The University News

Issue date: 4/7/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Laura Katzer

A crew of students learned to punch, kick and defend while staying in shape last Wednesday night. Swinney Recreation Center held a free demo class for its new Thai Box program.

Thai Box is a contact sport, and participants direct their punches and kicks at each other.

The program was incorrectly listed in the UMKC announcements as Tae Box basics. This caused some confusion among interested students because the name evokes Tae Bo and aerobic kickboxing.

The description in the UMKC announcements said it "incorporates, boxing, kicking and sports conditioning."

This description may not have been sufficient because a few students left after they learned the boxing involved person-to-person contact.

"This is the first class I ever left," said Iljana Gaffar, third-year medical student. "It's not what I expected. It was not aerobic, at least I didn't feel it was."

Annie Pazder, a Swinney employee who facilitated the creation of the Thai Box class, explained she wanted a class geared toward men.

"I wanted a class to include the guys who use the facility," Pazder said.

Although the demo was meant to encourage men to take fitness classes, most of the participants were women.

Andy Fleishhacker, freshman pre-business, taught the class. He is from Munich, Germany, and he taught Thai Box for four years there.

"It was alright for the first class," Fleishhacker said. "I want them to have full contact. If we can do that, I think we can have a fun time."

There was a positive reaction about the class from the students who finished.

"I liked the class and it's a good way to learn technique to prevent injury," said Colleen Brennan (above), first year medical student.

Ben Baker, senior nursing, (above) agreed with Brennan.

"It was a good workout," he said.

For more information about classes at Swinney Recreation Center, visit www.umkc.edu/src.

lkatzer@unews.com

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