In order to analyze Short Form One, One must first answer two simple questions:
1) What is it that is being analyzed?
2) What is the purpose of the analysis?
What is being analyzed?
The obvious answer is Short Form One is being analyzed. But what is Short Form One? In the most fundamental terms, Short Form One is a series of basics executed together to create a form. But, what is the purpose of creating a form? As mentioned earlier in this guide, American Kenpo forms are not to be thought of as a choreographed fight between the practitioner and (an) imaginary opponent(s) for demonstration purposes. American Kenpo forms are defined as:
A predefined series of maneuvers that:
1) show the rules and principles of motion,
2) that everything has a reverse and an opposite,
3) by giving an example
Provided with the above information, one can move on to the second question posed.
What is the purpose of the analysis?
Again, the obvious answer is to expose the information presented in Short Form One. But, what information is being exposed? From the definition derived above, one can limit their analysis to the three elements that compose the definition. Then, the major question that should now be asked is, “how will the exposed information be presented?”
The information exposed from Short Form One will be broken down into four sections:
Beginner / Intermediate Information - This section will summarize the information for which a beginner to intermediate practitioner should be aware. This is important because not all readers are advanced practitioners. This section will help them check what they know against what should be known about Short Form One – at the beginner to intermediate level. Also, this section is helpful to instructors, for it will help them filter what information should be conveyed when initially teaching this form to others.
Advanced Information – This section will summarize the information for which an advanced practitioner should be aware. It is intended for the advanced practitioners and instructors. It covers some of the lesser known information related to Short Form One.
Reverse / Opposite Analysis – This section will collate and expose the reverse / opposite information presented in the form. This is important because, by definition, American Kenpo forms give an example of reverses and opposites. This section is intended to help simplify this analysis by exposing the reverses and opposites for each section of the form.
Principles / Rules / Theories / Concepts / Definitions – This section will list the terms related to Short Form One. Each term will need to be further researched by the reader. This section is provided mainly as a starting point into further analysis of American Kenpo terminology, concepts, theories, rules, and principles.