The shape of each character reflects the movement
of traditional brush strokes: (1) Stop, (2) Release,
and (3) Hook.
The "stop" ending requires that you stop the motion of
the pen abruptly before lifting the pen off the paper.
The "release" ending requires that you gradually lift
the pen from the paper resulting in tapering off of the stroke.
The "hook" ending requires that you change the direction
of the stroke and taper off immediately resulting in a short hook-like
appearance. The direction of the hook is fixed for each character.
Study the chart again and identify the stroke endings.
Two separate strokes may appear connected in a cursory writing or in printed font. For example, the hiragana り on the far left has two separate strokes, but it may appear as one continuous stroke as shown to its right. Similarly, hiragana さ has three strokes to begin with, but it may appear as having only two strokes as shown on the far right. When you practice writing these characters, write separate strokes as separate strokes. Do not connect strokes in the way you have never seen written or printed.
In contrast, one stroke will never be separated into two separate strokes. For example, hiragana ち has only two strokes to begin with as shown on the left. This will never be written as three strokes as shown on the right.