Charles Le Cour (Jean-Baptiste)
Founder of Modern Savate / Master
French master and founder of modern Savate (Boxe Française) by merging street kicking with English boxing.
Quick Facts
Date of Birth1805
Date of Death1857
Era19th century
Country of Origin
France
FranceRank / TitleFather of Modern Savate French Boxing (1838)
Active Years1830–1857
Biography
Charles Le Cour combined traditional street kicking (Savate/Chausson) with English boxing fist guards in 1838, founding modern French Boxing (Boxe Française Savate).
Associated Martial Arts
SavateFounder→
French boxing, the only European striking art in which one kicks wearing shoes. It arose in nineteenth-century Paris and Marseille; Charles Lecour joined it with English boxing.
ChaussonNotable figure→The Marseille leg game of the 18th and 19th centuries; high kicks with a hand on the ground and slaps instead of punches.