Sunday saw me at a sword tournament  (a martial art called Batto-do)- this is a friend finishing a cutting mat. He had some really good cuts (and fortunately he was on my team) - this was the last cut in a sequence of 4 cuts

It was a fun day - when your performing/ doing a martial art, there is many aspects to it that require physical accomplishment, mental discipline and in parts a 'performance' - where you take you imagination to produce a situation of realism, even though only you are on show (this is called Kata). However, whilst all of this is true for the cutting (called tameshigiri in Japanese) something is required to make cutting useful to you as the martial artist.

“All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.” - B. Lee

Maybe that has some of 'something else' that is required?