Forms and Sets > Long Form 3 > Frequently Asked Questions > What are the major themes of Long Form Three?

One perspective of understanding what an American Kenpo form is, is to view them as packets of information, with each packet concentrating on specific types of information. From this point of view, some of the information will present itself in more obvious ways, while other pieces of information will be less easily detected or outright obscured and/or hidden. When talking about the forms from this perspective, the more prominent, distinguishable, or just repetitive information is referred to as a theme.

Using this as general definition of a theme, one can superficially analyze a form and derive some of the most pronounced thematic characteristics of that form. In the case of Long Form Three, these outstanding elements include:

•the horse stance

•applied (dead) aggressions (a.k.a. grabs, hugs, holds, locks, chokes, etc.)

•linear to circular motions and vice versa

•vice-like (opposition like) maneuvers

Using these themes as a basis of analysis into a broader view of the forms, another conclusion can be ascertained. These themes can be broken down into different categories. These categories are:

•foundational (or base / stance) theme

•self-defensive (or defense / offense) theme

•conceptual (or subject of physical attention) theme

This theme categorization is a broader view of the forms because if this observation holds true for the rest of the American Kenpo forms, these same thematic categories could be used as a basis for determining the themes for all the other forms of the system. And indeed, this proposed assessment is accurate.

Therefore, if one is trying to understand any American Kenpo form in the system, they can start by trying to determine the form's major themes by using these general thematic categories. First, determine the most predominant stance (a.k.a. base), then the overall self-defensive format, and finally any over-arching physical threads or other directly related attributes that spans the motions of the form.

Using this scheme, one can begin to re-create the mental framework under which the American Kenpo forms were originally formulated.

And finally, understanding all of this helps one to understand why each of the forms expresses the unique physical traits that they do. In short, because their general themes directly affect physical manifestation, and ultimately highly influences an observer's overall impression of the form. Another way to say this is: theme influences observation and impression, and observation and impression is manipulated by theme. It's just a matter of perspective.