Take a guess. The fastest-growing fitness workout for female students on campus is: 1. aerobics, 2. tennis or 3. boxing.
Boxing? Believe it! More than half the 50 students in Cornell physical education instructor Tony Manzi's classes these days are women, up from 5 percent or less just a few years ago.
Don't misunderstand. The students, male and female, who gather for the one-and-a-half hour workout in Teagle Hall's wrestling room up to four days a week aren't training to go into the ring. "What they do," said Manzi, "is get a taste of what it would be like to train as a boxer." They shadow box, hit a 75 lb. heavy bag, skip rope, train with weights, do stretches, run and practice with "focus" mitts -- special safety mitts with a large, flat area. They also learn how to throw an effective punch -- left, right and in combination -- as well as do the footwork that goes along with punching.
"If you're on the ball, you dance in and out," said Manzi, with the kind of New York accent that suggests he honed his skills in the city's toughest neighborhoods. "You bob, weave, shuffle, skip. You don't need to throw a punch every five seconds."
After a vigorous general workout, accompanied by fast-paced rock music selected by Manzi, the coach sets up stations throughout the gym and moves the students through them. A fit-looking former high school teacher and racquetball champion from Queens, N.Y., Manzi has clearly endeared himself to the class. Maybe its the pointers -- "not bad but rotate your shoulder" -- sprinkled with good natured teasing -- "how'd you get into this university, anyway?" -- that keeps them coming back. Maybe its Manzi's gruff affection for the students, visible when he helps tape up hands or tie loose shoe laces. Or maybe its the workout.
"Tony's great, tough but supportive, and it's an amazing workout," said senior Carly Bloom, a biology major from New City, N.Y. "I have more energy during the day, and I noticed that my punch got stronger in the last week. It makes you feel good about yourself. "
Jane Lai, a graduate student in health administration from Chicago, agreed that boxing is a great workout for women. "It's exercise and self defense -- very empowering."
"It's coordination, and it gets you pumped up," said freshman Tammy Miller, a design and environmental analysis major from California.
"The guys might have more strength," said Bloom, "but they don't necessarily know how to punch. The women have really great technique. They could spar with the men anytime."
In fact, Manzi rarely pairs men with women during practice, although he occasionally exchanges punches with them himself and helps them with their technique when there's an odd number of female students in class. "I still get uneasy when I see women hitting each other," he admitted.
The students do not wear standard boxing gloves or sparring gloves during boxing practice, but instead wear heavier-weight training gloves, oversized mitts that Manzi calls "big pillows, safer on your hands and safer when you hit someone." Actual sparring requires two contestants in a ring wearing headgear and mouthpieces. It isn't done at Teagle because of the liability risk.
Manzi likened sparring to a scrimmage in football. "Your goal is to practice your technique, not to knock out your opponent," he said.
When asked about the risk of getting hurt during boxing practice, the women seemed unconcerned. "It's like playing ball in high school; it kind of goes with the territory," said Bloom. Miller confessed that her only worry was "getting my teeth messed up. Lots of money was invested in straightening them."
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