And thanks especially to Julie and Ollie for organizing the weekend. It ran extremely smoothly, and was great fun to attend :)

i'll be there sunday.

Another chance to train Savate with the legendary Gilles le Duigou here in the UK:

He will be with us in Cambridge on 26/27th May - yes, now less than three weeks away. Sorry for the late notification but Gilles was only able to confirm that he could come in the last few days.


DETAILS:

Dates: Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th May, 2007

Venue: St. Bede's School Sports Complex, Birdwood Road, Cambridge. CB1 3TD

This is a superb venue on the edge of Cambridge City (about 3 miles out from the City centre) and within a couple of miles of Cambridge Rail Station. It is also easy to get to by car, without the need to go into the City centre, and there is lots of free parking space.

Times: 11.00am - 4.00pm each day

Costs: CAMA/GBSF Members: £40 all weekend (£30 Student), £25 One-day only (£20 Student)
Others: £50 for the weekend, £30 One-day only

We urge everyone interested in attending this seminar to let us know as soon as possible please, via e-mail: info@savate.co.uk or by telephone: 01223 565020

Hope you can all make it,

Pugil

Just to inform you that Gilles le Duigou will be coming back to Cambridge at the end of the month (Jan 2007) to conduct another seminar. He will be accompanied by Florence Suire, a many times Champion, including French, European and World (1995).

For those of you who don't know who Gilles is, please read the following:

Gilles le Duigou

30+ years in Savate

114 competitive fights in total (rough breakdown in brackets):

Savate (60) only lost 4 times in Savate competition; English Boxing (20) 14 amateur and 6 Pro fights (won 4, lost 2) was amateur Boxing Champion of Paris, and winner of two other amateur tournaments; Kickboxing (14); and Full-Contact (20). One of Gilles' Full-Contact trainers was the legendary Dominic Valera.

In 1985, Gilles fought and beat the fabulous Francois Pennacchio in the semi-finals of the French Championships. After losing the first round, to the highly-skilled and fast kicking Pennacchio, Gilles switched tactics and used his English Boxing skills to win the next four rounds.

(Pennacchio later went on to defeat Ramon Dekkers, the Thai Boxing legend, in a kickboxing challenge match. "The Dutch sensation fought in Milan in the 1990s losing a spectacular match against French Savate Champion Francois Pennacchio. Nobody expected Pennacchio to last more than a few minutes, but the Frenchman found out that Savate sweeps were effective against Dekkers and used them to build a victory on points.")

In 1986 (before there was an official World Championships), Gilles beat everyone he met in the ring, including Daklaoui (Fr), to become Champion of Europe. In that same year, he also fought a Japanese Full-Contact fighter, who was an extremely powerful kicker. Gilles had been ill in the weeks before the fight and, possibly as a result of that, he had both arms broken when he tried to block a particularly strong round kick. Gilles continued to fight, even though he knew one of his arms was broken, and eventually knocked out his opponent in the fourth round with a fouetté (whip kick) to the liver.

Some time after breaking his arms in that fight (he now has at least one steel plate as a result!), Gilles fought the remarkable Richard Sylla, but lost in the third round to an uppercut punch to the liver. So now you know why he likes that particular target!

Please email me in the first instance if you would like to attend: info@savate.net

Pugil

-- Edited by Pugil at 21:44, 2007-01-20

I have just been alerted to the training and grading day advertised for this weekend at CAMA on 23rd April (St George's Day and 'road blockade day' for any Londoners)

Is this still going ahead? If so, I'll bring a few of my motley crew.

James

Rossy wrote:

---

Will there be any photographs posted of the event ?
 

---

I only took a couple of group shots with my digital camera. I had battery problems

If anyone else has anything, please send them across so that we can put them on the GBSF website and also link them to the Forum.

Thanks,

Pugil

The two seminars of Gilles' I've attended have been, without doubt, the best sessions of Savate I have experienced.

Last year I was stunned by the simple, logical way Gilles presented the strikes and defences. This year I think I understood in more depth what was covered.

More importantly, one or two things were said, plus one defence, that have given me a real way to relax. Learning to spar relaxed, as any experienced fighter will tell you, is perhaps the most important development.

