Women savateurs from Europe gathered in Novi Sad Serbia for a weekend of Savate on 22.-23.3.2014. The seminar was held at a local club, Savate Klub Vojvodina, which has produced many World and European Championships medalists in assaut and combat during the years. We were lucky to have a chance to enjoy the club's great atmosphere with Maja and Miroslav Odzic who run the club.
The seminar participants were able to try their skills not only in Savate but also in Savate Defence and Canne de Combat. The Savate trainings were given by myself and I was very pleased with the way everyone was eager to try all the things I presented them.
The International Savate Federation's president Julie Gabriel was also present at Novi Sad. She taught a session in Savate Defence. For most of the participants Savate Defence was something new and I'm sure we all learned many useful self-defence techniques during the session. Someone like me for example, who is not a fast runner, got many different and efficient ways to acquire a head start from the possible assailant.
Nicole Holzman, European Champion in Canne de Combat, spend nearly the whole weekend outside under the Serbian sun while teaching Canne de Combat to local Canne fighters. Those who took part in the Savate seminar also had the chance to try Canne de Combat as well in a 3-hour session at the end of the seminar. The Canne was not a familiar weapon to most of us but after learning a couple of the basic strikes and blocks we were able to do a bit of sparring at the end of the session.
Our weekend of Savate in Serbia was excellently organised and I'm sure all the participants enjoyed themselves very much. I hope we can arrange something similar soon again.
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