Savate (pronounced /savat/), also known as boxe française, French boxing, French Kickboxing or French Footfighting, is a French martial art which uses both the hands and feet as weapons and combines elements of western boxing with graceful kicking techniques. Only foot kicks are allowed, unlike some systems, such as Muay Thai, which allow the use of the knees or shins. Savate is perhaps the only style of kickboxing in which the fighters habitually wear shoes (savate being a French synonym for "shoe"). A practitioner of savate is called a savateur (male) or savateuse (female). This chart shows concisely the most common way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is applied to represent the English language. ... Hawaiian State Grappling Championships. ... Professional boxing bout featuring Ricardo Domínguez (left, throwing a left uppercut) versus Rafael Ortiz Boxing, also referred to as pugilism is a combat sport in which two participants of similar weight fight each other with their fists in a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. ... “Kicking” redirects here. ... For other uses, see Foot (disambiguation). ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... This article is about the vertebrate bone. ...

Martial art

Savate takes its name from the French for "old boot" (heavy footwear that used to be worn during fights). The modern formalized form is mainly an amalgam of French street fighting techniques from the beginning of the 19th century^[1]. Savate was then a type of street fighting common in Paris and northern France. In the south, especially in the port of Marseille, sailors developed a fighting style involving high kicks and open-handed slaps. It is conjectured that the kicks were done so as to allow the kicker to use a free hand for balance on a rocking ship's deck, and that the kicks and slaps were used on land to avoid the legal penalties for using a closed fist, which was considered a deadly weapon under the law. It was known as jeu marseillais ("game from Marseille"), and was later renamed chausson ("slipper", after the type of shoes the sailors wore). In contrast, at this time in England (the home of boxing and the Queensberry rules), kicking was seen as unsportsmanlike. Traditional savate or chausson was at this time also developed in the ports of North-West Italy and North-Eastern Spain. Street fighting is a term used to denote spontaneous, hand-to-hand fighting in public places. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) The Eiffel Tower in Paris, as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro. ... City flag Coat of arms Motto: By her great deeds, the city of Massilia shines Location Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country Region Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur Department Bouches-du-Rhône (13) Subdivisions 16 arrondissements (in 8 secteurs) Intercommunality Urban Community of Marseille Provence M... A pair of open-heeled slippers. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem - the United Kingdom anthem God Save the Queen is commonly used England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto)1 Government Constitutional monarchy  -  Monarch Queen Elizabeth II... Professional boxing bout featuring Ricardo Domínguez (left, throwing a left uppercut) versus Rafael Ortiz Boxing, also referred to as pugilism is a combat sport in which two participants of similar weight fight each other with their fists in a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. ... The Marquis of Queensbury rules are a code of popularly accepted rules in the sport of boxing. ...

The two key historical figures in the history of the shift from street-fighting to the modern sport of savate are Michel Casseux (also known as le Pisseux) (1794–1869), a French pharmacist, and Charles Lecour (1808–1894). Casseux opened the first establishment in 1825 for practicing and promoting a regulated version of chausson and savate (disallowing head butting, eye gouging, grappling, etc). However the sport had not shaken its reputation as a street-fighting technique. Casseux's pupil Charles LeCour was exposed to the English art of boxing when he was defeated in a friendly sparring match by British pugilist Owen Swift around 1830 and felt that he was at a disadvantage, only using his hands to bat his opponent's fists away, rather than to punch. He trained in boxing for two years before, in 1832, combining boxing with chausson and savate to create the sport of savate (or boxe française', as we know it today). At some point la canne and le baton stickfighting were added, and some form of stick-fencing, such as la canne, is commonly part of savate training. Those who train purely for competition may omit this. Savate was developed professionally by LeCour's student Joseph Charlemont and then his son Charles Charlemont. Stick fighting is a generic term for any of several martial arts which employ a small staff, cane or walking stick as a blunt hand weapon. ... Categories: Wikipedia cleanup | Weapon stubs | Stick fighting | Fencing | Mêlée weapons ...

