Originally Posted by Radhnoti
TTM - "The short forms that are refered to as lohans are not......they are tan family leg techniques( tan tui) there were originally 108."
I've had SD Masters in KY tell me that the 30 short forms were drawn from 108 steps? of the lohan. They (and I did get THIS from more than one source) indicated that it was similar to, but not the same as tan tui. It was their opinion that anyone calling them "tan tui" was either misinformed or attempting to conform to a preexisting standard in the Chinese martial art community. That is to say, it's common for CMA schools to start out teaching "tan tui", so someone trying to conform to a CMA mold might call them tan tui. I'm not even sure I'd call it a misstatement, as it serves the same purpose and is so similar...it might take more energy than it's worth to explain, "We have...well, not tan tui, but a distillation of a similar style that serves the same purpose...and it's true that lots of other CMA use tan tui...and you, the U.S. public would never know the difference, but..." :rolleyes:
If I'm not mistaken GT has commented before that he's spoken with EM Leonard before about this and it was always "108 (I want to say steps) of the Lohan" as well. If GT doesn't back me...well...one of my other sources was another original student via his highest ranking student. I've never been shy about asking questions. :D
It's amazing to me how much of the, "Where did this come from?" question is just thrown aside as unimportant. Which, in my opinion, bolsters the possibility of a kuntao classification.