Haya Suburi footwork

I trained in another dojo in another country during my winter break and I have found some ambiguity in the footwork of haya suburi.

My dojo taught us to jump while striking (we trained by placing out shinai horizontally in front of us and jumping over it while we strike- jumping in 4 steps) yet the other dojo told me that for haya suburi it is a 'slide' of the right foot and not a lift.

I was just wondering if both are correct and they are regional differences or if one is wrong and the other correct.

Many thx in advance!

Answer: I am not too sure what you mean by jumping in 4 steps. But haya suburi in general is shown here.

As I describe here, I used the term, choyaku shomen uchi, for haya suburi at my dojo in Japan. Choyaku means “jumping”. So it is a jumping suburi. But please do not just “jump”. It should still maintain the basic footwork of kendo.

The term, haya, means “rapid”. So as long as the strikes are rapid, it is OK to slide. I always instruct rapid suburi with sliding as the initial introduction of haya suburi.

What we have to remember is that most of people refer haya suburi as “rapid jumping suburi”. Unless instructed, you do not do haya suburi with sliding.

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