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Generally speaking, modifications to the form occur from changes to footwork, upper body work, or a combination of the two (2).

 

Form Five has a lot of detailed lower body maneuvers and footwork, both isolated and in tandem with upper body maneuvers. And, all of these maneuvers are executed on precisely defined execution and transitional angles to create a very specific pattern. Therefore, modifications to foot pattern angles and/or transitional angles would invariably alter at least the categorical information contained within the form. Because of this, the practitioner should become aware of how changes to those angles affect this type of information.

 

Categorical information can be defined as specific types of data that is collated together to form a category; where each element of the data, when combined, forms a complete category. In American Kenpo, this process is referred to as Category Completion. Within this context, lower body maneuvers, angles of stepping, types of stepping, and combinations of lower / upper body maneuvering can be combined to create a category of motion. Changes to any of the elements of the category can affect the category, by eliminating one of the distinct elements of that category.

 

For example, let's say that within a form the stepping maneuvers purposely demonstrate a 0, 45, 90, 135, and 180 degree step and rotation to then change the attention to a new point of reference. The form was meticulously put together to demonstrate this specific idea - along with a host of other information the form contained. Then a new practitioner learns the form and decides to change some of the angles within it.

 

Again, for example, let's say this practitioner changed (or misinterpreted) the 90 and 135 degree footwork to 45 and 180 degree step and rotations. What would happen to the information of the form? It would be changed. The original intention of that specific category would be compromised. The original category would no longer exist as designed. It would not be complete.

 

One might ask; "why would the practitioner change the angles if they knew it would change the form's information?" Well, what if the practitioner didn't know that the form was designed to convey that specific category of information. In other words, that piece of information was lost in translation to the practitioner. Instead, most of the other information about the form was correctly conveyed; but that specific information was not. Therefore, the practitioner made the change without fully understanding how that change really did affect the original design of the form.

 

Does any of this make the practitioner bad? No, just ill-informed (or not corrected). Information that was the responsibility of the instructor to convey was not properly passed down. Therefore, the practitioner made what they believed to be innocuous angle changes (or none); but in reality, changed an important piece of categorical information within the form.

 

Form Five has a somewhat similar situation with a well-known general variation to it that developed very near the beginning of its creation. This general variation is referred to as the Santa Monica circles. The name arises from the American Kenpo studio in which this variation started; the Santa Monica studio in California.

 

Within this studio, the students began adding exaggerated transitional circles to upper body maneuvers, along with mumbling some of the precise foot maneuver transitions. The effect was that it gave the form a flowery flare; rather than a cleaner and precise feel. This variation was most pronounced within the transitions from Destructive Fans to Dance of Death and sides of Dance of Death, where the blocks changed from being precisely executed blocks to circular parries and the transitional stances were highly down played. But, this same type of flowery stylization was sprinkled throughout other areas of the form.

 

And, although this variation did "spice up" the form with more visual flare, it also had the downside of being folded back into the form as the "standard" way of executing it. Many practitioners within this specific lineage now consider this variation as the "standard" execution of the form. Again, many not knowing either the origin of the variation, or the affect it has on the overall information intended to be contained within the form.

 

This specific stylistic variation was chosen to be highlighted because it is an excellent exemplar as to how modifications to the form can easily make their way into becoming a "standard" execution, without a full understanding of how those modifications also modify the information of the form. But also, because it demonstrates how a "cool factor" variation can slip into the "standard" execution without much resistance.

 

And finally, it demonstrates how a stylistic variation can proliferate over time. Santa Monica was an important studio of its era. It influenced a number of first and second generation practitioners. And, those individuals proliferated their way of executing Form Five to a number of downstream practitioners.