Are forms emotional?

[Ivan]

I've always considered katas and forms an exercise used not only to improve technique but to focus. That is, not to concentrate on what you feel, but to concentrate on your breathing, technique, and relax at the same time. Like a form of meditation.
Whenever I practice a form, I either concentrate on executing it as best as possible or/and imagining an opponent to which I am applying the techniques to. This is standard teaching as far as I am aware.

But different forms of art are all supposed to be expressions of emotion. We've all heard Bruce Lee's signature
"don't think, feel" but I always associated it with sparring and fighting: don't think about what you're doing or going to do, feel it. But does this apply to forms/kata?

• Am I supposed to be mindful of how the kata makes me feel, and am I supposed to express this?
• Or am I to relate the kata to personal meanings and express them through its practice?

Another reason I never thought kata to be emotional is due to its performance in competitions. For example, when you see three karatekas performing a kata in sync, they have to do the exact same movements with the exact same height, width, length whilst exposing their kiai at the exact same moments.

 

[skribs]

I've always considered katas and forms an exercise used not only to improve technique but to focus. That is, not to concentrate on what you feel, but to concentrate on your breathing, technique, and relax at the same time. Like a form of meditation.
Whenever I practice a form, I either concentrate on executing it as best as possible or/and imagining an opponent to which I am applying the techniques to. This is standard teaching as far as I am aware.

But different forms of art are all supposed to be expressions of emotion. We've all heard Bruce Lee's signature
"don't think, feel" but I always associated it with sparring and fighting: don't think about what you're doing or going to do, feel it. But does this apply to forms/kata?

• Am I supposed to be mindful of how the kata makes me feel, and am I supposed to express this?
• Or am I to relate the kata to personal meanings and express them through its practice?

Another reason I never thought kata to be emotional is due to its performance in competitions. For example, when you see three karatekas performing a kata in sync, they have to do the exact same movements with the exact same height, width, length whilst exposing their kiai at the exact same moments.

I think there's a difference between performing a kata and fighting. Especially if you're performing the kata as a group. These are precise movements.

Even then, there's a difference between training and fighting. There should be a lot more thinking during training than during fighting. You don't have the luxury of thinking during a fight. Most of the time, you're reacting to what your opponent does, and you're executing your plans that you've developed during training.

In addition to martial arts, I also enjoy video games. Lately, I've been watching videos from a professional Starcraft 2 player nicknamed Harstem. He's currently ranked #31 in the world. He'll often go through replays of professional games and analyze what they did (or sometimes what he did) and what mistakes were made and how it could be done better. One of his videos, he's explaining how the counter to his opponent should have been obvious, but it wasn't a strategy he'd seen in a while. Because he wasn't prepared for it, it took him a long time to realize the appropriate response. He explained what I said above: during a match, it's really difficult to do all of this analysis on the fly. Luckily, you can do all that thinking ahead of time, and you can do analysis after to aide in thinking for the next fight.

I'd say for kata, you should be thinking. Especially if you're going to be performing it for competition or demonstration. However, for fighting, you should think while you're training, and then feel while you're sparring/fighting. And if you're doing a choreographed fight, you should be thinking on how to make it look like you're feeling. (It's called acting.)

 

[jobo]

I've always considered katas and forms an exercise used not only to improve technique but to focus. That is, not to concentrate on what you feel, but to concentrate on your breathing, technique, and relax at the same time. Like a form of meditation.
Whenever I practice a form, I either concentrate on executing it as best as possible or/and imagining an opponent to which I am applying the techniques to. This is standard teaching as far as I am aware.

But different forms of art are all supposed to be expressions of emotion. We've all heard Bruce Lee's signature
"don't think, feel" but I always associated it with sparring and fighting: don't think about what you're doing or going to do, feel it. But does this apply to forms/kata?

• Am I supposed to be mindful of how the kata makes me feel, and am I supposed to express this?
• Or am I to relate the kata to personal meanings and express them through its practice?

