Follow, break, transcend (the three stages of learning)

Supari (수파리) is a kumdo term for the stages a practitioner goes through in martial training. Korean sources describe it as a concept of training stages in kumdo.

Each of its three characters names one stage:

• Su (수, 守) – follow: literally "to keep the teaching". The practitioner faithfully absorbs the principles and fundamentals set by the teacher through constant repetition. They do not stray from them or waver at what other teachers do.
• Pa (파, 破) – break: building on those principles and fundamentals, the practitioner breaks the mould and creates an original approach relying on their own character and ability. One Korean source says the practitioner may, with the teacher's permission, learn from other teachers without discarding everything learned so far. The same source says training in this stage is conscious and planned.
• Ri (리, 離) – transcend: the practitioner moves away from what was learned from their own and other teachers and establishes their own view of kumdo. Free of attachments, practice becomes natural and unconscious. It is described as the final stage of training.

A Korean source adds that the three stages are not passed through only once. They recur with every technique the teacher passes on, from beginner to advanced level.

Sources disagree on the term's origin. One Korean source calls it originally a Buddhist term, while another attributes it to Japanese Zen Buddhism and says sword practitioners later adopted it as a training method.