Savate
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.
Quick Facts
FranceCharacter & Origin
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 Savate
About Savate
Savate is French kickboxing, the only European fighting art in which one kicks wearing shoes. It arose in the first half of the nineteenth century in Paris and Marseille out of street self-defence; the word savate means an old boot. The decisive step was taken by Charles Lecour, who in the 1830s joined French kicking technique with English boxing — producing a system that uses hands and feet by the same logic. The shoe is not a detail but a definition. One kicks with the toe of a firm boot, so the strikes are precise and aimed at specific points — shin, knee, thigh, torso, head. This separates savate from the Thai and Japanese systems, which kick barefoot with the shin or instep. The techniques are deliberately few and clearly named: fouetté (a whipping arc kick), chassé (a thrusting kick), revers (a kick with the outer edge of the foot) and coup de pied bas (a low kick to the shin). The hands use boxing technique unchanged. Kicks are classified by height into low, medium and high, which also shapes the competition rules. Savate has a developed competitive structure distinguishing assaut (technical bouts with controlled contact) from combat (full contact). Progression is marked by glove colour rather than belts, from blue to silver. The tradition also includes savate bâton défense, stick work, run as a discipline of its own.
Styles & Branches
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.