Another reason I never thought kata to be emotional is due to its performance in competitions. For example, when you see three karatekas performing a kata in sync, they have to do the exact same movements with the exact same height, width, length whilst exposing their kiai at the exact same moments.

i find forms emotional, the emotion is generaly irritation that im wasting my time doing it, this isnt helped by the fact we do them at the end and the class always over runs,

so not only is it largly pointless im doing it in time reserved for something more useful, generaly watching the football

 

[hoshin1600]

For myself, kata can be emotional but on a very small range of emotions. I would rather call it intensity more than emotions. In my karate forms I use analogies of classical Chinese kung fu animals. A kata can be done with a tiger feel. Very intense, strong and letting a bit of anger drive the action to dominate the opponent. Or you could use crane which is more reserved, determined but cautious of the opponent.
Some people say kata is useless and stupid but then they will go to the gun range and practice draw, extend out, fire, withdraw back to the chest and holster the firearm. They will practice their actions over and over in order to build muscle memory never realizing that it's kata. Kata is nothing more than the practice and repetition of action to build muscle memory and fluidity.
Good firearms training will include some kind of stress to simulate the adrenaline kick. Well that is how you should be doing your kara as well.

 

[JowGaWolf]

I've always considered katas and forms an exercise used not only to improve technique but to focus. That is, not to concentrate on what you feel, but to concentrate on your breathing, technique, and relax at the same time. Like a form of meditation.
Whenever I practice a form, I either concentrate on executing it as best as possible or/and imagining an opponent to which I am applying the techniques to. This is standard teaching as far as I am aware.

But different forms of art are all supposed to be expressions of emotion. We've all heard Bruce Lee's signature
"don't think, feel" but I always associated it with sparring and fighting: don't think about what you're doing or going to do, feel it. But does this apply to forms/kata?

• Am I supposed to be mindful of how the kata makes me feel, and am I supposed to express this?
• Or am I to relate the kata to personal meanings and express them through its practice?

Another reason I never thought kata to be emotional is due to its performance in competitions. For example, when you see three karatekas performing a kata in sync, they have to do the exact same movements with the exact same height, width, length whilst exposing their kiai at the exact same moments.

The phrase "feel it", in context of fighting, is not an emotional reference. It's a sensing reference. If I ask you to feel an apple, I'm not asking you to have emotion about the apple. I'm asking you to use your sense of touch. This becomes clearer, if I ask you to locate all of the soft areas of the apple.

When you do kata / form you aren't using emotion but you sensing and taking note of how your body mechanics move through the form. There is no deeper meaning to kata / forms unless you are giving a performance, but even this is optional. You don't have to have deeper meaning to kata /forms performances if you don't want to. You would win just as many medals.

One reason some teachers will say not to train with music is because music causes people to act out emotions, which is really what dancing is all about. Then you'll start looking like these people.

There's nothing wrong with what they are doing if the only thing they want is exercise and a good time. If they are looking to get fighting fit, then none of that will help.

 

[JowGaWolf]

. In my karate forms I use analogies of classical Chinese kung fu animals. A kata can be done with a tiger feel.

This is actually visualization and not emotion. I used to do the same thing when I ran cross country. I would visually an animal that could run fast for long distances and I would put my frame of mine in the ease of which that animal was able to run.

Visualization can sometimes put you in a trance. When I ran cross country, on training days I had to go in and out of visualization so I wouldn't be hit by a car. Once that visualization kicks in, everything else tends to fade away and the only thing you are focused on is that visualization. Strong and fierce like a tiger.

No one says angry like a tiger. At least I hope not

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

I've always considered katas and forms an exercise used not only to improve technique but to focus. That is, not to concentrate on what you feel, but to concentrate on your breathing, technique, and relax at the same time. Like a form of meditation.
Whenever I practice a form, I either concentrate on executing it as best as possible or/and imagining an opponent to which I am applying the techniques to. This is standard teaching as far as I am aware.

But different forms of art are all supposed to be expressions of emotion. We've all heard Bruce Lee's signature
"don't think, feel" but I always associated it with sparring and fighting: don't think about what you're doing or going to do, feel it. But does this apply to forms/kata?

• Am I supposed to be mindful of how the kata makes me feel, and am I supposed to express this?
• Or am I to relate the kata to personal meanings and express them through its practice?

Another reason I never thought kata to be emotional is due to its performance in competitions. For example, when you see three karatekas performing a kata in sync, they have to do the exact same movements with the exact same height, width, length whilst exposing their kiai at the exact same moments.

I wouldn't consider them emotional in the literal sense. But they can have the effect of impacting emotion, and IMO you should be absorbed in the form, including in 'feeling' with it, in the same 'feel' you get when fighting. Whether or not any emotional changes should impact the form is a subject for debate, and it can come down to a stylistic thing/the purpose of the form. Mostly I agree with jowga's definition of feeling, with the exception of certain forms that actually are meant to have an impact on emotion; there are some made to either calm you down or amp you up. Most systems don't have those though. I used a calming one a couple times in fencing competitions between bouts when I was doing bad/off my game. Got some weird looks, but it did wonders and let me perform well.

