The most important thing any practitioner of American Kenpo must understand about the forms is what they are and what they are not. In order to understand what an American Kenpo form is, one must first understand the purpose of the forms. From a high-level, general point of view, the main purpose of the forms is to convey information to the practitioner about the American Kenpo system. This information can be expressed in a number of ways, ranging from how to defend one's self to purely theoretical and conceptual information. For American Kenpo, the forms are designed to teach the rules and principles of motion and to help the practitioner expand their comprehension of reverses and opposites by demonstrating both physical and conceptual categorizations through a collection of examples; in an organized manner. What the forms are not designed to be is an imaginary fight against a single or multiple opponents.
Although American Kenpo forms may be viewed through a perspective of a combat situation, a great many practitioners make the erroneous assumption that this is the principal way one must think about and interpret them. This assumption generally comes from a few, distinct venues.
First, a large number of martial arts systems actually compose their forms in this fashion. Because of this, it is natural for one to assume that American Kenpo is also structured in this way. Secondly, almost everyone visualizes an opponent in some way while executing their form. Visualization of an opponent has many redeeming qualities. For example, it is often used as a teaching aid, to focus strikes and maneuvers, while also helping provide psychological motivation to the execution of the form. Because of the convenience and benefits of visualization, many practitioners will then make the assumptive leap into trusting that this is how the form is intended to be perceived, when in reality it is largely intended to be an important and convenient tool to help transfer physical and conceptual information to the practitioner.
All this is not to say that thinking of American Kenpo forms from the lens of combat is wrong, it is not. It is just not the primary purpose of the forms. This dichotomy of perception can be further displayed in the style in which the form is being performed, either idealistic or stylistic. See "Execution of Short Form Three - Execution Style" of this guide for more on this subject.
In contrast to many other martial arts styles, American Kenpo forms are defined as:
A predefined series of maneuvers that:
1)show the rules and principles of motion,
2)that everything has a reverse and an opposite,
3)by giving an example
Another way to look at it is: an American Kenpo form can be thought of as a large packet of information used to lay out the information of the American Kenpo system through physical demonstration. It is intended that not only the physical motion be learned, but also the information, thus continuing an unbroken line of succession from instructor to student. In other words, it is intended that one not only learn the how of the forms, but also the why of the forms.
One other thing one must consider about this line of thinking is that it is not always possible, nor intended, that the instructor convey all the information about a specific form. Instead, the instructor should expose enough information and structured thought to the student that they are able to fill in any missed or omitted information about the form, by self-analyzing the physical motions to expose the information that is literally hidden in plain site. Although it is the instructor's responsibility to start the student down the proper path of thought and information, it is primarily the responsibility of the student to learn this information and to continue to expose new information about the forms as they progress through the ranks. Exposing the information in the forms can come from self-analysis, discussion with peers and seniors, observation of others and/or learning resources, to name a few sources.
Examining the entire framework of the American Kenpo forms from the knowledge obtained from learning a single form can be very difficult to near impossible. But, as the practitioner begins to learn more forms and more information about each form, patterns and threads should begin to emerge not only within a single form, but between forms and throughout all the forms as a whole. For example, through some high level analysis of the forms as a whole, one of the first things that should begin to become apparent is that their appears to be three (3) categories of forms. This appearance is correct. The name of the concept associated with this observation is called the Dictionary / Encyclopedia / Appendix analogy. Whereas dictionaries define individual words, encyclopedias explain things and concepts in greater detail; while appendices expand and expound upon a small or focused area of information. Using this analogy as an explanation of the observation, one can quickly and easily create a direct correlation between each analogy category and each form / set.
The first four forms, i.e., the one's (1's) and the two's (2's), appear to have a slightly different style than the higher forms. These forms fall into the 'dictionary' category. They are commonly referred to as defining motion. By this it is meant that these forms concentrate more on the basics and demonstrating their opposites and reverses, and less upon the concepts and theories.
The higher forms, i.e., the three's (3's) and up, appear to be far more complex than the lower forms. These forms fall into the 'encyclopedic' category. These forms, in contrast to the dictionary forms, lean more toward concentrating on the concepts and theories of American Kenpo and less towards the physical opposites and reverses.
The remaining type of form is very different from all the other forms. They are so different, in fact, that they even have a different name - i.e., set. These forms fall into the 'appendix' category. By this it is meant that these forms have a very narrow scope. In other words, these forms concentrate and explore the information present within specific genre of information / motion.
This and other types of analysis of the forms allows the practitioner to bring clarity to the forms that would otherwise be overlooked and / or lost over time. But, armed with the resources presented in this and the other books in this series and information learned from instructors and peers, one should be able to start down the path of properly analyzing and understanding American Kenpo forms more effectively and efficiently. Communication, observation, deconstruction, examination, and study of the forms should expose more and more information over time and become easier and easier with practice, hard work, and patience.
Finally, now that the practitioner is presented with multiple perspectives in which to understand American Kenpo forms, which perspective is the correct one? Which one(s) should be used during execution of the form? And, which one(s) during analysis? First, there is no absolute 'correct' way in which to perceive American Kenpo forms, as long as the practitioner understands that there are different perspectives and that each has value when applied properly.
For instance, during execution, one might decide to visualize an opponent and not information about the form. While, another practitioner might come to the opposite conclusion. Each is free to choose which perspective is best for them at the time. Where one practitioner works best visualizing an opponent, another may be just as happy reviewing information as they progress through the form. As long as it is understood that there is information contained in the forms and it's motions beyond that of just visualizing an opponent in a combat situation, one is free to perceive the form as they see fit.
But, as a word of caution, one should not exclude other perspectives from their progress into understanding of American Kenpo forms just because they have a preferred or dominant perspective. In other words, its OK to prefer to look at things from a particular point of view, just don't discount or exclude other points of view. Be open to them, they may teach you something valuable or expose you to something that may have otherwise remained hidden to you.