Savate

[Klumpen]

Well you know me, always promoting traditional middle european arts,

today it's my favourite weaponless martial art and one of Bruce Lees favourites too (yes, really):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD_FzwA7Opc

 

[comradekingu]

Frank may looked the part even in that 80s tracksuit. I knew right away he was good.

 

[moxie]

Great series! Savate is a good one, and Kalarippayattu is effin' weird

 

[Klumpen]

To be trained by Frank May must be a nightmare. He looks like a total psycho, but he is good, yes.

You may notice, that the bloated up guys with thick upper arms and a wide breast always lose, because they are too slow and unbalanced.

I've got the two DVDs from Eric Quequet and can recommend them,

but beware, this is the real style for self defense and way more brutal than the tournament style seen above:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/HFLrgdncDcY?feature=oembed

I know... fighting frenchmen seem a bit paradox at first. ^^

 

[comradekingu]

Looks like so much fun, my fighting senses are tingling.

 

[ekianjo]

I know... fighting frenchmen seem a bit paradox at first. ^^

Why is that ? There are many fighting sports where frenchmen have been strong for years - judo, wrestling, boxing...  

 

[levi]

http://0.tqn.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/c/S/french_googleresults.jpg

Edit: Though it's worth noting Wikipedia reckons that image is from this site and was never google's genuine search results, even in the old days.  It did however used to be google's first search result, so if you hit 'I'm feeling lucky' that's what you got.

 

[comradekingu]

Is it a part to this that is brough over by african slaves? It looks that way.

 

[moxie]

I don't think Savate is generally thought to have african roots. It had its beginnings amongst french sailors, and who knows were those sailors might've been, eh? But if I remember correctly, it is rather thought that possible influences are rather from the east. 

The ground game and the free hands are thought to have originated from on-ship fighting - When there is a high sea, it is a good hing to be able to kick forcefully when holding on to something or when lying down. I'm doing capoeira myself (an art that does have clear african roots), and I can't really say I feel that these are very similar. They do have similarities, though, in the fact that they both are clearly evolved out of dirty street fighting tricks, rather than, say, a formal military setting or something. There is a certain grittiness to it

Speaking of european arts - @Klumpen, have you looked at Glima?

 

[Klumpen]

Speaking of european arts - @Klumpen, have you looked at Glima?

No, I just looked it up and it seems to be quite silly with those funny rules. ^^ I have to look more into it.

Medieval german wrestling (slight alteration of Meister Ott, Johann Georg Pascha, Codex Wallerstein) is part of our sword fighting system in close range though

and sometimes I hate it, because you always get hurt, no matter how slow and friendly you do this - the techniques are really nasty.

@ekianjo: Well, you know the french army knife: