Suburi at home

[Simon Chien]

Hi Everyone ,

I am curious about what kind of suburi practice did you do at home when there's no class in the dojo ?

Since I go to dojo once a week , I'll do the following suburi everyday ( if I stay at home rather than travel to other city) :

Quantity hand holding on Shinai
----------- ----------------- ---------------------- --------------------
150 left hand end of tsuka 500 g
150 right hand near tsuba 500 g
150 both normal 500 g
150 both normal 1000 g

How about your suburi practice ?

Regards,

[gszab]

Hi there!

I ment to use an iaito if i want to practice suburi at home. It is a little bit shorter and heavier thana shinai, so i dont hit the ceiling of my room and it is fairly stregthening.
I usually do only shomen suburi and katate suburi for about half an hour.

[KhawMengLee]

jeez...you guys make me feel slack...well I am anywayz....

I do about 3 sets of 50 Hiya Suburi and thats it.

Maybe about a 100 one handed with a wine bottle filled with sand.

MENG

[kendokamax]

I don't do any suburi at home,

I have to start to do that soon I guess.

but too lazy to remember to do so.

[lewis]

I do either 200 or 500 jogeiburi with a 1500g suburito everyday, depending on whether it is a day of weight training (500 on the off day).

I do it primarily for my wrist and hand (grip) strength, arms and shoulders I get from weight training. I recently purchased a Brazilian-made Miyazaki suburito that is very blade heavy but still shorter than my Musashi oar style suburito, making it an even better wrist work out.

[taiwnezboi]

lewis: what's a suburito?

[Ian Russell]

Originally posted by taiwnezboi
lewis: what's a suburito?

If I may reply... Suburito (no, its not mexican foodstuff) usually look like oversized bokuto (aka bokken), used for strength training in a similar manner as the tanren bo (usually bigger)).

For a visual aid, look here about midway down for a side by side comparison of bokuto and suburito.

Cheers,

[taiwnezboi]

ohhh.. thanks Ian.. yeah I use the "tanren bo".. I think most people use that?

[saki_wooah]

my ceiling is too low, I tried once... and I don't the time to. I know I should... I have 3 practices per week, which isn't too bad.

[Aoi]

Due to my work, I can only train once or twice a week as well. Until two years ago, I used to do about 1000 every morning in my so called "garden"... (more likely a "space" between my house and the neighbour...) Now I'm very slack, and I only do suburi on weekends. I try to do at least 1000 on Saturday and 2000 on Sunday. 200 jogeburi as a warm-up to loosen the shoulders and the wrist, then shomen for the rest. It depends on how I feel on the day, but I try to keep the suburi to big but fast ikkyodo. Did use tanrentou a while... quite a while back, but should be careful with the useage of it, for I know a couple of people who did injure their shoulders from over doing suburi with it.
My sensei, though he is in his 70s, does 3000 every morning... just thought I'll add that in.
hmmm I should try to do more suburi... Thanks for reminding me!

[Simon Chien]

Hi Aoi,

The arm of your sensei must be as big as his thigh. 3000 suburis every morning ! That's the total for a whole week for me !

By the way , can you explain a little bit about " jogeburi " ? What's the difference between jogeburi and suburi ? Thanks !

Hi lewis,

A sempai at dojo told me not using anything over 1000 g for suburi training since one get her or his shoulder hurt easily using over-weighted suburito or bo. Is that true ? May be it wo'nt be a problem for you since your are as strong as Tarzen !

Hi MENG ,

Gee ! A wine bottle filled with sand seems to be a good solution for me since I travel a lot. Thanks ! By the way , can you explain what is Hiya Suburi ? Jumping Suburi ? If yes , where do you think that the shinai should stop when jumping to the front ? as high as the head or under the knee ? I saw both of them. Do'nt know which one is correct.

Hi gszab,

It's a good idea to swing a iaito for suburi. I'd like to try it once I get my iaito.

[lewis]

Really heavy suburito can be very damaging - especially if you try to do shomen or practice kote with them. Stopping a very heavy weapon can easily do damage because it puts way too much stress on the joints. That's why you should limit suburito use to jogeiburi. Switch to a shinai or bokken for everything else.

Simon: jogeiburi is the really big motion suburi with no snap at the end. All the way back to touch your tailbone (softly) and all the way forward to (almost) the floor. Use your right hand only for guiding. Left hand does all the lifting and pulling and should get tired quickly.

Simon - again: I used to have a cheap weight set that had a short dumbell bar and, instead of putting it together with a weight on each side of the handle piece, I put the handle piece on one end. It was a great shoulder/arm workout (you know, 3 sets-10 reps sort of thing). That might work with the new water-fillable dumbells - just fill one side. Don't ever try suburi with it, though. You'll knock a hole in the floor on the first swing. Also, we always do jump suburi men high (note that I didn't say that is the 'correct' way to do it).

Aoi: 3000 suburis is truly amazing. My jogeiburi take about 2 seconds per swing. At that rate, 3000 suburis would take me 1 hour 40 minutes if I didn't stop for air. My arms hurt just thinking about it.

[Ares2907]

lewis: 3000 suburis is truly amazing. . .

I wonder at what point the number of suburi in a single session stops being beneficial and starts becoming ridiculous.

A sensei by the name of Chiba (whose first name escapes me) did 4000 per day in the lead up to the All Japan tournament (which he won). Not sure over what period of time this lead up involved, but I'm sure you could get into a fantastic pissing contest about who does the most suburi daily.

I'd be more interested to see studies about optimal number of suburi/shomen uchi dependent on training goals (such as muscular development, technique improvement etc etc).

[KhawMengLee]

Gee ! A wine bottle filled with sand seems to be a good solution for me since I travel a lot. Thanks ! By the way , can you explain what is Hiya Suburi ? Jumping Suburi ? If yes , where do you think that the shinai should stop when jumping to the front ? as high as the head or under the knee ? I saw both of them. Do'nt know which one is correct.

Yup, thats right, jumping suburi. But it depends, there are different variations to it. We have done hiya suburi hitting kote and men. So doing hiya suburi at joge buri(at knees) level is also valid. Basically at the dojo warmup its what the sensei says but at home you can do whatever you want.

There are also variations to kirikaeshi like doing DO cuts instead of Men. It is a bit tricky since you have to turn the DO to face the cuts instead of moving the shinai left to right.

ps. you can use a wine bottle filled with anything. Even sitting down to build up strenght in the cutting arm. But one should not neglect good suburi with proper foot and hand movements. The cut involves the whole body not just the hands.

remember, Ki-Ken-Tai Ichi! (Spirit, Sword and Body as one)

PEACE
MENG

[Vagabond]

Talking about sand and suburi, anyone tried suburi at the beach? I tried and can tell you, its a leg killer.