is a Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 word which is used to describe practice swings used in sports such as baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

, tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

, golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

, and in martial arts. Outside of Japan, the word is used exclusively for repetitive individual cutting exercises used in Japanese martial arts

Japanese martial arts

Japanese martial arts refers to the enormous variety of martial arts native to Japan. At least three Japanese terms are often used interchangeably with the English phrase "Japanese martial arts": , literally meaning "martial way", , which has no perfect translation but means something like science,...

 such as kendo

Kendo

, meaning "Way of The Sword", is a modern Japanese martial art of sword-fighting based on traditional Japanese swordsmanship, or kenjutsu.Kendo is a physically and mentally challenging activity that combines strong martial arts values with sport-like physical elements.-Practitioners:Practitioners...

, aikido

Aikido

is a Japanese martial art developed by Morihei Ueshiba as a synthesis of his martial studies, philosophy, and religious beliefs. Aikido is often translated as "the Way of unifying life energy" or as "the Way of harmonious spirit." Ueshiba's goal was to create an art that practitioners could use to...

, iaidō

Iaido

is a modern Japanese martial art associated with the smooth, controlled movements of drawing the sword from its scabbard, striking or cutting an opponent, removing blood from the blade, and then replacing the sword in the scabbard...

, and kenjutsu

Kenjutsu

, meaning "the method, or technique, of the sword." This is opposed to kendo, which means the way of the sword. Kenjutsu is the umbrella term for all traditional schools of Japanese swordsmanship, in particular those that predate the Meiji Restoration...

. Often a shinai

Shinai

is a weapon used for practice and competition in kendo representing a Japanese sword. Shinai are also used in other martial arts, but may be styled differently from kendo shinai, and represented with different characters....

 (for kendo), bokken

Bokken

A bokken , "wood", and ken, "sword") , is a Japanese wooden sword used for training. It is usually the size and shape of a katana, but is sometimes shaped like other swords, such as the wakizashi and tantō...

, suburitō

Suburito

thumb|A SuburitoA is a heavier than normal wooden practice sword. In general suburitō are heavier than a standard wooden sword or an actual Japanese sword....

, or even tanren bō

Tanren bo

A is a bat used in aikido for strength and suburi training. Despite being only overall, with 10 inches for handle, the "blade" is a large lump of rectangular wood, with its cross-section being a square with dimension of three square inches, and have overall weight of 4 to 7 lbs.By...

 are used. An iaitō

Iaito

is the name given by practitioners of iaido to , literally meaning "mock" or "imitation sword", an imitation katana used for practicing some Japanese sword arts. A real or "live" Japanese sword is often called a shinken.-Materials and manufacture:...

 or shinken

Shinken

is a Japanese term used to describe a Japanese sword that is sharp and used for real cutting or combat, as opposed to those that are blunted for other types of practice. Today, they are primarily used for high level iaido and/or tameshigiri practice. Unlike an iaito or mogito , a shinken has a...

can also be used, albeit that is rare.

Some common types (these can vary between styles):

holding the weapon with only the left hand (which is supposed to be used as the power hand)

rapid suburi where you cut on the forward motion and assume jodan on the return motion, feet should glide on the floor. Sometimes called choyaku-men

incorporating a coordinated jumping like movement with the strike

strikes with back swings that almost touch ones lower back and forward swings which almost touch the floor

alternating diagonal strikes, cutting across the opponent's torso, starting with a cut to the left

strikes to an opponent's forehead

strikes to an opponent's forehead, starting with forward, then backward.

alternating strikes to an opponent's forehead, starting with your right-hand side.

Suburi is used as a warm up before actual practice begins, usually done in sets of ten, though sometimes sets of 100 are used (especially with naname-suburi and shomen suburi). Suburi serves to loosen the wrists (naname suburi) and elevate heart rate (haya suburi).