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Often, the head bow and meditating horse at the beginning of the salutation and the head bow at the end of the salutation are omitted. This is such a common practice that it is now almost arguable that the head bow and the beginning meditating horse are considered the variations and the standard is to exclude them.

 

A lesser-known variation is whether the signifying hand touched or hovered over the backstop hand. If the signifying hand was touching the backstop hand, this indicated that the form being executed was of a stylized execution style and modified from the idealized style of execution. But, if the signifying hand hovered over the backstop hand, this indicated that the form was to be executed without any modification and in an idealized execution style.

 

But there is a notable execution to this general rule: Form Five and Form Six. In these forms the signing hand always touches the backstop hand. The historical context for this change in signification comes from the fact the Form Four was originally designed to be the last form of the system. Then, the system was amended to include the higher forms. This was originally intended to display that these forms were a modification from the idealized style of the system as a whole. But as time goes on, this signification variation becomes less and less important, to the point that many years after the founder's passing the distinction becomes almost meaningless and just an artifact of history to be noted in a book like this one.

 

That being said, the tradition of varying the signification in this manner still remains fairly strong, but the reason for it less so. It is up to the practitioners to decide for themselves if it will continue or fade into obscurity and become just a historical footnote.

 

For more information on this specific subject of Form Four, refer to "The Official EPAKS Guide to Form Four - History".

 

Another often discarded variation in signing is whether to signify on both sides of the body or only a single side. In the case of signifying on a single side of the body, this indicated that the form would be executed on only the signified side. In contrast, if the signification was displayed on both sides of the body, then both this indicated that both the left and right side of the form were to be executed.

 

For example, if the signification was only given on the right side, then only the right side of the form would be executed. Realistically speaking, this variation is most commonly attached to the execution of the dictionary forms; and more specifically, Short Form One. This signing variation was to display on both the right and left side within competition and was done mostly for the purpose of making these shorter forms longer by doubling them in length.

 

One of the main problems that does arise from this practice is that the original meaning and purpose of this variation becomes obscured in successive generations. These newer generations of practitioners become to belief that the extended execution is the idealized execution of the form - not an extended, stylized execution. Execution stylized for competition, and not part of the base design of the system.

 

For more information on this subject, refer to the "Execution - Execution Style" section of this guide.