Kenpo Salutation

1. Attention Stance. Have your right arm straight out towards 12:00 as a fist. Bring your left hand to rest on it as a blade.

2. Step your right foot forward into a right front crossover as you pull your hands near your right shoulder.

3. As you step your left foot forward into a cat stance, loop and extend your two hands (still together) towards 12:00.

4. Loop your hands. This starts with the backs of both hands together. They turn into fists and go back into chamber as you first step back with your left foot and pull your right foot to its side into an Attention Stance.

5. Step your left foot to 9:00 into a horse stance with your arms above you, hands open and creating a triangle with your index fingers and thumbs touching, palms of the hands facing outward and fingers together.

6. Hands come down and in towards you slightly, stopping in front of your chin in the “salute” position.

7. Your hands come down and in toward your chest until they ar palm to palm (fingers up) as if you were praying. Settle back into a meditative horse stance with your hands in the “salutation” position and prepare to begin your form.

The Formal Salutation has a poem that accompanies it; and there are several variations, but the theme is same.

The warrior and the scholar come together,
fight back to back to pull our country together.
We have no weapons, we hide our treasure: Kenpo,
and pray that we never have to use it.

The triangle symbolizes “Body”, “Mind”, and “Spirit” – the 3 things we train,
The “salutation” position represents our art of Kenpo,
The hands in the “praying” position are begging forgiveness for what we are about to do.
(This was presented to me as one of the “alternative” variations.