Savate was later codified under a Committee National de Boxe Francaise under Charles Charlemont's student Count Pierre Baruzy (dit Barrozzi). The Count is seen as the father of modern savate and was 11-times Champion of France and it's colonies, his first ring combat and title prior to World War One. A student of the Count, Baron James Shortt of Castleshort, established boxe francaise/savate in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Defense de la Rue is the name given to those methods of fighting excluded from savate competition.

In competitive savate, there are four allowed kinds of kicks, and four kinds of punches [1].

• Kicks:

1. fouetté (literally "whip", roundhouse kick making contact with the instep), high, medium or low
2. chassé (side or front piston-action kick), high, medium or low
3. revers ("reverse" or hooking kick making contact with the sole of the shoe), high, medium, or low
4. coup de pied bas (literally, simply "low kick", a front or sweep kick to the shin making contact with the inner edge of the shoe, performed with a characteristic backwards lean) low only

• Punches

1. direct bras avant (jab, lead hand)
2. direct bras arrière (cross, rear hand)
3. crochet (hook, bent arm)
4. uppercut (either hand)

Perhaps the ultimate recognition of the respectability of savate came in 1924 when it was included as a demonstration sport in the Olympic Games in Paris. Despite its roots, savate is a relatively safe sport to learn. According to USA Savate [2], "savate ranks lower in number of injuries when compared to American football, hockey, Football, gymnastics, basketball, baseball and inline skating". “Kicking” redirects here. ... Year 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The five Olympic rings were designed in 1913, adopted in 1914 and debuted at the Games at Antwerp, 1920. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) The Eiffel Tower in Paris, as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... United States simply as football, is a competitive team sport that is both fast-paced and strategic. ... Ice hockey, known simply as hockey in areas where it is more common than field hockey, is a team sport played on ice. ... Look up Football in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Gymnastics is a sport involving the performance of sequences of movements requiring physical strength, flexibility, balance, endurance, and kinesthetic awareness, such as handsprings, handstands, split leaps, aerials and cartwheels. ... Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five active players each try to score points against one another by throwing a ball through a 10-foot high hoop (the basket) under organized rules. ... A view of the playing field at Busch Memorial Stadium, St. ... Roller skating girl in Rome, Italy (soul grind) Roller skating is travelling on smooth terrain with roller skates. ...

Today, savate is practiced all over the world by amateurs: from Australia to the USA and from Finland to Britain. Many countries (including the United States) have national federations devoted to promoting savate. Savate was also featured in the first Ultimate Fighting Championship tournament, where Dutch savate champion Gerard Gordeau beat a sumo wrestler and an American kickboxer before a submission loss to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter Royce Gracie in the final round. Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a U.S.-based mixed martial arts (MMA) organization, currently recognized as the major MMA promotion in North America. ... Gerard Gordeau is a mixed martial arts fighter from Amsterdam, Holland who competed against Teila Tuli in the first ever televised UFC fight. ... A Sumo match (Ozeki Kaio vs. ... Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) is a martial art and combat sport that focuses on grappling and especially ground fighting with the goal of gaining a dominant position from which to force an attacker to submit. ... Royce Gracie, pronounced Hoyce Gracie, (born December 12, 1966) is a professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner. ...

Modern codified savate provides for three levels of competition: assaut, pre-combat and combat. Assaut requires the competitors to focus on their technique while still making contact; referees assign penalties for the use of excessive force. Pre-combat allows for full-strength fighting so long as the fighters wear protective gear such as helmets and shinguards. Combat, the most intense level, is the same as pre-combat, but protective gear other than groin protection and mouthguards is prohibited.

