French for "French
staff", also known as French stick fighting, is a European historical
fencing discipline which uses a staff about 1.2 m long (4 ft). The
techniques have much in common with longsword and quarterstaff.
The origins of this system are
lost in antiquity but probably share a common root with other European stick
fighting systems such as quarterstaff, German Stockfechten, Portuguese Jogo
do Pau, etc.
The Bâton was systematized in France during the 1800s and is still part of a
set of skills associated with the modern French martial art of boxe
française (savate).
