<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation:  Forms and Sets > Form 4 > Analysis > Detail

Analysis detail can roughly be defined as the degree of thoroughness of the data being presented.

 

Understanding this aspect of any analysis is essential to also understanding what information one may be able to personally compile and what to expect from the data being presented. In other words, it is important to know the level of intended detail comprising any analysis of a form.

 

For example, is this information of a highly precise, explicit, and complete manner? Or, on the other hand, is the information simply an overview, mostly lacking in specificity? Or, is it somewhere in between?

 

In this book series, there has been an intentional design choice to try and strike a balance between complexity of the form against thoroughness of the analysis. Presented another way, the less complex the form (i.e. Short Form One), the more thorough the analysis. But, as the form complexity increases, the complexity of the data also increases in kind, but the overall thoroughness of the illustrated information decreases.

 

This design decision was made to keep each book in the series to a more manageable length. Otherwise, as the forms increased in complexity the analysis would also be forced to increase in both complexity and length; an almost an order of magnitude scale to maintain thoroughness. This would result in the final analysis being highly detailed, yet overly drawn-out, and far too daunting a task to try and consume for almost every reader. Therefore, defeating the purpose of these guides as a useful and enlightening reference.

 

Furthermore, Form Four is a highly complex and long form. Consequently, a complete and highly thorough analysis of this form would not only be an arduous task, but it would ultimately end up in a lengthy and hard to read (and potentially hard to understand) tome of data that would overshadow the rest of the book. An analysis to this degree of detail would most definitely mire the reader in minutia for extended periods of time. And, its length alone would deter all but the most ardent researcher from attempting to delve into the resultant data.

 

Hence, it is the goal of this section of this specific guide to strike a subjective balance between being overly detailed and being overly general - with a heavy skew toward detail. A specific decision was made to include as many important details as possible without overly inundating the reader with details of less importance at this level of analysis of the forms.

 

Therefore, it is assumed that the reader has at least a general understanding of form analysis, its purpose, and the mental structure from which it is accomplished; when consuming the information of this analysis. Because of this, it is suggested that the reader not use the following analysis of Form Four as their introduction into an analysis of the American Kenpo forms. Although this can be done, be aware it may leave the reader more confounded than enlightened.

 

Instead, it is suggested that the reader first get a general understanding of the mindset that is required to fully absorb the data being illustrated within this section. When this is done, then return to this area of the book to study and/or reference the data - with a mind more attuned to this mode of thinking.

 

A good place to start understanding the foundational mental framework required for this type of form analysis is the first book in this series: "The Official EPAKS Guide to Short Form One - Chapter 7 - Analysis of Short Form One". Then for a far more complex, yet slightly less complete example of a detailed analysis can be found in: "The Official EPAKS Guide to Short Form Three (or Long Form Three) - Analysis".

 

And finally, if the reader does not wish to take on such a task at this time, simply scan the data within this section to see if it makes sense to them. If it does, that's good. Continue to research the data further. If not, simply skip over this section of the book and move onto the following sections, until such time that one is able to successfully understand and absorb the analysis information.

 

It is hoped that by reading and referencing the books in this series, one will ultimately gain the ability to not only understand the analysis, but also be able perform their own analysis - using these books as their tutor and guide.

 

In the end, it is the purpose and aim of this series to help provide a greater understanding to the practitioners of American Kenpo about, not only the forms, but the system as a whole; by providing information that one can not only learn from, but reference at will to reinforce prior knowledge.