Posted: 19 October 2005 at 11:39pm | IP Logged

Before I start, I would like to say that i study only one year of Savate also knowed as "french boxing" (we french folks rather call it Savate). However i can tell you that it's just like a bike, once you know it you can never forget it.

 This site has some information about the Savate but i would like just to add here a bit more information from my experience.

 The French kicking style of savate is a mixture of brawler style, ortodox behaviors and lots of endurance (not for the chuby one). The main body part use is the kicks however fists, elbows and griping is allowed in self-defence only. In compititions, some punches are allowed but only in the rank of master.

 According to my teacher, the origine of Savate begins somwhere between the 18th centuary and 19th centuary. It consisted of self defence move against burglars and thiefs in your everyday shoes, catch the name "savate" which is a old kind of french shoes worn in those days. It was used without knowledge of it until 1824, Michel Casseux (aka) Pisseux (ha ha) assembled the greatest thinker of Paris to develop a way to defend ourselves with no signs of threats (knives, guns,...) in order to not atract attention in public places. They mixed two famous french martial art well use in those days : La lutte Parisienne (a grip and fist type martial art) and Les Chaussons Marseillaise (a kick base style). Rumors speak that Le Pisseux visited sailors who study some martial arts moves from the easter worlds but that is still unknowd if it's true.

 Shortly after that, la Savate become well knowd and used in France. While the german ocupation of 1939 to 1944, the underground free mouvement (aka) La resistance was taught Savate to perfection by some of Le Moulin (one the many heroes of 2nd world war)'s Followers.

 Today, la Savate is more of a sport than a self-defence. Still, The french land army do teach the soldier some Savate moves between karate's.

 Now from my point of view, la Savate is more exausting then any other martial art i've studied. There are basicaly three stance in Savate : "Assaut", where we learn evasions and the art of "escaping" a fight, "Technique", where we lear how to strike at certain moments to knock down the openement In order to defend, and "Assomoir" ("to stun") the most well known stance where we duel against a oponement till K.O. Personaly, I did use Savate in real life, a thug wanted to "use my credit card" With a knife! But i mostly use the "Assaut" stance in that one to run away like the British (  ). As you can see, one year of training (10 hours per week) is enough for self defence. But like i said before, It is mostly used for sport. There are aproximatly 20 different national championship per 3 years in France (Don't know about America) and (only) one international.

 Body building is essentiel in this sport. They WILL force you to suscribe to gym class. You see, you must undure at least 20 kilos in weight lifting if you want to survive! Or else you will be exausted like hell! (I can assured you, I was). Compare to the other martial arts, la Savate is more of a community fealing then a traditionel or stric code of kendo. Don't think we don't have a bushido code. There is a gentelman code invented by our friend Le Pisseux (do not use for abusing, do not use it to insulte,...). But i could only see the masters who used it . Don't know why.

 One last thing, don't forget that La Savate is more of a hybrid of defence and sport then a carieer (like the British boxing copycats) so expect it more like a game to enjoy. If you hate it, just get out.

 Any other information you would like to ask, just post it (i didn't want mine to last too long) I will send some pics but it's hard to figure out how this stuff works!

 Ps: La Savate Beats the British snobish boxing i would say.