Form and Function: Shaolin Luohan 18 Palms

This is the first installment of the next form Shi Ba Luohan Zhang, learning the basis of how this form is broken down and understanding which parts are applicable and use it in a modern setting. Shifu Gregg pulls out devastating techniques that often get lost in translation of form to function.
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[@courtneymuhhamad2229]

Sifu 🎉Right good lesson and It was Awesome Meeting you @ Sifu's Raul Ortiz 7 Star Praying Mantis School 🙏🏿

[@goukko]

Really nice video again. I have practiced Shaolin kung fu about 13 years. Learned many different forms and now started learning more applications. Luohan is one of my favorite.

[@AuthenticShaolin]

Application is so important into truly understanding the form. I am glad you are enjoying the content. Many more vids on Lohan to come. 🤙🤙🤙🙏

[@vandamme6379]

Sifu I hope you’re well! I love these videos and you really teach well. This is authentic Shaolin fist as it should be taught and it’s a pleasure to watch your videos. I hope one day to train with you guys! 🙏🏼 Keep the dream alive!

[@AuthenticShaolin]

Thanks so much for the support. I have a patreon channel with more uncut vids on them. Check it out. Thanks again patreon.com/authenticshaolin

[@johngr1747]

I've been looking for a video like this for a while! Wouldn't mind seeing more Luohan demos in the near future!

[@AuthenticShaolin]

Thanks for watching. More vids on forms like this coming soon 🤙🤙🤙🙏

[@richardbrewer7519]

I love the information that y'all give and the way it is presented. I have always wanted for someone to do exactly what yall are doing. I believe it is critical for true warriors to see martial arts in this way. Thank y'all for your hard work! please keep making more content like this please.

[@AuthenticShaolin]

I really appreciate your awesome comment. Thank you for the support and appreciate the input. Please check out the patreon page for more benefits. patreon.com/authenticshaolin

[@FunAtStreaming]

This channel is the first time i'm seeing Kung Fu that is realy ment to work in real life situations. I so often see this pure hypothetical stuff that often tricks people in thinking they're good fighters but then get smshed by a drunken guy with a beer bottle in his hand. I for myself i spend a few years learning Jiu-Jitsu but i somehow dropped out once i saw martial arts people getting demolished by boxers, kickboxers, mma and even random streetfights. But Shifu Gregg convinced me that there is an actual and practical use to the world of Martial Arts. Love you guys!

[@AuthenticShaolin]

I appreciate the great comment. Unfortunately, a lot of traditional schools don't pressure test or work material on non compliant people. It has developed bad habits and lazy instructors. This channel is here to show the practical applications and pressure tested material. Thanks again for the support. Please subscribe and share so we can grow and male more content

[@gregdaniels1559]

Awesome insight into forms and how important they are. Keep up the great work. Very educational!

[@AuthenticShaolin]

Thanks so much for watching and supporting. 🤙🤙🤙

[@tomadams2565]

Very nice instruction. I really love the applications. I can’t wait to start learning

[@AuthenticShaolin]

Thanks so much for the support and for watching the channel🙏🙏🙏🤙

[@blackdragonbd5226]

very beautiful from shifu ..thnx

[@kungfufox]

Awesome explanation and breakdown of techniques in a form!

[@AuthenticShaolin]

Appreciate it 🤙. Thank you for the support 🙏

[@Trick-Framed]

Shaolin Luohan were some of my favorite Shaolin techniques.

[@AuthenticShaolin]

🤙🤙🤙🙏

[@nicholaschavarria4261]

Nicely explained!

[@AuthenticShaolin]

Thank you 🤙🤙🤙🙏

[@thedemonwithintheDEN]

Alternatively, if you're going to kick the back leg but may be slightly too far, you can do it like Bak Mei's nailing kick and use the chambering motion as a small foot drag on the front leg.

[@AuthenticShaolin]

Absolutely. 🤙🤙🤙

[@anandmarshall7781]

This is brilliant, some one who can connect the forms to real application. An old Sifu of mine once said " Your forms are the seeds of your system, if you cannot relate your forms to fighting then they are pointless to learn." this Sifu has clearly explained the applications. Thanks so much.

