The Difference Between a Form and a FORM

Today I surfed YouTube a bit, perusing the mantis form videos. I watched a video of a student doing a mantis form and it reminded me of myself. It was technically good, but all the movements were pretty uniform in speed and intensity. When I contrast this with videos of Shaolin Monks (purists might argue their Shaolin Monkiness - but I'll use that title they give themselves) doing mantis forms the difference is beyond night and day. Of course their lives and training regimens are completely different, but I think that even those of us outside of the Kung Fu monasteries can learn from these fellow students.
First they are amazingly fast, clean and accurate. This comes from repetition and any of us can dedicate some time each day to working our forms.
Second there is contrast and dynamics in their movements. This is like the difference between a dramatic actor speaking and a Speak-And-Spell reading a script. I, personally, still do my forms very Speak-And-Spellish. I think I will pick one form to start with and work it hard until I get even a LITTLE closer to the caliber of the Shaolin Monks and their forms. Then I'll move on to other forms...

Here is one of the videos I was looking at.