Many martial arts provide ranking systems, such as belt colors. Savate uses glove colors to indicate a fighter's level of proficiency (unlike arts such as karate, which assign new belts at each promotion, however, moving to a higher color rank in savate does not necessarily entail a change in the color of one's actual gloves, and a given fighter may continue using the same pair of gloves through multiple promotions). Novices begin at no color. Promotion tests allow the fighter to graduate successively to blue, green, red, white and yellow. Competition is restricted to yellow glove rank and above, fighters at white glove rank are considered to be instructors in training, and yellow gloves are required to teach what they know to others and can attend a combat competition. Silver gloves are the highest regular rank in savate. However, golden gloves are awarded to savate pioneers and leading exponents by their national committees. White gloves and lower ranks can be attributed by the teacher but for the higher ranks, the fighter must take a real exam.

Other meanings

The same word, which is cognate with Spanish zapato and Portuguese sapato "shoe", is also used in French for any slipper, and was the name for an outdated slippering, in the sense of a spanking administered by soldiers on a comrade as an informal punishment, analogous to cobbing in English. A slippering is a metonymical term for a spanking of the buttocks or a beating of the hands using a slipper or (more often, though than it is a euphemism) firmer footwear, especially gym shoes (part of the school uniform; thus often at hand, in sports the same may go... Political cartoon from 1860 depicting Stephen A. Douglas receiving a traditional “over-the-knee” spanking from Columbia as Uncle Sam looks on approvingly. ...

In Popular Culture

• Frank Martin, main character in the Transporter films fight style( though never defined as any style) bears a strong resemblance to savate.
• Gambit and Batroc, Marvel Comics characters who are both savateurs.
• Professor Calculus from Tintin's comics was a savateur.
• Vorstedt in Lethal Weapon 2 was a savateur.
• In the novel Starship Troopers, one of the martial arts taught to the Mobile Infantry is savate.
• The main character in Le Pacte des Loups (Brotherhood of the Wolf), Grégoire de Fronsac, uses savate in the rare moments when he is seen fighting.
• In the film Jules and Jim, the two eponymous characters are seen practicing savate.
• Vega from the Street Fighter video games has a fighting style which is partially based on savate.
• Lee Chaolan from the Tekken video game series does not have a set martial art, but borrows a variety of maneuvers from other styles, and several of his moves are based on savate.
• In the film Nikki, Wild Dog of the North (1961), two of the characters fight using savate.
• Caroline, a British-Korean teacher in Unbalance x Unbalance, was a Savate practitioner.
• Japanese pro-wrestler Takuma Sano is known for the frequency with which he executes the rolling savate kick (or rolling solebutt), a spinning back kick to the gut, like the revers. His official shirt shows Sano in mid-kick, with the word "savate" written underneath.
• In the famous japanese animation One Piece, Sanji, the cook of the Strawhat Pirates and his mentor Red "Leg" Zeff uses this fighting technique, but only kicks since the hands are only for cooking.
• Savate was featured in the fourth episode of The History Channel's show Human Weapon on August 10th 2007.
• The fictional character Sherlock Holmes was said to be an expert in savate.