So, thank you Gilles for a wonderful piece of teaching, and to Ollie and Julie for making the seminar possible.

I think I speak on behalf of all Spectrum folk that made it to the seminar, we all enjoyed the day and found Gilles to be an excellent instructor. He explains things in such simple terms it makes it almost impossible to not enjoy and learn from training with him.

It made a nice change to do more "Combat" based training and certainly made my arms ache the next day, not used to using so much power when punching. Great training and good for conditioning of any fighter be it assaut or combat.

Many thanks to all of you who were able to make it along to the seminar on Saturday. I hope you all had a great time and are, like me, looking forward to Gilles coming back again soon.

Pugil

Sounds good to me, so long as my current bug has gone..........I will be there. Anyone from Guildford area that is up for it please contact me (Rossy) ASAP so I know what size of vehicle to get, Smart car - minibus !!

Dear All UK-based members & Guests,

This is an URGENT request!

As you may know, one of the world's foremost French Savate trainers, Gilles le Duigou, will be here in Cambridge to arrange a possible exchange trip for his daughter - who will be travelling with him. They will arrive on Friday 17th February, and they will leave either late on Sunday 19th, or early on Monday 20th.

Gilles has very kindly agreed that, as he will be here anyway, he is willing to conduct one or two special training sessions and/or a small seminar over that same weekend. I have also asked if he could bring with him a top female Savateuse along with him - which he has agreed to do.

So here is where I need your URGENT response: As I have no idea how many of you are likely to want (or be able) to commit yourself to attending such an event as a training seminar at such relatively short notice, I don't know whether to book a large gym on Saturday 18th and/or Sunday 19th, or whether to restrict numbers to about 12 and do the sessions in our Studio.

Would you please, therefore, let me know AS SOON AS YOU CAN if you intend to come along, and also if it will be on one or both days. As far as costs are concerned, I can only say that we will be keeping them down to an absolute minimum. We do, however, have to take into account the cost of accommodation for Gilles and his training assistant Laure - unless we can find someone in Cambridge who is able to put one of them up perhaps?

Please respond to this post via email* ASAP one way or the other. If cost is an issue please be assured that the cost to attend will be based on the number of people who are likely to turn up. In other words, it won't be more than last time, and if I can possibly charge any less I will certainly do so.

Best wishes,

Pugil

*e-mail your reply to: pugil@savate.net

In case you missed it in the magazines, Martial Energy are putting on a seminar entitled 'Comparative Kicboxing'.

It will take place in Solihull, Birmingham on Saturday 4th March, from 11am - 3.30pm.

I will be conducting a session on Savate, and Eddie Quinn will be doing a session on Muay Thai.

Anyone requiring further details, please phone: 0121 603 5152

Pugil

The venue and costs have yet to be confirmed. As a guide, however, this is what we charged last time:

Costs:
To attend both days: £45 CAMA and/or GBSF Members, or £50 Others.
One day attendance: £30 CAMA and/or GBSF Members, or £35 Others.

In addition:
Two half-days attendance: £35 CAMA and/or GBSF Members, or £40 Others.
Half-day only attendance: £20 CAMA and/or GBSF Members, or £25 Others.

Please be assured that we will endeavour to keep close to the above costs, if not exactly the same.

Pugil

Slovenian Savate federation organise also this year summer school in Portorose in Slovenia - on the Adriatic sea coast. Traditional thing - Gerhard Schmitt was our vistor last year. Very nice were his words. Plane tickets to Slovenia - Ljubljana with Adria Airways or Easy Jet cost few Euros. We can pick you on airport and taker you on 1 hour ride with us to the Portorose near the sea where we have seminar - for fifth consequent year. Also Hungarian and German team will come and Croatian.

If somebody from your team wants to know the details of this seminar please contact us:

It consists of canne de combat 5 days - full board, trainings

Next 5 days consists of boxe francaise - full board, trainings

(And the prices - lower than anywhere in European Union these days near the warm seas)(Ask Gerhard)

savate@email.si

www.savate-zveza.si