Beauty and
the beat-down

France-originated savate adds grace
and refinement to traditional kickboxing

LIKE DANCING, BUT WITH KICKS T0 THE HEAD:
Rebecca Murray (l) and Shawna Flynn

Savate is putting the arts back into the martial arts. Savate—known to anglophones as French kickboxing—combines the fierce competitiveness of other styles of combat with an artistic, decidedly more French twist. Instead of being a violent contest between angry behemoths, savate places more emphasis on proper technique and discipline, with less of the killer instinct associated with the fighting styles Montrealers are used to.

“There are two types of people [I have instructed in North America],” says Savate World club instructor Lilian Guicherd-Callin, a French ex-pat. “Those who are used to full contact sports and hit very hard, and those who practise in front of the mirror and have never hit anyone. Savate fits somewhere in the middle. The hardest thing is getting people used to making either less contact or to make more. You have to control your hits; to touch but not hurt the person.”

The creation of savate can be credited to the never-ending battle for superiority between Britain and France during the first industrial age. As working class Britons were enamoured with a brutal fist fighting ritual to resolve disputes—a sport that would become boxing—Frenchmen seeking satisfaction would partake in shin-damaging streetkicking, which was considered to be more refined. Eventually the two sports combined to form the still kick-predominant savate. Unlike North American kickboxing, kicks to the legs are legal, although battles are won by adhering to time-honoured techniques such as reaching full extension and maintaining a smooth line.

ART MEETS FIGHTING: Sarah Kaderabek (l) and Murray

It’s a French thing

Montreal is Canada’s hub for savate activity, as all four major universities offer savate clubs. Toronto and Halifax also have savate contingents. Canada has been sending a savate team to the world championships since 2000 and the 13-member team won three bronze medals at the worlds in Paris this past September.

The sport is still looking for funding from federal and provincial governments.

It’s no coincidence Montreal has shown an interest in the aesthetically pleasing sport. Savate is enormously popular and heavily subsidized in France, and the birthplace of savate has been seeking to grow the sport in other French-speaking areas, including Quebec. Lyon native Guicherd-Callin, 30, was sent by the French Savate Federation five years ago to help instruct the already running savate clubs at McGill and Concordia. After witnessing the potential of the eager Montreal savate population, he decided to stay in the city and open his own school in Old Montreal. “I was surprised that so many people here liked the approach to the sport, especially the way it’s taught,” he says.

Learning control, according to Guicherd-Callin, is the toughest concept for his students to grasp. Because martial arts are typically associated with causing some sort of pain to your opponent, the fancy footwork and mostly touching attacks of a good “tireur” or “tireuse” (meaning boxer/savateur) can be a difficult exercise in restraint. Tireurs can only use their feet and hands as weapons, and cannot kick with their heels. A winner is declared via a point system based on punches or kicks to the head and body, and points are deducted for hitting an opponent too hard or making contact with the back or neck. Although most tireurs fight with the aforementioned “assaut” rules, there is a full contact version of the sport called “combat.” While the latter is slower and tougher, a quality assaut contest will almost look like two competitors dancing with a few flashy spinning head kicks thrown in.

Light and limber

“There’s a precise aspect to it where all your hits have to be very dead on the target,” says McGill masters’ student Shauna Flynn, 25, who participated in her first World Championships in Paris this past September. Flynn’s background is in jujutsu, a more grapple-heavy form of martial arts. “In jujutsu, there’s a lot of ground work—you’re rolling around and you don’t have to bend and move your limbs in all sorts of flexible positions. But in savate, there are moves that require a considerable amount of flexibility.”

“It’s beautiful to watch,” says 10-year tireuse Sarah Kaderabek, 39, a member on the board of directors for Savate Canada. “It’s a demonstration of something that is far more complete than boxing. Not to diss boxing, but it’s a whole different ballgame when you get to use your feet.”

The gloves used in savate are the same as boxing, but it’s also required to wear shin guards, as kicks to the shin are legal. The shoes are unique to the sport—they have reinforced toes and are made specifically for gliding in the boxing ring. The shoes also provide extra support for the ankles to prevent injury. The fights themselves are shorter than your average boxing match—three two-minute rounds—although the constant movement required makes for a tremendous workout even in such a short amount of time. “It’s akin to sprinting and kicking at the same time,” says Kaderabek. “When you’re sparring you won’t believe time is moving that slowly.”

Adjusting to the physical demands of the sport can also be difficult in terms of managing coordination, adds Kaderabek, saying younger tireurs need to learn to keep track of their body movements at all times, maintaining good form and positioning.

“Getting out of the line of fire or stepping to the side, it doesn’t seem difficult, but when you’re doing it with four limbs it can be one of the toughest things to learn,” she says. As someone who has been participating in savate for a decade, Kaderabek has noticed the popularity of the sport explode locally in recent years. The national team usually has more women than men as well, including the full-contact combat fights, which have been exclusively fought by women.

Looking good and winning

In combat, form is still important even though knocking out an opponent is the ultimate goal. “You still have the same basic rules,” says former combat bronze medalist Rebecca Murray, 33. “Except you’re going to see a lot more fancy fighting in assaut and less in combat. You won’t see as many spinning kicks in combat because you would be setting yourself up for a counterattack.”

Savate is a lot more than just a showy version of kickboxing, though. Flynn recently won a stand-up mixed-martial arts contest in Ottawa using savate as her fighting style—crediting savate for being easily adaptable to other situations—so in the hands of a skilled individual, it can be as effective a form of martial art as it is striking to observe.

“We really are a form of fencing,” says Guicherd-Callin. “Except you’re using your body’s own natural weapons.”