As for performance in competitions. Warning: rant incoming.

Form competition (and learning forms for competition) are anathema to martial arts training. You're often learning not what the form was meant to be, but instead what looks good in competition (and forms have been changed to look good for that purpose). On top of that, you're not supposed to all have the exact same movements/height/etc. When I do a form, how it looks will be different from you, if for no other fact than we have different dimensions. When you try to force those to be the same, one of us (or both) is doing something wrong. It also prevents you from working on new things-if a form requires a kick to the temple, but I can only reach the chin, then we should demo at the chin as a group to make it look better. The issue with that thinking, is that A) everyone else is now doing the form incorrectly, and B) by aiming at the chin, rather than trying to bring it up higher, I'm limiting my own growth. Another example is when people say you should look a certain way in competition, ie: Your kiai has to be at least X loud, your face should show your concentration, etc.. I disagree completely with that. The kiai one I'll address separately since that gets brought up a lot-that defeats the purpose of a kiai. It's meant to be a natural exhale, possibly a forceful one to increase strength/power. It's not meant to be the shout I've seen at competitions. That's trying to look good for the judges, and taking away from the purpose. As for everything else about the emotion you should be showing, or discipline you should be showing depending on who you ask-no. You should be doing the moves properly. And you should be expressing yourself naturally. If that's full of obvious intent, that's great, if it's not, that's fine too. But when you spend time focusing on how you're portraying yourself in the form, rather than the moves you're performing, or how you're feeling in the moment, then you're taking away from the form itself.

One argument against most of the above is that that's just how you perform in a competition, or a demo, not how you train it. I want to nip that one in the bud with two points. 1) You shouldn't have to perform differently than you normally would. If it's a competition-the judges should be well-versed in the forms to know how to evaluate them without needing that, and if it's a demo-faking how you do it is essentially lying to the people watching. 2) You can't just perform something differently on the spot. You have to actively train it to perform in a certain way, particularly at a high level (and competition forms is a high-level skill). So you're inevitably taking time away from practicing them as you should, or practicing something else, in order to get them competition-ready.

 

[paitingman]

Hmm... I don't know if emotional is the right word, but don't get thrown off by dry, or robotic seeming kata performance.
Even watching sharp group performances, the energy and vibe of one team can be noticeably different from another team doing the same kata.
Your energy and intensity should fluctuate throughout the form as you go from sequence to sequence.
This fluctuation is one thing that could have a lot of nuance and individual expression to it. People moves can be similar, but have totally different attitudes.

Watching different people perform the same form is sometimes like watching different people perform the same song.
But again, I don't know if emotion is the right word.

 

[skribs]

Form competition (and learning forms for competition) are anathema to martial arts training. You're often learning not what the form was meant to be, but instead what looks good in competition (and forms have been changed to look good for that purpose). On top of that, you're not supposed to all have the exact same movements/height/etc. When I do a form, how it looks will be different from you, if for no other fact than we have different dimensions. When you try to force those to be the same, one of us (or both) is doing something wrong. It also prevents you from working on new things-if a form requires a kick to the temple, but I can only reach the chin, then we should demo at the chin as a group to make it look better. The issue with that thinking, is that A) everyone else is now doing the form incorrectly, and B) by aiming at the chin, rather than trying to bring it up higher, I'm limiting my own growth. Another example is when people say you should look a certain way in competition, ie: Your kiai has to be at least X loud, your face should show your concentration, etc.. I disagree completely with that. The kiai one I'll address separately since that gets brought up a lot-that defeats the purpose of a kiai. It's meant to be a natural exhale, possibly a forceful one to increase strength/power. It's not meant to be the shout I've seen at competitions. That's trying to look good for the judges, and taking away from the purpose. As for everything else about the emotion you should be showing, or discipline you should be showing depending on who you ask-no. You should be doing the moves properly. And you should be expressing yourself naturally. If that's full of obvious intent, that's great, if it's not, that's fine too. But when you spend time focusing on how you're portraying yourself in the form, rather than the moves you're performing, or how you're feeling in the moment, then you're taking away from the form itself.

One argument against most of the above is that that's just how you perform in a competition, or a demo, not how you train it. I want to nip that one in the bud with two points. 1) You shouldn't have to perform differently than you normally would. If it's a competition-the judges should be well-versed in the forms to know how to evaluate them without needing that, and if it's a demo-faking how you do it is essentially lying to the people watching. 2) You can't just perform something differently on the spot. You have to actively train it to perform in a certain way, particularly at a high level (and competition forms is a high-level skill). So you're inevitably taking time away from practicing them as you should, or practicing something else, in order to get them competition-ready.

