Information AboutSavate |
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MARTIAL ART Savate takes its name from the French for ''old boot'' (heavy footwear 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 There are quite a few historical hints of kick fighting going all the way back to Gaulish and Frankish roots with the modern footwear changes and boxing amalgamation being just the most recent adjuncts in a long honorable line. There are also many types of savate rules.. At that time, ''savate'' was a type of street fighting common in Paris and the north of France . And in the south, especially in the port of Marseille , sailors had developed a form of fighting involving high kicks, which was known as ''jeu marseillais'' (game from Marseille), which was later renamed ''chausson'' (slipper, after the type of shoes sailors wore). In contrast, at this time in England (the home of boxing and the Queensberry Rules ), kicking was seen as unsportsmanlike or as something that only cowards used. 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 ), 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, gouging etc). However the sport had not yet managed to shake off its reputation as a street fighting technique. A pupil of Casseux's, Charles Lecour was exposed to the English art of boxing around 1830 and felt that he was at a disadvantage, only using his hands to bat his opponent's feet away, rather than punching. He trained in boxing for two years before, in 1832 , combining boxing with ''chausson'' and ''savate'' to create the sport of '''savate boxe française''' as we know it today. In competitive savate, there are four allowed kinds of kicks, and three kinds of punches {Link without Title} .
#''fouette'' (whip kick), high, medium or low #''chasse'' (piston-action kick), high, medium or low #''revers'' (sole of the shoe makes contact), side or front #''coup de pied bas'' (sweeping kick), low
#''direct bras avant'' (jab, lead hand) #''direct bras arriere'' (cross, rear hand) #''crochet'' (hook, bent arm) Perhaps the ultimate recognition of the respectability of savate came in when compared to American Football , Hockey , Football , Gymnastics , Basketball , Baseball and Inline Skating ". Today, savate is practiced the world over by amateurs: from Australia to the USA and Finland to Britain . Many countries (including the United States) have national federations devoted to promoting Savate. 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. Similarly, 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 red 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. REFERENCES OTHER SENSES The same word, which is cognate with Spanish ''zapata'' 'shoe', is also used 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. SEE ALSO
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