Charles Lecour
He put English fists on French feet
- Born
- May 12, 1808, Oissery, Seine-et-Marne, France
- Died
- June 19, 1894 (aged 86)
- Nationality
France- Style
- Boxing-savate synthesist
- Active
- 1830s–1847
The story
harles Lecour gave savate its hands. Born in Oissery, Seine-et-Marne, in 1808, he learned the kicking art from Michel Pisseux and was soon teaching it himself. In the 1830s a sparring assault against the English prize fighter Owen Swift went badly: Swift took over at once, and Lecour saw that French fighters used their hands only to block. After watching Swift fight Jack Adams near Paris in 1838, he took boxing lessons from Adams, merged English punching with savate kicks and adopted gloves so pupils could hit for real. He called the result boxe française. With his brother Hubert he ran a fashionable salle in the passage des Panoramas, where Alexandre Dumas and Théophile Gautier trained. He later taught at the École d'escrime française until 1884 and died in Épinal in 1894, aged 86.
Tap a technique with an arrow to learn how it works.
- Creator of boxe française: savate kicks plus English boxing punches (1830s)
- Ran the passage des Panoramas salle in Paris with his brother Hubert Lecour
- Professor of boxe française, École d'escrime française (1875–1884)
- Oissery's village school named after him (2002)
Defining fights
- 1830LOSSvs Owen Swift, 1830s (sparring assault at Lord Seymour's, Paris; Swift dominated)
- 1838Watched Owen Swift beat Jack Adams near Paris, then took boxing lessons from Adams
- 1847Exhibitions vs Hubert Lecour (cane, savate and staff, Cirque Olympique, Paris)
Lecour's breakthrough was adding real punches to savate kicks. Drill it: land a coup de pied bas (low kick) on the lead shin, and as the hands drop, step in behind a direct (straight punch) and a crochet (hook).
2002–2021