This is the same as "Jackie Chan doesn't know how to fight, all he knows is how to act." Learning forms for competition doesn't do much to make you a better fighter, but it doesn't make you a worse fighter either. Fighting has different stimulus than forms: there's actually another person there. I have never fallen into the aesthetic habits of form technique when sparring. Forms should be seen as a relatively neutral compared to training the direct, practical application. Not a negative or a positive. If anything, they are slightly positive, because you are still building habits like proper striking surface, and you are exercising.

Now, someone who drills and spars for an hour every class will get more practical training than someone who drills, spars, and does forms for 20 minutes each. There is diminishing returns with training, so it's not like that person will be 50% better at fighting than someone who spends a third of their time on forms. And for some people, the forms are what they like best, so that's what keeps them coming. Some people just want to do the forms and look good doing them.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

This is the same as "Jackie Chan doesn't know how to fight, all he knows is how to act."

This would only be an apt comparison if my statement was that learning forms for competition means you won't know how to fight. The better comparison to my statement would be "Jackie Chan would be a better fighter if he spent more time learning to fight and less time learning to act", which I think most people would agree with.

Learning forms for competition doesn't do much to make you a better fighter, but it doesn't make you a worse fighter either. Fighting has different stimulus than forms: there's actually another person there. I have never fallen into the aesthetic habits of form technique when sparring. Forms should be seen as a relatively neutral compared to training the direct, practical application. Not a negative or a positive. If anything, they are slightly positive, because you are still building habits like proper striking surface, and you are exercising.

Yes, but they are taking away time that you could be spent learning better habits, improving your abilities in a martial way, rather than attempting to keep them at a specific level, and exercising more fiercely if you wished. There's no benefit to learning forms for competition (a non-martial activity), over learning forms as they were initially intended, except that it helps promote your school.

Now, someone who drills and spars for an hour every class will get more practical training than someone who drills, spars, and does forms for 20 minutes each. There is diminishing returns with training, so it's not like that person will be 50% better at fighting than someone who spends a third of their time on forms. And for some people, the forms are what they like best, so that's what keeps them coming. Some people just want to do the forms and look good doing them.

You seem to think I'm saying forms are bad. I'm not. I like forms. I'm saying practicing forms in a way they were not intended, for a purpose that they were not intended and that does not help develop your ability, is bad. And that's what happens when schools teach people forms in a way to compete in competitions, or demos. And you can still do forms and look good doing them without training them for a judge that has set criteria on how he feels it should be performed.

 

[Flying Crane]

And you can still do forms and look good doing them without training them for a judge that has set criteria on how he feels it should be performed.

If you are using your forms training as a tool for developing your combative and self defense skills, then how you look doing them is irrelevant. “Looking good doing them” is simply not part of the equation.

If you are concerned with how you look while you practice your forms, whether for yourself or for a judge or for an uneducated audience, then you have undermined their usefulness as a tool for developing combat skills.

The only time it is relevant is when your teacher or some other appropriate, educated viewer, is viewing your form as a way of assessing your skill. And then, “looking good” takes on a different meaning. It is not for aesthetics.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

If you are using your forms training as a tool for developing your combative and self defense skills, then how you look doing them is irrelevant. “Looking good doing them” is simply not part of the equation.

If you are concerned with how you look while you practice your forms, whether for yourself or for a judge or for an uneducated audience, then you have undermined their usefulness as a tool for developing combat skills.

The only time it is relevant is when your teacher or some other appropriate, educated viewer, is viewing your form as a way of assessing your skill. And then, “looking good” takes on a different meaning. It is not for aesthetics.

I agree. My point was just that if it's important to you, looking good isn't lost by doing the form properly.

 

[isshinryuronin]

Form competition (and learning forms for competition) are anathema to martial arts training. You're often learning not what the form was meant to be, but instead what looks good in competition (and forms have been changed to look good for that purpose).

Agree 100%. If you look at old videos of the late long dead masters (Shinken Taira, Chibana Chosen, Shimabuku Tatsuo and others) doing kata, you can see that these authentic bad *** 10th degrees would not win any trophy in most tournaments today.

