La Double Canne (double cane French stickfighting).

**Rene "Zendokan" Gysenbergs** · Posted On: 9/26/2012 4:27pm

"La Double Canne" is becoming more and more popular in the French Savate and associate sports (La Canne/Le Batôn) world.

Created in 2009 by the ASCA federation, it has become a part of the CNCCB (Comité National de Canne de Combat et Baton) since this year.

One man (in this case woman) drill

Two man (again women) demo

two person drill as a demo

I haven't tried it myself yet, since I'm still at single La Canne de Combat/Défense and Sportive level, but it looks interesting.

Enjoy.

**Rene "Zendokan" Gysenbergs** · Posted On: 9/27/2012 2:50am

Ladies and Gentlemen, this maybe be the traditional forum, but that doesn't mean that there can't be any form of discussion at all.

Maybe some of our FMA incrowd can give their insights about this art or discuss the theoratic countermoves that their arts have against this one.

**Fuzzy** · Posted On: 9/27/2012 3:34am

Hmm.

Very interesting, but looks totally foreign (see what I did there?) to what I'm used to. Something I notice with the twirling drill is that there are no defined strikes going on, unlike most of the FMA patterns I know. Do you know the reason for this? Is it just wrist excercise?

I like the way green helmet fights in the second vid, apart from the turning his back, not sure I'd want to do that with a weapon.

**Rene "Zendokan" Gysenbergs** · Posted On: 9/27/2012 4:57am

The twirling drill is to get used to operating two canes at the same time, something completely new to most tireurs.
When la double canne first started, the idea was to create a two stick art that wasn't a carbon copy of FMA, but kept its style connected to single canne de combat.

The first form that now exists is double canne sportive, which is the sport version so it uses the same rules as single canne de sport. That's why the back gets turned in drills for now, it's legal under the ruleset as a stop (will give you a minuspoint in comp) or as a speed gainer ( like a 360 reverse roundhouse kick). So its fast pace with longer sticks.
The twirling drill gets the practisener used at moving two canes at speed with some decent coordination.

I suspect that later double canne de combat will come with thicker canes and without the back turning, just like canne de combat and canne de défense.

**wikidbounce** · Posted On: 9/28/2012 4:46am

This whole video is really good, but skip to 2:50 for some dual wielding of le bâton.

The fluid movements of such long sticks is really something beautiful to watch.

Edit: Actually don't skip ahead, if you don't watch it all you'll be missing out.

**blindside** · Posted On: 9/28/2012 11:55am

Hard to tell with these vids and them wearing gloves, but they are often using an inward lateral strike with the palm down that looks like a terrible grip if you are actually throwing with power. As the final position of a straight thrust I would be fine with it, but as a slashing motion I really don't like it.

I will have to try it, and maybe with the longer stick the striking power is much more than I expect, but it often looks like they are pulling strikes on each other.

**Fuzzy** · Posted On: 9/28/2012 12:12pm

Zendo, do you train La Canne?

I'd love to do some sparring with you at a Euro TD sometime or if you're ever in the UK.

**Rene "Zendokan" Gysenbergs** · Posted On: 9/28/2012 12:51pm

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Zendo, do you train La Canne?

I'd love to do some sparring with you at a Euro TD sometime or if you're ever in the UK.

Yes, but at this time more La Canne de Sport as a warming up before La Boxe Française - Savate classes.
I will have to start La Canne De Combat again because in the Q1 of next year my instructorship test for Savate Défense is scheduled (la Canne De Combat is a part of that)...and I still have to do a lot of training before I'm ready to undertake it.

EuroMega 5 will probabely be scheduled in the last week of July/first week of August 2013 (still deciding over a permanent date).
I should hit the UK again, but that will be the soonest in 2013 (busy schedule at work for 2012).

**Rene "Zendokan" Gysenbergs** · Posted On: 9/28/2012 12:57pm

Originally Posted by wikidbounce

This whole video is really good, but skip to 2:50 for some dual wielding of le bâton.

The fluid movements of such long sticks is really something beautiful to watch.

Edit: Actually don't skip ahead, if you don't watch it all you'll be missing out.

This is the first time that I've seen Double Bâton! I've at this moment not even started Single Bâton yet. Damn, I should have started earlier with Savate/La Canne.

**jspeedy** · Posted On: 9/28/2012 6:04pm

From an fma standpoint I like a lot of what I see. Ive seen similiar back turning in fma before albeit with different footwork. In fma the back turn takes you out of range and enables you to quickly move balk in range and counter. The la canne movements appear to rely on the wrist for power strikes which can be effective in fma. overall it looks a little flowery but I just scanned through the videos on my phone so I could be missing something.