[@AuthenticShaolin]

Thanks so much for the amazing comment🤙. Form and function is what I say all the time. Appreciate you 🙏

[@TheAnsonysc]

Only half of your old Sifu was correct. Siffus should not encourage their students to fight with others, but your sifu… Do you know that if your kung fu was very good, it would make a serious injury to your opponents. If not, you would be like the character in Ip Man 1st episode Mr. Jin(Gold Moutain Claw) who was beaten in Ip Man's house. Learning Kung Fu is not pointless except you wanted to be in jail or hospital for your POINT to fight.

[@anandmarshall7781]

@@TheAnsonysc I suppose it depends on why you are training. Some train for the art and health, some for self defense. If it's the latter, it would be nice to know you might know how to use it. Hopefully most of us die very old in our sleep never needing to know if what we learn really works or not . Keep safe and enjoy your training.

[@bajuszpal172]

Dear Master, the best explanation and transition to modern way of fighting I have seen so far. Just one small detail , legs are sslower than hands, so some angles cound be needed at blocking. Best regards. Paul, 67.retired instructor of Karate.

[@AuthenticShaolin]

Thank you so much for your input. I will try to explain with more angles to help. Thanks again for your support 🤙🤙🤙

[@Trick-Framed]

Great translation for practical use!

[@AuthenticShaolin]

Thank you 💪💪💪🤙

[@rick00770]

I really like the Chinese styles, will be watching more of your content.subscribed.

[@AuthenticShaolin]

Awesome. Thank you for the support. Please check out our patreon page for more benefits. patreon.com/authenticshaolin

[@AuthenticShaolin]

I just subscribed to your channel as well. The tide raises all the boats 🤙🙏

[@Trick-Framed]

Where can I get a shirt or a hoodie? I checked the website but there's no merch. I still have my original white on Black T-Shirt of a drawing of you holding a sanjiegun from Farmingville. I'd like to rep the new address and the new logo.

[@AuthenticShaolin]

Absolutely. We can get you a shirt and a hoodie. The merch page is on the way up. A couple more weeks. But I'm sure we can get you one in the mean time. 🤙🤙🤙

[@Trick-Framed]

@@AuthenticShaolin That would be great! I'll drop my email in your contact on your page. Thank you!

[@zackthehuman1996]

A great and educational video as always, thank you Sifu! I'm curious whether you've studied at the Temple or somewhere else?

[@AuthenticShaolin]

Didn't study at the temple. But have studied with my Shi Fus and Shaolin monks as well. Appreciate all the support.

[@zackthehuman1996]

@@AuthenticShaolin Oh, I see. Do you practice a secondary style? Chinese or other? Please excuse the questions Shi Fu, I'm just curious because your bridging between styles is quite uncommon, and mostly done with people who practiced other styles

[@AuthenticShaolin]

@ZekiK1983 great question🤙🤙🤙. I have only ever studied Norther Shaolin kung fu. But bridging the gap between form and function is so important. I have fought Sanda and continuous fighting my whole life. So breaking apart the forms and pressure testing and using what I have learned was so important to me so I can be a better representative and teacher of my system. Thanks for the questions.

[@AuthenticShaolin]

Have studied for 42 years in same system and have been running my school for 32 years. 🙏🙏🙏🤙. And still training with my instructors🙏.

[@zackthehuman1996]

@@AuthenticShaolin Amazing Shi Fu! I wish you all the good luck, and thank you for promoting real wushu/Kung Fu. Thanks for telling people how wushu is applicable and valid. Unfortunately, there are only handful of people doing it...

[@errolthomas9426]

Does Lohan Kung Fu come from the North or South of China?

[@AuthenticShaolin]

The system I teach comes from Northern Shaolin. Lohan chuan.