First off, many katas were passed on thru the years by instructors who were not fully trained in their full meaning. Some of these were judges in competitions. And the "dumbing down" (Sounds harsh, I know.) trend continued. So forms were judged on criteria stressing appearance, the gross execution of exaggerated techniques. Subtleties that made the kata actually work, not being readily noticed or seen as "attractive," were not taken into account. Much like men being attracted to women with exaggerated "visual attributes" and ignoring their brain, sense of humor or kindness - things that truly give them value.

Kata became subject to natural selection - traits that were beneficial to this competitive environment survived and became more pronounced, traits that did not contribute to trophies, atrophied. Such evolutironary adaptations work well in the performance and other kata competition environments, but don't work in the "real" (combative) martial art environment. Consider a New World tree dwelling monkey with an amazing prehensile tail and place it in a treeless savannah. That fancy tail will offer no benefit, and most likely become a liability.

Musical kata competition????? This is wrong on SO many levels. (It would take several more paragraphs to discuss them, but the subject really doesn't deserve it.) Luckily there are still a few traditional karate tournaments whose directors and judges retain the knowledge of what katas really are and (mostly) recognize those who perform them accordingly.

MTW, bet you're surprised that your post led to the channeling of Darwin and feminism!

 

[JowGaWolf]

Musical kata competition????? This is wrong on SO many levels.

That's because they are focused on dancing and not fighting , nor self-defense. Then people wonder why their kata or forms help them in a fight. Simply ask, "Where was their focus?"

Where was her focus? Surgery or dancing?
When someone says that music helps them focus. Are they focusing on the task or the music?

If the a person wants to turn there kata in to a dance, then I'm ok with that. So long as they are willing to accept that their kata will no longer serve the purpose of self-defense.

If a person wants to fight then they must train to fight.
If a person wants to be good in self-defense then they must train to use self-defense.
If a person wants to dance then they must train to dance.
A person cannot learn to fight if their training teaches them how to dance.

I train to use kung fu so that when the time comes I do what I train.

 

[_Simon_]

I've always considered katas and forms an exercise used not only to improve technique but to focus. That is, not to concentrate on what you feel, but to concentrate on your breathing, technique, and relax at the same time. Like a form of meditation.
Whenever I practice a form, I either concentrate on executing it as best as possible or/and imagining an opponent to which I am applying the techniques to. This is standard teaching as far as I am aware.

But different forms of art are all supposed to be expressions of emotion. We've all heard Bruce Lee's signature
"don't think, feel" but I always associated it with sparring and fighting: don't think about what you're doing or going to do, feel it. But does this apply to forms/kata?

• Am I supposed to be mindful of how the kata makes me feel, and am I supposed to express this?
• Or am I to relate the kata to personal meanings and express them through its practice?

Another reason I never thought kata to be emotional is due to its performance in competitions. For example, when you see three karatekas performing a kata in sync, they have to do the exact same movements with the exact same height, width, length whilst exposing their kiai at the exact same moments.

Great thread and question Ivan, certainly a topic I have thought often about!

@hoshin1600 said it very well in his post, and my thoughts are along similar lines.

Yeah I don't know if emotion is the right term I would personally use, but feeling or energy, definitely. Each kata/form has a different feel, energy or principle that it's trying to communicate to you. And no, I don't mean in a new agey "it speaks to you" sorta way, but I sort of do .

I've always seen forms as being much more than just surface level, and I include bunkai/application in that; as important as that is, there's a heap more under the surface to explore and connect with. Eg, the kata Seiunchin while meaning to grab and pull in battle and to be very rooted and grounded while doing so, it sort of commands that feeling of sinking low, being grounded, and mentally to really connect with that sense and feeling of "I am not moving, no matter what." Conjures up an elephant and the pure strength and heaviness.

When you practice forms with these sort of things in mind, it really transforms them and reveals some incredible stuff in them. Some might say it's just simply using sports psychology, and yeah for sure that's true, I guess I can see how it's more on an energetic level too how to tap into those different states of mind and particular energy, and how that not only expresses within the framework of the body but how it mentally/spiritually is instilled.

It seems as though the physical movements themselves can lend the concept as to what you should connect with mentally eg. Strong and grounded movements -> strong and grounded/immovable mind.

I know forms competition isn't everyone's cup of tea, and I agree with most the comments about it here. It's only happened a few times, but I remember watching the forms at a tournament, this one person performed and I was in tears... you could tell she just "got" it, and it was far different to all the other competitors, even performing the same form. It was like every element was in perfect union and harmony, body, mind, technique, spirit, understanding of the principles, concordant emotion/feeling on full display, freedom and self-expression... and it just knocked me out. I learned so much from watching that.

