Health

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The first jabs landed politely, like the boxing students were tapping the punching bags on the shoulders instead of pummeling them.

Then, the music started blasting — hard, driving beats, the kind that push everyone in the club onto the dance floor. Ronnell "Bigg Ron" Jones, an aptly named wall of a man, barked instructions over the music.

"Jab, right-handed! Jab, right-handed! Jab, right-handed! Who's the champ"

"I'm the champ," a couple of kids called out meekly.

"I don't believe you. I don't believe you," Bigg Ron goaded. "WHO'S THE CHAMP"

"I'M THE CHAMP!" 14 teenagers cried out in one voice.

As Annie Beurman punched at the bag in front of her, she couldn't help but think: "Nobody better mess with me."

The new Fight Club classes at Title Boxing Club in Prairie Village, Kan., are free to teens who are being bullied, teens wanting to stand up for friends being bullied and any teen needing to let off a little steam.

It's not a self-defense class. Holly Reynolds, the woman who started the program, can't call it that for legal reasons. It's not about fighting, either, though Reynolds gave it the same name as the 1999 Brad Pitt movie about underground fight clubs.

This Fight Club is about getting fit, feeling strong and fighting the good fight, she said.

These teens don't spar with each other. They spar with their feelings.

And a lot of anger gets left in those sweaty boxing gloves.

"People tried to get me to change the name to make it more accessible, but I was very determined," Reynolds said. "That was the name that came to my head, because growing up is a fight. You've got to fight to be heard, you've got to fight to be understood. Some of these kids have to fight to get themselves out of bed in the morning and drag themselves to school. It's a constant struggle.

"The metaphor went well with what're doing. We're not necessarily telling these kids go out and fight. We're giving them the mind-body connection that comes from boxing and kickboxing."

A boost of confidence is what Kelli Beurman, a grade schoolteacher from Olathe, Kan., wants for her daughter, Annie, who last week signed up for Fight Club. Fourteen-year-old Annie, now a freshman, has been bullied since fourth grade.

"I thought it would give her a sense of empowerment in case she would ever need to defend herself," Beurman said. "Because part of dealing with someone who is bothering you is just knowing that you can."

Reynolds knows the pain of being bullied. Growing up in Kansas City she was a target in high school, as was a friend who was harassed about his sexual orientation.

"I was a little chunky in high school, and I walked home every day through a neighborhood ... this car full of kids would call me Jenny Craig drop-out. They'd honk their horn and yell out the window. I just got thick-skinned and let it harden me. That's how I dealt with it," said Reynolds, an aesthetician who runs a studio on State Line Road.

"So I know from experience that ... there's a better way to go rather than internalizing those emotions. It makes you mad at the world, really. And it doesn't have to be that way. There are people who care."

Those experiences kept her interested in bullying issues as an adult. She followed national cases and was especially moved by what happened to Jamey Rodemeyer, a 14-year-old in Buffalo, N.Y.

Jamey, who struggled with his sexuality, was bullied online for months. Last May he posted an anti-bullying message on YouTube. Then in September he posted final messages on his blog before killing himself.

Bullying is such a huge problem that "we're not hoping to change the world," Reynolds said. "Just at least create that spark."