Savate, what is that?

Savate aka French Kickboxing or French Foot Fighting is a martial art

from France that combines boxing and kicks. In Savate only foot kicks are used as opposed to some arts allowing shins and knees to be used. Hence Savate is on of the few martial arts where it’s practitioners train with their martial arts shoes on. And for you new MMA fans out there, Savate was actually used in the first UFC tournament by Gerard Gordeau a Dutch Savate champion who defeated a Sumo wrestler and an American Kick boxer.

And while the name ‘Savate’ may not be familiar to you it has been featured in TV shows and movies including the children’s cartoon Ben 10, Jet Li’s Kiss of the Dragon and X-Men. Savate was originally developed as a form of street fighting and self-defense on the streets of Paris and Marsielle and has stood the test of time as a form of combat still used and taught today. However for most MMA fighters, Savate’s techniques may sound pretty limited with only 4 types of kicks and punches allowed. These include fouette – the roundhouse, chasse a front or side kick, revers a reverse or hook kick and coup de pied bas which is a leg sweep. Punches and hand strikes are limited to boxing style; jabs, crosses, hooks and uppercuts.

Gracie Jiu-jitsu is known world wide as one of the most effective forms of hand-to-hand combat. The Gracie family took the teachings of a Japanese man and adapted them to make them more effective, especially when dealing with a fight on the ground. Helio Gracie was probably the most instrumental in making this form of jiu jitsu into something unique. Helio’s main contribution was to adapt the martial art techniques so that they would be effective in defeating bigger and stronger opponents.

As he grew more adept, Helio launched the beginnings of Gracie Jiu-jitsu in a series of high profile matches. Despite not always being triumphant in these events, Helio won acclamation for lasting far longer than anyone thought he would be able to against more powerful and more practiced foes. In 1951 he took on Masahiko Kimura, then considered to be the greatest jiu jitsu fighter in the world. Kimura claimed that if the competition continued more than three minutes, then Helio would be proclaimed the champ; Helio lasted for thirteen. In 1955, the longest match in the world occurred when Helio held off a combatant twenty years younger than him and forty pounds heavier for three hours and forty minutes.

Taido

Similar to Okinawan karate, this codified fighting art introduced a number of innovative techniques, such as spinning and twisting movements and complex footwork moves.

There are five types of body movement: “ten” involves rolling and tumbling; “nen” is a horizontal spinning movement; “hen” is falling while changing the body’s axis; “un” is an ascending or descending movement; and “sen” involves vertical spinning.

Jogo Do Pau

Jogo Do Pau is a Portuguese staff-fighting martial art and, although its origins are unclear, it is believed the art was originally used to settle matters of honor between families and village members in the northern states of Portugal. Although there are suggestions Jogo Do Pau’s origins may lie in Indian martial arts, it is more likely to have evolved as a form of folk fighting between young men using easily obtainable sticks and canes. There is evidence to suggest

Portuguese guerilla warfare groups used the art form against Napoleon’s invading forces during the Napoleonic wars. The advent of firearms, however, saw the art fall into decline. The sport is enjoying a reemergence in some areas of Portugal today.

Savate is a full-contact boxing and kicking art, indigenous to France and some other parts of southwest Europe. It is believed to have evolved from a collection of fighting techniques used by sailors, criminals, and soldiers. The art form also includes a number of grappling maneuvers and involves weapons training, most notably with staffs such as the “steel batons” and “la canne de combat“.

Rise in popularity

Different Types of Martial Arts

Pankration, the ancient full-contact fighting art, which became an Olympic sport in 648 BCE, is one of the world’s oldest martial arts. Mythology maintains that it was invented by Hercules

and Theseus, although it is more likely to have developed as a training method for Greek soldiers, who noted that, by combining boxing techniques and groundwork as both sport and exercise, they could keep themselves battle-ready and still fight effectively should they lose their weapon during the heat of battle.

Different Types of Martial Arts

Combat 56

Founded by Major Arkadiusz Kups, Combat 56 is a Polish close-quarter combat, self-defense art similar to judo. It is named after an elite troop known as the 56th Company, a secretive unit thought to have operated behind enemy lines during a number of recent conflicts. Kups quickly recognized the need to equip his troops with a quick-to-learn, lethal range of close-quarter combat techniques that could be employed effectively on operations, and, although little is officially known about the system, it is reasonable to conclude that it contains knife-fighting elements, breaks, chokes, throws, and striking movements to vulnerable points of the body.

Khridoli

The Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP) was created to instill into troops the warrior ethos, and to teach them close-quarter combat techniques. It also serves as a way of building team cohesion and morale. MCMAP replaced former programs such as the LINE system and may be referred to as a synergy of mental character and physical disciplines, with applications across the full spectrum of violence.

Peace-keeping techniques

Deutsche Fechtschule

The Deutsche Fechtschule was a sword-fighting movement popular from the 14th to 17th centuries. Its principles are still practiced today.

Between 1487 and 1570 the Brotherhood of St. Mark—the most important organization of German fencers—was responsible for teaching sword arts in the country, and it is due to their efforts that a canon of literature detailing ancient techniques, methodology, and weaponry still survives to this day.

Multifaceted art

Different Types of Martial Arts

A hybrid martial art, limalama was developed from the traditions of the Polynesian islands of American Samoa by Tu’umamao Tuiolosega. It is a self-defense system that is sometimes considered to be a branch of American kempo.

An all-inclusive system