Frank Martin (September 15, 1890 – November 21, 1974) was a Swiss composer. ... Gambit (Remy Etienne LeBeau) is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics superhero who is a member of the X-Men. ... Batroc the Leaper is a fictional villain from Marvel Comics. ... Marvel Comics is an American comic book line published by Marvel Publishing, Inc. ... Professor Calculus (Professeur Tournesol) Spoiler warning: Professor Cuthbert Calculus (Professeur Tryphon Tournesol, literally Professor Tryphonius Sunflower) is a fictional character in the series The Adventures of Tintin. ... The main characters and others from The Castafiore Emerald, one of the later books The Adventures of Tintin (French: ) is a series of Belgian comic books created by Belgian artist Hergé, the pen name of Georges Remi (1907–1983). ... Lethal Weapon 2 is the second movie in the Lethal Weapon series, released in 1989. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Starship Troopers Starship Troopers is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, first published (in abridged form) as a serial in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (October, November 1959, as Starship Soldier) and published hardcover in 1959. ... The Mobile Infantry (MI) is a fictional military force in Robert A. Heinleins novel Starship Troopers and the 1997 film of the same name. ... Brotherhood of the Wolf (original French title Le Pacte des loups) was a 2001 movie directed by Christophe Gans, starring Samuel Le Bihan, Vincent Cassel, Monica Bellucci and Mark Dacascos, and written by Gans and Stéphane Cabel. ... Jules and Jim (French: Jules et Jim) is a 1961 film by François Truffaut based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Henri-Pierre Roché. Truffaut described the book as a perfect hymn to love and perhaps to life []. He came across it during the mid 1950s whilst browsing through... For the Street Fighter character known as Vega in Japan, see M. Bison. ... Street Fighter ), or commonly abbreviated as SF, is a popular series of fighting games in which the players pit combatants from around the world, each with his or her own special moves, against one another. ... Lee Chaolan (Chinese: 李 超狼 Pinyin: Lǐ Chāoláng, Japanese: リー・チャオラン RÄ« Chaoran) is a fictional Chinese character from the Tekken fighting game series. ... Tekken is a fighting game and first of the series of the same name. ... This is a manwha (Korean manga) by IM Dal Young (Author) and Lee Soo Hyu(Artist) Story: A young man finds and returns a lost wallet and cell phone to a beautiful young lady, thus begins the destined relationship between two strangers. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump Monthly Shonen Jump Carlsen-Verlag Original run August 4, 1997 – (ongoing) No. ... Sanji ) is a fictional character in the anime and manga One Piece. ... The following is a list of minor characters in the manga and anime series One Piece: // The elderly gatekeeper of Skypiea. ... For the Canadian equivalent of this channel, see History Television. ... Human Weapon is a weekly television show on The History Channel that premiered on July 20 2007. ... A portrait of Sherlock Holmes by Sidney Paget from the Strand Magazine, 1891 Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who first appeared in publication in 1887. ...

See also

• Martial arts
• Boxing
• Kickboxing
• La canne (or Canne de combat) and Bâton français, two related martial arts which use a walking stick and a quarterstaff, respectively.

Hawaiian State Grappling Championships. ... Professional boxing bout featuring Ricardo Domínguez (left, throwing a left uppercut) versus Rafael Ortiz Boxing, also referred to as pugilism is a combat sport in which two participants of similar weight fight each other with their fists in a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. ... Kicking to left side Kickboxing refers to sport-fighting using kicks and punches and sometimes throws and bows representing a certain martial art or can be practiced for general fitness, or as a full-contact sport. ... Categories: Wikipedia cleanup | Weapon stubs | Stick fighting | Fencing | Mêlée weapons ... Canne de combat is a French martial arts weapon. ... The Bâton français (French stick fighting) is a European fencing system that uses a staff about 4 feet long. ... Quarterstaffs in use, from Old English Sports, Pastimes and Customs, published 1891 A quarterstaff is a medieval English variant of the staff weapon, consisting of a shaft of hardwood, sometimes with metal-reinforced tips. ...

Sources and External links

• Aachen (Germany) University SavateTeam
• Boot to the Head A daily blog about Savate and martial arts.
• Bridgeman Savate website **historical and modern images
• California Savate Association - has pictures of modern savateurs in action.
  • for example women and men in the ring
• Cambridge Academy of Martial Arts good photos of modern savate
• Club di savate in Italia dal 1908.
• English Boxing and the 'French Connection' - by Ollie Batts informative essay on the roots of savate
• Larousse, undated French encyclopaedia, early 20th century
• Montreal Savate Kickboxing Club rules, history, videos, and some stuff about "savate defense" and "la canne"
• Savate Australia contains some excellent transcriptions of historical Savate books and essays
• Savate Domžale(slovenia) Private club in Slovenia
• Savate federation slovenia Contains a lot of information in [ENG] and [SLO] language
• Savate in Mexico
• Savate Terminology (French terms used and their English translations)
• Savate Videos Refreshed daily
• Savate Toronto contains lots of information pertaining to savate
• Sport Savate article
• Youtube Savate Search - numerous Savate videos, including a few newsreels of pre-WWII matches and exhibitions.