Hello, A new Savate class has opened up in my area, I'm thinking about checking it out, out curiosity, however I probably wont persue it as im not very flexible and have never been keen on kicks. For me kicks only have a place if they are placed below the waist, in other words leg kicks and groing in applicable situation. So anyone here practice Savate? How dose it differ from other MA that incorporate kicks like TKD, kick boxing, and MT?
It differs in the technical execution of kicks. But if you don't like high kicks (never mind spinning and jumping kicks), I can't help thinking that savate probably isn't what you're looking for.
They do do low kicks though right? I'd jump at the chance to do savate. Has a smoothness / flow about it I like.
I think Savate is amazing, particularly the footwork. If Savate was available anywhere near me I would be learning it, unfortunately I have spent hours searching, but it does not appear to exist in my neck of the woods. The core difference is probably the fact that you kick in shoes, and therefore you can strike with the tip of the foot. This aspect probably carries over to self-defence quite well. Pennacchio (a Savate champion) once beat Ramon Dekkers in a kickboxing match, so it is clearly a style that has a degree of effectiveness. I would say Thai boxers hit harder, but Savate is more evasive and I feel Savate footwork is probably more suited to punching than Thai footwork.
They do, yeah. I'm no expert, but I can think of at least three different low kicks in savate. I'm not going to attempt the French names. I don't need extra ways to demonstrate my stupidity. But they have the low round kicks reminiscent of muay thai, the low side kicks reminiscent of JKD, and the "oblique kick" (coup de pied, to take a risk on one French term).
They're the ones I was thinking of. And they often aim front kicks to the knee area IIRC. Le side kick and le kick de muay thai could possibly be the names of the other kicks...not sure, I obviously failed French. The names of the kicks are on wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savate#Kicks
I'm not 100% sure but I believe there's a rule in savate that you have to do so many kicks or there's a ratio of kicks to punches (anyone confirm that?). It is more of a Kicking art imo. So maybe that might influence your decision if you are not much of a kicker, Pseudo.
Love savate! [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMJed79-WoM"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMJed79-WoM[/ame]
All the Savate I've seen online looks great, I'd love to train in it. If there's a club nearby I say go along and try it Mitch
If there where savate near me I'd probably be a savateur. If for no other reason than to be able to call myself a savateur. Plus I like how they wear shoes training, makes their kicks a lot more practical
Yeah, im going to go check out the free class, he hasn't even opened his doors yet, only reason I know of it is because he's using the dojo I train Aikido at. He opens on Thursday for the first time, so I may be the only one there, I haven't seen any other advertising other then at the dojo.
So I just called the gentleman, from what he told me, he has 18 years of Maui tai, and 2 years of Savate, one year he spent in France and it was intensive, he had two trainers, one that was geared towards competition (I cant remember the name he gave me) and the other trainer was a police officer that focused alot of his training towards self defence. Looking forward to checking it out.
I do some of those techniques, and it'd probably suit my body type more but I still prefer Muay Thai. Although my favourite is JKD kickboxing which has a blend of everything.
I think it is quite interesting and would definitely give it a chance if I still had the legs for it.
Yeah, I think there's only one club in the whole country here, down in Helsinki. When (if) we finally move there I'm definitely going to go and check the club out. MT is great but I often think the fighters just kinda stand there and knock lumps out of each other until one is lefting standing. I mean, I know it's not like that really, but it looks like that at times. Savate seems to use more footwork and movement, which I like.
Traditional Savate and Boxe Francaise can be different with the latter being the sport. Either will improve your speed, timing, and footwork. I have trained with National Champion Nicolas Saignac (as well as others) and everyone who has ever trained with him has improved their sparring 1,000 fold because of the timing, distance, and speed in the footwork and combos. In fact when sparring, the guys who trained in Savate and Thai Boxing always beat the guys who just did Thai Boxing. I Strongly recommend it.
I did a 3 hour seminar with Nic Saignac and I use and teach EVERYTHING that he taught. It was that good. I'd say the things that differentiate Savate are the very active footwork and the emphasis on combinations. On the kicking and flexibility issue, I truly believe that high kicking is about technique rather than flexibility. I would be put to shame in static stretching by the average TKD blue belt, but I can easily land fast high kicks with knockout power.
