St. Cloud Area Community Education offers a wide range of courses for youth enrichment including boxing classes for kids. When it comes to a variety of classes, there is always something new to try!
Colas (Cole) Falon, the youth boxing instructor at St. Cloud Boxing Club, found his niche in boxing and martial arts at an early age.
“The honest short answer to how I got started [in martial arts and boxing] was that I was short and insecure as a kid,” laughs Falon. “I was the shortest kid in my class and that was in the late 80s and early 90s, and the whole world was still excited about ‘The Karate Kid’ movies. That [martial arts and boxing] was the solution. Within a couple of years, I started competing and fell in love with the training. It just ended up being something I do for life. And, the insecurities went away as I became an adult.”
After training and coaching adults beginning in the late 1990s, Falon decided to assist a youth class and found that he loved it and found it was much more fulfilling. He switched his focus completely to teaching youth.
“They [the kids] smile a lot more,” shares Falon. “The adults, they don’t smile as much when they’re learning.”
Emmalee Kirby is one of those kids who smiles.
Kirby and one of her friends talked about learning how to box and Kirby’s mom, Amie, found the class through Community Education.
“I feel like doing Community Ed [classes] is a good first step to trying anything new,” explains Amie.
Amie has been enrolling Emmalee in classes ever since she was little. She believes that community ed classes are a great way for kids to test the water to see if it is something they are really interested in. She feels that it’s a way for parents to save on the investment of money and time and still be able to expose kids to a great number of things.
“It’s [boxing class] amazing!” exclaims Emmalee. “There is a lot of good things about it. I thought that it would just be punching a bag, but there are so many things you have to learn in boxing.”
The class starts with warm-ups: the kids run, jump rope and leapfrog to loosen muscles. Only then do the kids get to put on their gloves. They each choose a punching bag and start working on the basic techniques of jabbing, hooking, keeping a balanced stance, pivoting a foot and always keeping gloves up to protect the face.
While each student practices his or her basics, Falon works with each student individually, sparring and ducking while reminding them to use their basic training.
Paki Latham says his son, David Payton, is a ball of energy.
“The idea was to channel it [Payton’s energy] into something productive that’s also going to teach him a different type of discipline,” explains Latham. “That way he can be constructive in school, with schoolwork and after school. And, he can get rid of all that energy before he gets home!”
Latham is happy with what he sees so far.
“He’s loving it,” says Latham. “I love his energy. He tends to focus a little bit more in detail and really takes a hold of it.
Holly Engel wanted her son, Carter, to get out and do something during the day. Carter already had an interest in wrestling and boxing so she was excited to see the class offered.
“He’s already busy at night with soccer and just needed something during the day,” says Engel. “This is great because they do conditioning like jump roping and get a great workout.”
However, community education classes aren’t just for kids, there are classes for adults, too. Whether it’s wellness, food, technology, life, nature or travel, adults will also find a large variety of courses.
“There are even things that I do as an adult through community ed,” states Amie.
With all the options available to the community, there are countless interests available. Even if it is just taking a jab at boxing.
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