Welcome to the KenpoPedia > Forms > Form 5 > Frequently Asked Questions > What physical and conceptual progressions exist within Form Five?

Form Five, like the rest of the American Kenpo forms, expands upon previous physical and mental foundations, while also expanding into new areas of exploration. And like the rest of the forms, does this in a logical and progressive manner. One common way to more easily categorize the themes of Form Five, is to mentally break them down into upper body, lower body, and general themes. But, for the sake of brevity and clarity, this answer will not be broken apart into those specific categories. Rather, this answer will present the themes in a more conceptually progressive manner; allowing the reader to extract and categorize specific areas of study based upon their own needs.

To start with, one should note that the beginning execution of the form has the upper and lower body movements working in harmony with each other (aka directional harmony). In other words, moving in similar and complementary directions. Then, as the form progresses, the form switches these elements to working in opposition to each other (aka opposing forces). In other words, in divergent and opposing directions.

Next, there is the concept of aggressive maneuvers (aka strikes). This diverse theme covers a number of areas, such as: backed (aka vise-like) vs non-backed (striking); employing different elements of one's environment, such as self vs other environmental objects (e.g. the floor); exploring how an aggressive maneuver can be applied (e.g. weapon to target, target to weapon, target to environment, etc.); and what can be used as an aggressive maneuver (e.g. natural weapon vs man-made weapon).

This prior exploration then can be expanded into one major theme of the form, destabilization (aka take-downs). The form delves into a variety of methods (e.g. from top, bottom, both, front, back, etc.) and also explores the degrees of a take-down (e.g. sweeps, buckles, throws, combinations of upper and lower maneuvers working together, etc.).

Also, this general thematic structure may be further expanded to concentrate specifically upon lower body maneuvering, such as: kicks (e.g. chicken), stances (e.g. twist, concave, convex [aka diamond], etc.), stomps, hops, jumps, and leaps. This lower body theme may then be expanded into another theme of the form; three-on-line. This three-on-line theme was initially started way back in Long Form One's isolation sequence and continues to be expanded upon up to and through Form Five. In Form Five, one way this expansion is accomplished is with specific foot maneuvers that work three stepping maneuvers on line throughout the form.

And finally, one should also notice that the self-defense techniques in Form Five expand upon the base concepts of Form Four, not only with the base maneuvers of the self-defense sequences, but by also adding necessary extra maneuvers (aka extensions) where needed, to fulfill the overall themes expressed earlier in this answer.