One should not be lulled by the striking expression of motion displayed with the execution of Form Four. Hidden in plain sight, within these movements, is a wealth of knowledge. Knowledge that one should strive to understand. And, just as one strives to express the form in a knowledgeable and pleasing manner, one should also strive to learn, understand, and appreciate what information is being displayed.
As with all the forms in American Kenpo, Form Four is replete with information. But what makes Form Four special is that it is considered to be inordinately dense with important material. And, the data is also considered to be more sophisticated compared to its lower counterparts. This fact comes about because of two major reasons.
First, has to do with the planned progression of the forms in complexity as the forms progress. Second, this is due to do the fact that Form Four was originally designed to be the last form of the system. And as such, this form had to cover both vast and highly critical subject matter in a single form.
Because of the goals for this form, a complete and comprehensive analysis of it becomes a very daunting and lengthy task. Therefore, a decision has been made to try and reduce the length of the information by concentrating on the more essential and pertinent information, while purposely filtering out a good deal of the data that is not as vital to producing a thorough analysis of the form.
For the reader that wishes to explore and study examples of a more detailed analysis of a form, refer to following books in this series: "The Official EPAKS Guide to Short Form One, Short Form Three, and Long Form Three - Form Analysis" sections.
Where to start with analysis?
Being that Form Four is not the first American Kenpo form, one should understand that Form Four is probably one of the last forms where one should start their initial analysis into American Kenpo forms. One should at least be exposed to some of the important information and thought patterns laid out by the previous forms before ever taking on an in-depth analysis of Form Four.
One important element to note about Form Four is that it is an advanced (i.e., Encyclopedic) form. As such, the information that is exposed in this form is not always directly analogous, but is always complimentary, to the information of the lower forms.
In other words, the upper forms (Short Form Three and above) start down new paths of informational exploration that is not entirely present in the lower forms. But, Form Four does continue to advance and expand upon that previous information. With that being said, in order to start an analysis of Form Four, one must first answer two simple questions:
1)What exactly is it that is being analyzed?
2)What is the intended purpose of the analysis?
What is being analyzed?
The obvious answer is the form is being analyzed. But what exactly is Form Four? In the most fundamental terms, Form Four's purpose is to expand upon the catalog of information that was originally started in Short Form One and has progressed through Long Form Three.
From a more physically fundamental standpoint, Form Four is a set of self-defense techniques and other maneuvers which are related by common themes, executed in a specific series and pattern to create a form. These themes were purposely chosen to be complimentary to the themes of previous forms in such a manner as to methodically progress the practitioner through an ever increasingly complex set of ideas and physical maneuvers.
And, to reiterate the general definition of an American Kenpo form, they:
1)show the rules and principles of motion,
2)that everything has a reverse and an opposite,
3)by giving examples of this tenant
Provided with the above information, one can move on to the second question posed.
What is the intended purpose of the analysis?
Again, the obvious answer is to expose the information presented by Form Four. But what information is being exposed? From the definition of a form derived above, one can refine their analysis to concentrate on the three elements that compose the definition. Form Four specifically does this by expanding upon #1 as related to previous forms via the use of #2 and #3.
But even this does not give a full answer as to the purpose of the analysis. Ultimately, the reasoning behind the analysis of any form is to expand upon one's understanding of specific aspects of martial information with the intent of adding and internalizing this information to help in one's journey in the art.
In American Kenpo, perfection of the motions of a form is not a satisfactory conclusion to one's path in the art. Although this may be one aim, by design, it is not the only intended aim. But, all too often this is reality. Many practitioners spend almost their entire journey on the physical perfection path and neglect the understanding journey. This choice, whether conscious or not, detracts from the purpose of why the forms where created in the first place.
Yes, form execution is vitally important, but execution without understanding is mostly an exercise in futility. This is especially true when it comes to American Kenpo as a martial art. And as one progresses, so should their understanding - along with their improved physical abilities. The two paths should go hand-in-hand.
The intended purpose of this section of the book, and the series as a whole, is to aid in this stated aspiration. To provide a conduit for research and exploration into not only the information contained within the form, but to also provide the structure for mental thought used in uncovering this information. And ultimately provide a means for which one may continue on the journey of exploration of not only this form, but martial arts in general on one's own.
But, what one thing that should be kept in mind when using this analysis, is that, as mentioned previously in this section, this analysis is more concise and streamlined to the more essential information, purposefully omitting less vital, yet still very pertinent information.
Although a great deal of non-critical information is purposely filtered from the following analysis, it is not a statement as to its importance in understanding Form Four and American Kenpo forms in general. It is more a recognition of the reality that by excluding this information, the reader is presented with a more condensed and therefore easier to follow analysis. An analysis that one may actually make an attempt to read (or at least scan) and potentially understand.
As also eluded to earlier, one may use the other books in this series to help them fill in any blanks in order to develop a personal analysis which is more detailed and complete than the one presented here. This advice is not only suggested, but is highly encouraged.
And finally, If one were to extrapolate the detail of information presented in those analysis sections into this book, one would get a better understanding of how voluminous this book would have become if a complete analysis was actually presented. It would have made this book too big to print and make the presented information exponentially harder to not only understand, but to absorb.
In short, if a complete analysis was presented, it probably would have been a hurdle too high for almost any reader to attempt to cross, and would have dissuaded them from even attempting.