Welcome to the KenpoPedia > Forms > Form 5 > Frequently Asked Questions > Why does Form Five start from a horse stance and not the attention stance?

As mentioned in the previous question, Form Five is the next progression of integrating the salutation into the form itself. With this next logical step, the ending attention stance of the full form salutation was eliminated, and instead, the form is started (e.g. the beginning of Destructive Fans) from the final horse position.

The major reasons why this specific position was chosen was:

a) it is the final position of the salutation (prior to the attention stance)

b) it is a position that is inconvenient to start from; thus, highlighting the out of position theme of the form

c) the horse stance is the same general starting position of the lower forms (e.g. the one's and two's), with only a change in hand positioning

Furthermore, although Form Five is typically classified as an encyclopedic form (not a dictionary form), it starts more similar to a dictionary form (from a horse stance). This change to the standard way in which an encyclopedic form is started up to now (from an attention stance), indicates that Form Five starts a new classification of form within the American Kenpo system. This classification is often referred to as an extension form. All forms at and beyond Form Five fall into this classification.

For more information on this subject, see "The Salutation" portion of this or prior books in this series.