Chapter - 06

Savate

A Brief History And Description

Although Savate is not an Oriental art, it nevertheless employs such powerful defensive techniques that it is to be considered an essential part of Ketsugo.

Like many of the other arts of unarmed combat, the origin of Savate is lost in past ages.

In the beginning man fought without weapons, using just his hands and feet as means of attacking and defending.,,

Although Savate is primarily the art of foot fighting, the hands do play a part in this technique. The use of the hands to fight as a sport can be traced back over five thousand years. During the Greek era, hand fighting, or as we know it, boxing, flourished through the use of gloves with metal spikes. In the Roman age, metal-spiked gloves were replaced by gloves of hard leather.

The combination of boxing and foot fighting, or Savate, into a systemized art is recent, about 125 years old.

During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, it was a practice of street fighters in Marseille, France, to use their feet instead of their hands in combat. Through many years of experience, they had learned the advantages of using the feet in defense of their lives. Finally in the 1820's, the best of the foot fighting techniques used by the street fighters were collected and classified into a formal art called Savate. A school was opened in Paris for teaching Savate, and many people, including noblemen, became experts in this art. Because there was such a need for good defense by those who had occasion to venture into a city streets after dark in those days, the art of Savate flourished until there were many schools teaching it.

Although Savate is relatively unknown in North America, with only a handful of teachers in the United States and Canada, it is still in use in France today.

The Savate Striking Points And Kicks

In Savate the foot is the major striking point. Since the striking points of the hand are sufficiently covered in the chapter on Karate, we shall deal only with the foot techniques of Savate here.

In considering the foot as the major striking point, we must be more specific by breaking down the striking point into the parts of the foot used at the actual point of contact. The following are the parts of the foot used as striking points:

1. Heel
2. Instep
3. Inside edge of foot
4. Outside edge of foot
5. Bottom of foot
6. Toe

It is wise to know how to use all the foot parts as striking points. Then you can vary your type of defense and confuse the attacker.

There are many different types of kicks in the art of Savate. One of the most important kicks is called the vertical kick, illustrated in figures 151 and 152. For this kick, the leg is drawn back with the knee in a high position and brought forward with tremendous force, hitting the antagonist in any one of the target areas.  Figures  153 through  156 show how the different parts of the foot may be used as striking points utilizing the forward vertical kick.

The next kick to be studied is the horizontal kick. Figures 157 through 159 illustrate it. Here you pivot on the ball of the left foot and, leaning back and away from the attacker, draw your leg up and point the toe at the attacker's target area. Then you swing the leg around in a horizontal movement, striking the target.

The side kick is illustrated in figures 160 through 162. Figure 161 illustrates the side kick, horizontal, and figure 162 illustrates the side kick, vertical. Another important kick is the rear kick shown in figures 163 and 164.

One of the most important types of Savate defense is called the high kick. Much practice is required before a high kick can be mastered. It would be well to do the conditioning exercises described in the beginning of this book while devolping the high kick. Although the effort is great, the high kick becomes a powerful defense once mastered.

Figures 165 through 167 illustrate a high kick. Bending your knees from a crouched position, straighten your legs and lift your body, leaving the ground with your legs drawn under you. At the top of your upward movement, direct both feet toward the target area, striking it and then recovering into a good defensive stance. Remember, do not use this until you can recover properly!

Another high kick is executed with your body in the positions illustrated in figures 168 through 172. When executing this high kick rotate your body, bending slightly forward and pivoting on the balls of both feet. Then, as you complete your turn away from your opponent, place both hands on the ground so that you are in a crouched position. At the moment your hands touch the ground, shift your weight to them, and kick back and upward toward the target area using your feet as a striking points. After contacting your adversary, recover to a defensive position by reversing the procedure.

In defending against weapons attacks, kicks can be used in various ways to either inflict pain upon your attacker so that he no longer thinks of attacking you, as a method of keeping him at a distance while waiting for the proper opening, or finally as a method of disarming him. Figures 173 through 176 illustrate the use of the kick in these manners.

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