Rich,
There are soooooooo, many different approaches soooo many different styles, sooo many different philosophies. I think the important thing to realize is that Master Lin has put a lot of research and thought behind the system of SFQ. In fact, although we don’t necessarily have all the answers or reasons up front I would say that pretty much every aspect of the form has a purpose or even multiple purposes. Everything was well thought out from as simple as visual exercise to one movement complementing and flowing into the next.
For example the cupped hand and finger tapping you mentioned, both stimulate the meridian system of the head. Master Lins approach is covered by the comb the hair set which is similar to finger tapping stimulating and waking up the meridians. The cupped hand part helps to stimulate energy flow back into the system while complementing the stimulation of circulating the energy back into the body.
