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Often, the head bow and meditating horse at the beginning of the salutation and the head bow at the end of the salutation are omitted. This is such a common practice that it is now almost arguable that the head bow and the beginning meditating horse are considered the variations and the standard is to exclude them.

 

A lesser-known variation is whether the signifying hand touched or hovered over the backstop hand. If the signifying hand was touching the backstop hand, this indicated that the form being executed was of a stylized execution style and modified from the idealized style of execution. But, if the signifying hand hovered over the backstop hand, this indicated that the form was to be executed without any modification and in an idealized execution style. The exceptions to this rule are the forms five and six. The forms five and six would always have the signifying hand touch the backstop hand.

 

One well known, but often discarded, variation is to signify on both sides of the body or just a single side. Signifying on a single side of the body indicated that the form would be executed on only that side. For instance, if the signification was only given on the right side, then only the right side of the form would be executed. But, if given on both sides of the body, then both the left and right side of the form would be executed. This variation is specifically indicative of Short Form One - which is commonly executed on both the right and left side for competition.

 

There are a number of other variations to the salutation and signifying that have appeared over time which have become part of the standard way of signifying a form. Some of the variations are widely used, some are not well known, but each of the variations is optionally applied as needed.