure is placed upon the no-limits approach. Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Rafael Salomao was undefeated, claiming to have won more than 300 fights, when Olsen went up against him-and ultimately unseeded him to become the first-ever kung-fu san soo world champion recorded in mixed martial arts.

"San soo will always be my art. I'll never stop training in it," Olsen maintains. "But if I can beat anybody at his own game, such as jiu-jitsu or MMA, that just makes my victory taste so much sweeter."