Canne de combat
French walking-stick fencing. It grew out of nineteenth-century Parisian self-defence; Maurice Sarry turned it into today's sport in the 1970s.
Quick Facts
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Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Catalogs & Databases for Canne de combat
About Canne de combat
Canne de combat is French walking-stick fencing. It grew out of 19th-century Paris, where the cane was the only weapon a respectably dressed man could carry in the street, and where it was practised alongside savate as urban self-defence. Maurice Sarry turned it into today's sport in the 1970s. The cane is chestnut, about ninety-five centimetres long and weighs a little over a hundred grams — so light that it cannot be driven by force, only whipped. That governs the technique. A blow is neither stopped nor aimed from the wrist; the whole arm describes an arc and the body turns into it, so the cane gathers speed before it arrives. Six strikes are distinguished — lateral outside and crossed, brisé from below, enlevé, crossed to the head and enlevé to the head — and between them the cane must always complete a rotation for the hit to count. The feet work as in classical fencing: lunges, retreats, movement on the line. Bouts are fought in a fencing mask, padded jacket, gloves and shin guards. The same family includes canne chausson, which adds kicks, and bâton français, the two-handed staff. It differs from English singlestick in everything essential — there one cut, here one whips.
Styles & Branches
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.