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By design, American Kenpo forms start and finish in the same relative location. None of them start at one location and finish a large distance away from that initial point. Even though that during the execution of the form, the practitioner may travel relatively far distances. This does not mean that, by rule, every American Kenpo form MUST finish in the EXACT same location from where it started, even though most of them do.

 

The unwritten rule that each form must start and end in the exact same location comes from historical tournament execution. It was considered a best practice to always start and end a form in the exact same location. This was kind of a 'cheat sheet' for the judges to determine whether the practitioner's stances were always symmetrical and consistent, while also being able to tell whether the form was executed correctly or not without knowing the actual form. But, if one were to look at forms executed in modern tournaments, it is not uncommon for a form to start in one location and finish in a different location, depending upon the martial arts' style and practitioner.

 

Short Form three is one of those forms that does not end up in the exact same location from which it started. If executed with consistently standard stance dimensions, Short Form Three should end up within one (1) stance distance from where it started. But, since it is so close to the starting point, some practitioners like to vary stance depths slightly throughout the form in order to force the form to end up in the same location. This practice is a personal preference and is not part of the idealized execution of the form, and is not recommended; but is recognized as a common variation.