Savate – Boxe Française
March 6, 2007 by nopstar
Sorry to go off topic, but I’m always intrigued by lesser known Martial Arts. I’m curious if any of you out there have any experience with Savate? Call me immature or superficial but all I’m saying is it may be an effective fighting style but i’m not wearing the Savate Uniform. The first smoker I ever did, I showed up as a spectator. They were short fighters and before I knew it I was getting thrown into the ring. Anyway the point is, I didn’t bring shorts… my trainer Bunkerd decided to have some fun with me and told his son to get me the “Dr. Shorts”. So in my first smoker in front of 300+ strangers I’m wearing a pair of pink shorts that say “Dr. Love” oh and the “O” in Love was of course a heart. That was pretty fucking embarrassing. That being said, I would wear the Dr. Love shorts way before I would wear a Savate uniform. Sorry Savateurs.
I did a little digging it’s believed that Savate was developed by French Sailors. I dunno, I found it on Wikipedia so take it with a grain of salt.
“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,” [1]
Cool Old Timey Clip
I was also shocked to find that in ‘96 a Savate Champion named Francois Pennacchio defeated Ramon Dekkers in a “Kickboxing” match on point. I can’t find any good info on the match, only forum posts here and there. I’m curious I know the French have some legit Nak Muay’s, did they get their start in Savate? Is Savate big in France?
Savate HL Clip
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA The old timers were fricken hillarious..
I appreciate your post about our sport. Savate may be in The Long Tail of martial arts but it’s growing in the U.S. If you’re interested, lots of modern Savate pictures and information can be had at http://www.calsavate.com. Cheers.
Jerome Turcan, one of the instructors at AKA in San Jose, CA has a savate background. I never saw him fight, but you could tell his style was unique from the way he ran class out there. Really nice guy. Looks like he wons some belts too, interesting to know if he ever threw savate techniques in the ring, or adapted to a MT/K-1 style like most people.
http://akakickbox.com/instructors.html
Savate now seems to be closer to kickboxing than that old time clip above. I can’t even imagine the fun one would have to wear those tights and move the way those guys did back then.
Woo, lots of nice toe pointing in the old clip. :)
I did savate while living in france, while my training only lasted a few months and I was like 12 maybe 13..I can say this….Savate is pretty fuild in its movements, Savate is nothing like the video displayed (anymore), Savate punching techniques are really good. Other than that, I don’t miss it, I would never go back to it, hated the outfit…(Thank god I never had to wear it), hate the shoes ( I had to wear those). I found Muay Thai and never turned back (well I tried TKD, Judo and BJJ for a while but that’s another story).
When I spoke of the vid above, I was talkin about the old one.
a big difference between savate and kickboxing is that you can’t strike with your shin in savate
kickboxing and muay thai are more famous than Savate
a famous Savateur is Farid Khider, he’s also a champion in kickboxing and muay thai
[...] in old clips of Muay Thai because they’re so rare. This clip sort of reminds me of the old Savate clip that I posted last month. If any of you guys come across anything like this send it to me, [...]
It’s like a more feminine form of some american kickboxing. Why must they wear clothing like gymnast??
[...] I wanted to talk about the Savate episode, I did a post ages ago on Savate, in the post I had a Savate HL clip that showed Savatuers mixing it up in the ring. So cut to this [...]
Enjoy this vid
wow nice boots!
Old Time clip… ROFLMAO!!!!
@ seb: have you been in thailand till august last year?. pai?!
if it is like this i think it is time to say thank you for the time.
and if this reaches you – good luck on your way.
Here is 2 videos of kickboxing rule matches:
Savateurs against Muay Thai background.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzMvsgScjoU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShAAxFmOTQ4
Hey Nope, here’ s the Dekkers loss against a french fighter… And, no, I don’ t think a lot of legit french nak muays did their start in savate… Still I do prefer this style to kickboxing or full contact…
MuayThai and KunKhmer for life!!!
Forgot the link…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShAAxFmOTQ4
Damn, it was already pon the site…