American Kenpo, unlike many traditional martial arts, had the ability to go back to the founder - to determine the original design and preserve it. These guides are a manifestation of that ability. They are clear and precise paths back to the origin of the form. Back to the founding of its purpose and "standard" execution. They are a guide to bring clarity and aid the present day practitioner in their journey of American Kenpo. They are not intended to disparage X generation practitioner.
The "standard" presented within this guide was meticulously collated from a first generation perspective, with many variations being sourced back to their origin. This is not to say that these variations are malicious, just that their permanent execution may detract from the information that Form Five was intended to contain. There is an American Kenpo adage that says: "there is no meaningless motion". This adage is especially true within the forms. Every form maneuver was added for a purpose. Modifications to this base set of maneuvers will almost invariably cause modifications to the form's information.
Long Five, like most of the other American Kenpo forms has had various departures arise over time from what one may consider its "standard" execution. Like all things, personal idiosyncrasies and misinterpretations can make their way into the execution of any complex series of maneuvers such as Form Five. The major problem with such variations is not the changes themselves per say, but rather the alteration of information that is intended to be conveyed by the form. Seemingly innocuous modifications can have a deleterious effect on what the form was originally intended to impart onto the practitioner.
Almost always, a permanent variation, either intentional or unintentional, arose without the knowledge that the change would also alter some piece of information within the form. Again, not through malice, but generally through a lack of understanding of the specifics of that information.
As illustrated in the "Execution" section of this guide, the practitioner is encouraged to make the form their own by developing their own personal take on its execution. What is not encouraged is to then fold that stylistic rendition back into the "standard" execution of the form. Doing so not only alters the original information set, but it also robs the student of the ability to take that exemplar execution and tailor it to their liking - uninfluenced by their instructor. Instead, the student would be forced to personalize an already personalized form.
And, after a number of generations of folding the personalized form back into the previous "standard", one can easily predict that the starting original "standard" form would hardly be recognizable. Also, the original intended information would be nearly impossible to extract from this highly stylized version.
Finally, at some point it would invariably become arguable that the new practitioner is no longer executing the same form as the original "standard". And even further, this practitioner would swear that what they learned is the "standard" execution of the form; completely unaware of the many modifications that occurred prior to their generation.
To short circuit this very real scenario, these guides are put forth as a form of historically accurate documentation; not one of authority or superiority. Their overall intent is to present facts unaltered by any personal bias, agenda, or lineage (other them SGM Parker's). But ultimately, it is left up to the reader to determine if they find this information useful or not. And, whether to incorporate it into their personal advancement in the art - or not.
In other words, the information and the guides themselves are tools primarily for preserving originality of the art back to its source. An ability nearly unique to the art of American Kenpo. They can be thought of as historical touchstones for all future generations of American Kenpo practitioners. An unalterable direct link back to the origin; presented in a factual manner.