Forms and Sets > Long Form 1 > Frequently Asked Questions > Why is there only one cat stance near the beginning of the form?

The cat stance serves a number of purposes:

First it introduces the concept of a call-out or highlighted move. This concept can be described as - a maneuver that stands out from other moves in a form for the purpose of calling attention to information that the move exposes in the form.

Second, it introduces the concept of "previews of things to come." This concept can be described as - a specific maneuver that introduces the practitioner to information that is not specifically detailed in the current form, but will be detailed in a future form. In this case, this maneuver previews the concept of an intersection - which is detailed in depth in Short Form Two.

Third, this maneuver highlights the Economy of Motion principle for Step Through reverse maneuvers. It forces the practitioner to anchor their rear (left) heel to the ground, thus illustrating that the Step Through reverse foot maneuver should be executed the same way. This is necessary because a common mistake for beginning practitioners is to "break their heel" while executing the Step Through reverse. "Breaking the heel" refers to lifting and sliding the heel to its new position prior to executing the Step Through reverse - rather than anchoring the heel to the floor and pivoting on the ball of the foot during the execution of the Step Through reverse. Executing the Step Through reverse and "breaking the heel" breaks the principle of Economy of Motion and should be corrected. For more information about correcting improper moves in Long Form One, see the "Improving Your Execution of Long Form One" section of this book.

Fourth, this maneuver introduces the concept of "most everything you can do with your upper body, you can do with your lower body." This concept is fairly self explanatory and up to this maneuver only the upper body was used to maneuver into the intersection position - via double factoring blocks. With this maneuver both the lower and upper body are drawn into the intersection position, highlighting the above concept.

Finally, the above analysis is limited to only the information pertinent to this form and further analysis of this maneuver should be done by the reader to expose more information beyond this scope. In other words, there is more information that is contained in this simple maneuver, but is beyond the scope of just Long Form One analysis. The reader is encouraged to analyze this maneuver further utilizing the information that is presented in the higher forms.