But yeah I don't mean the overly exaggerated showing of emotion, that's purely performance and you can usually tell if someone is just putting it on or genuinely expressing it. Ultimately forms should be an expression of yourself as well, so the way you express certain ideals, feelings etc will be unique to you as well. I'm also not a fan at all of the cookie cutter model that all forms should look exactly the same.

Coincidentally I actually just bought a book recently called "Karate: Beneath The Surface: Emotional Content of Kata", talks all about this (primarily Goju ryu kata, but still applicable for other styles).

And also specific techniques can also elicit these feeling connections too. But kata specifically communicate and instil in you a type of body intelligence, and delving into that is really quite fascinating!

Ah and I posted a thread a little while back on alternate exploration of kata involving what they bring up in you etc... I'll scout out and find it if it's of any use...

But as a note, these are all just my own thoughts on forms, and by no means set in stone nor should anyone feel they need to practice or see them in this way.

 

[_Simon_]

Ah here it is, similar topic but bit different

Different 'focus' in forms training

 

[_Simon_]

And of course... this is pure mastery of what I'm talking about..... the ultimate level.....

( a) not that it needed to be said at all, but this is CERTAINLY not what my post is referring to XD

and

b) Yes I know, I know... seems I can't go through a thread without posting this wonderful vid.... but when the opportunity arises I WILL post it! XD )

 

[hoshin1600]

And of course... this is pure mastery of what I'm talking about..... the ultimate level.....

( a) not that it needed to be said at all, but this is CERTAINLY not what my post is referring to XD

and

b) Yes I know, I know... seems I can't go through a thread without posting this wonderful vid.... but when the opportunity arises I WILL post it! XD )

I think that kata was very effective. Scares the bejeezus out of me. Imagine living with her and seeing that come out of her when you forget to take the trash out.

 

[Argus]

Are you practicing the forms as you intend to use them?

I don't understand why a form should be "emotional." It's not a dance. It's there to teach you something: techniques, mindset, structure, applications. You should actively practice in such a way that you:

1) Understand what you're doing, and what the form is there to teach you
2) Are practicing in the way that reflects or is beneficial to actual application
3) You can analyze for yourself what you are doing right or wrong, or can tweak, in the form.

Practicing with the correct energy, intent, and mindset is a big part of it though. If by emotional, you mean the "intent/mindset" side of things, then I definitely agree.

There are many people who just go through the motions. Then, there are those who you can tell have developed and refined their forms with the correct energy, coordination, intent, structure, and very subtle tweaks that reflect understanding of its martial application, and the habits that they have consciously worked to internalize.

It is useless to practice a form that doesn't reflect the way that you fight.
Coming from a Wing Chun background, we use forms more as a place to catalogue principles, techniques, and ideas, and develop proper structure, position, and body mechanics, more or less exactly as we intend to use them. Okay; some things are abstract and you will not use some of them exactly verbatim from the form, but the energy, structure, movement, and techniques are the same.

And in practicing forms, I can tell you that how I practice them *definitely* creates habits, good or bad, that come out in chisao or sparring. If I find, for example, that the habit of how I was shifting in the form was throwing me off balance against a larger opponent, I change the way my weight shifts when my stance shifts in the form, and practice it that way both in the forms, and in all related drills and application from there on, and benefit from that new habit. The form is there to remind me of what and how and why I do what I do, and a place to refine those things.

Consistency across the board is key. Form habits. Don't do things one way and then totally switch to something entirely different in application, or you might as well not have been practicing the other way in the first place.

Practicing forms solely for some sort of competition or just to look good is totally meaningless from a martial art perspective, in my view. I've learned to be very careful about judging other people's forms. A lot of people tweak their forms according to their experience, and if you don't understand that experience, you will not understand why they appear to do something that you might consider "wrong" in the form, when it in fact may be very valid.

 

[drop bear]

Hmm... I don't know if emotional is the right word, but don't get thrown off by dry, or robotic seeming kata performance.
Even watching sharp group performances, the energy and vibe of one team can be noticeably different from another team doing the same kata.
Your energy and intensity should fluctuate throughout the form as you go from sequence to sequence.
This fluctuation is one thing that could have a lot of nuance and individual expression to it. People moves can be similar, but have totally different attitudes.

Watching different people perform the same form is sometimes like watching different people perform the same song.
But again, I don't know if emotion is the right word.

Emotional content?