La Canne (French Cane Fighting)
French fencing with a walking cane, taught in Parisian halls in the 19th century alongside savate. In the 20th century it gave rise to the sport of canne de combat.
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Organisation & Competition
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Catalogs & Databases for La Canne (French Cane Fighting)
About La Canne (French Cane Fighting)
La canne is French fencing with a walking cane. Leboucher de Rouen presents it in a manual of 1843 as a system of personal defence. It was taught in the Parisian halls of the 19th century together with savate, and J. Charlemont writes in 1899 that canne and boxing complement each other. Charlemont names as predecessors who first set the principles of teaching canne, among others, these masters: Michel dit Pisseux, Larribeau, Leboucher and Lecour. His own treatise L'art de la boxe française et de la canne (1899) knows eight main strikes, including the thrust with the tip of the cane. Encyclopaedia Britannica states that fencing with the cane declined after the beginning of the 20th century, and the French Wikipedia places the decline around 1920. Today's sporting canne de combat, according to the training booklet of the French savate federation, derives from the methods of the 19th century, especially the method of master Charlemont, and in the seventies of the 20th century it was newly codified by Maurice Sarry. Unlike the old la canne, it forbids the thrust.
History
Green (Martial Arts of the World, 2001) writes that la canne d'armes arose as a street fighting system at a time when Napoleonic laws forbade carrying swords in Paris, and that many fencers began to practise the cane as a legal substitute for the sword. Charlemont states in a biographical work of 1899 that Michel dit Pisseux was born in 1794 in La Courtille, was the son of a baker and himself a baker, compiled a theory called l'Art de la savate and opened a hall first in his own quarter and later in rue Buffaut on the faubourg Montmartre. Charlemont cites memoirs that call him Michel Casseux.
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The manual Théorie pour apprendre à tirer la canne en vingt-cinq leçons with 74 illustrations was published in 1843 in Paris at his own expense by Leboucher de Rouen, professor of canne, bâton, dexterity and boxing. Charlemont gives his full name as Louis-Amand-Victorin Leboucher and his date of birth as 14 September 1807 in Rouen. In 1855 he took over the hall in passage Verdeau, previously run by Larribeau, and died there on 7 September 1866. According to Charlemont, Larribeau was a professor of fencing, canne and boxe française who published a small and very interesting treatise on canne. For twenty years he was a sailor, fought at Trafalgar and was among the last survivors of the wreck of the ship Méduse on 2 July 1816. The French Wikipedia dates his method to 1856. In 1899 Charlemont published in Paris the treatise L'art de la boxe française et de la canne with a preface written by Dr Fernand Lagrange. Green states that Joseph Charlemont at the end of the seventies of the 19th century divided the teaching of boxe française, canne and bâton and lutte parisienne into grades. Pierre Vigny, according to the English Wikipedia, left the army in 1898, founded a school of arms and self-defence in Geneva and later was chief instructor of the bartitsu club led by Edward William Barton-Wright. The French Wikipedia states that the teaching of canne declined around 1920 because the Paris streets were safer and the cane became an accessory, and that sporting canne reappeared in the fifties of the 20th century with a method created by Roger Lafond.
How it differs
Green distinguishes la canne d'armes, a street system with a walking cane, from the sporting canne de combat. Britannica states that, compared with singlestick, cane fencing stressed the thrust as much as cuts, that a cane without a basket was more manoeuvrable and that cuts were often preceded by one or more moulinets. Today's canne de combat forbids the thrust and, according to the federation's teaching booklet, allows it only in demonstrations and technical competitions.
Technique
In his 1843 manual Leboucher advises passing the wrist through the martingale and gripping the cane ten centimetres below the pommel. The lessons build on strikes to the face from the inside and outside, to the flank and to the head, and on enlevés strikes, with parries in quarte, tierce and prime.
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In 1899 Charlemont criticises the strikes of the old masters, the brisés to the head, the enlevés from below to the wrist, the fouettés and the coups de bout volant, as useless in defence, relying only on the wrist. He recommends striking par développement with the full closed hand and engaging the shoulder, arm, forearm, wrist and hand. The arm is bent and drawn back as far as possible and the cane describes a quick arc. His theory has eight main strikes: coup de figure in tierce and in quarte, coup de flanc in tierce and in quarte, coup de jambe in tierce and in quarte, coup de tête and coup de bout. His course has four parts: preparatory exercises in place, movement in the void, exercises against an opponent and special strikes with the bout (assaut). Charlemont's biographical work says Leboucher was, he believes, the first to abandon the extra light cane of the old fencers, that the canne was then often fenced without a mask and that his demonstration cane was made of heavy dogwood. Britannica states that French canes were made of hard wood, about a metre long and tapering to the tip, and that practice bouts used masks, gloves, padded vests and shin guards.
Today
Organised cane fencing in France is run by the FFSbf&DA federation in the discipline Canne de Combat et Bâton. Encyclopaedia Britannica also lists the Comité National de Canne de Combat et Bâton as the governing body, but the federation dissolved it at an extraordinary general assembly on 13 April 2024 and replaced it with a national commission. Green writes that in the Savate Danse de Rue style the weapon system is called la canne et bâton or canne d'armes and is taught only after bare-hand techniques. The English Wikipedia gives the method of R. and J. Lafond as a surviving self-defence approach to the cane outside sport.
Did you know
In his preface of 1843, Leboucher writes that an average pupil can deliver one hundred and fifty strikes per minute and that his twenty-five lessons bring a pupil to where six months of practice used to be needed. According to Charlemont, Michel Pisseux inspired a brochure of 52 pages with a theory of savate in 15 parts and a theory of canne likewise in 15 parts, which Charlemont called utterly incomprehensible. According to Charlemont, Leboucher taught a defence called défense du voyageur in three lessons, which attracted foreigners passing through Paris, and among the visitors to his hall was the composer Rossini.
Styles & Branches
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between la canne and canne de combat?
La canne is the older fencing with a walking cane, taught in the 19th century as personal defence and also including the thrust with the tip of the cane. Canne de combat is the sporting form, codified by Maurice Sarry in the seventies of the 20th century, which forbids the thrust.
Who wrote about la canne in the 19th century?
A manual on the canne was published in 1843 by Leboucher de Rouen, Larribeau also wrote a small treatise, and in 1899 the treatise L'art de la boxe française et de la canne appeared, authored by J. Charlemont.
Was la canne taught together with savate?
Yes. In 1843 Leboucher signed himself as professor of canne, bâton, dexterity and boxing, and in 1899 Charlemont wrote that canne and boxing complement each other.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.