[@errolthomas9426]

@@AuthenticShaolin Thanks 🙏🏽🥋👊🏼🐉🐅

[@crypticnomad]

I really like this video! The techniques are good techniques but what I actually got the most value from was the application process more so than the techniques. Something I've always wanted to do is find a school with people who are open minded like you guys and pose realistic modern scenarios, like common situations in MMA for example, and see what traditional martial arts have that is missing from modern versions. When it comes to the past there are two forms of general ignorance. The first is one where people basically romanticize the past and basically act as if the masters of the past knew everything and that the past was better in some general way than now. The second form of ignorance is where someone basically act as if the people of the past were completely ignorant and the lessons from the masters of the past hold little or no value today. Both of these are ignorant points of view and are objectively wrong. In general I look at things like some types of traditional martial arts as being kind of like exercises. If I can do 300 burpees straight that is pretty impressive but it in no way means I can actually fight. Although that is pretty insane number burpees the basic idea is that there are a ton of good reasons a real fighter would maybe do some burpees or really any other exercise on a regular basis. One of those "good reasons" is to develop attributes that are useful in combat and in life in general like mobility, flexibility and agility.

[@AuthenticShaolin]

Absolutely 🙏. Thank you truly understanding what we are trying to achieve with these videos. I want to bring back something that was and still is lost in the traditional martial arts. Real pressure tested techniques that can be used in. A modern sense if leaned how to adapt the drill or technique.

[@crypticnomad]

​@@AuthenticShaolin An analogy I use to try and understand the masters of the past is the concept of color. Some languages today, like from isolated tribes, lack the concept of the color blue. Those people have a really hard time telling the difference between some shade of green and what we would clearly see as blue. People in the past had a different way of thinking than people do today. Today we clearly separate objective historical fact from myth and I argue mostly due to the fact that most of us are literate and have access to tons of information. Myth is more vivid and easy to remember but now we can offload that memory, for better and worse, in literal and digital form. That wasn't the case even just 100 years ago. So we, for better and worse, have different symbols, or colors if you will, to describe our world but our bodies and basic primal mental functions haven't changed since the masters of the past developed these systems. Our ideas and concepts about unarmed combat have changed and we've gained and lost important things along the way. My mindset changed after a Muay Thai coach told me I was too linear and taught me some really basic bagua exercises. I saw huge improvements quickly. Instead of being like a robot I was more dynamic and "flow-y". Just as an example, using just two basic angles of my feet I can do two, or sometimes 3, steps and be at my opponent's back. No other MMA or Muay Thai coach that I have trained with even brought up the objective fact that when circling there are two stable angels for our feet/ankles and non of them ever had me do exercises designed to develop that ability. They would say stuff like "circle away from their power" but just basically expect a person to just do it right.

[@strangelaw6384]

3:45 I like your stuff a lot... but this is too much of a stretch. As a response to the opponent's single punch, while their other arm is on standby? Are you confident to say that the user of this sequence is able to throw the opponent off-balance faster than the opponent throws the second hook? I propose the alternative: use the cross-arm-move to block the opponent's left punch. The up-and-over takedown will still work; but in this case, a punch from the opposite arm would not be a problem. This is because in order to land the other punch effectively, the opponent will need to first create distance by backing away, which will put them further at a disadvantage. (I'm 99% sure that this was even demonstrated in one of your videos.) It feels to me that any blocking/redirecting that displaces your body to the same side as the opponent's punching arm, such as you demonstrated, should be accompanied by an elbow strike; the elbow would come in along with the torso rotation, so the torso rotation would amplify the elbow power. Meanwhile, the elbow strike reduce the likelihood of a counterattack (second punch), which enables any following takedown moves.

[@strangelaw6384]

Otherwise, I have absolutely no problems with rest of the video.

[@AuthenticShaolin]

I appreciate your honesty🙏. Most of the time I always close the door, but this form didn't call for that and I was trying to stay in line with what the form was giving me to work with. I think if I had to leave that door open, a rib shot would definitely change the impact of the oncoming punch. I have done that before many times fighting. I appreciate you dissecting my vids and enjoying the content. 🤙🤙🤙 appreciate you 💪💪💪

[@strangelaw6384]

@@AuthenticShaolin understandable. Thank you for your videos!

[@AuthenticShaolin]

@@strangelaw6384 thank you. 🤙🤙🤙