Laura Bearth, president of Purple Gloves, smiles as she trains with other club members. Bearth joined the club as a first-year student. (Esmee Verschoor/ TommieMedia)
Club leader Laura Bearth takes a break from instructing to practice her own technique. Tennis balls are used to improve hand-eye coordination and practice head movement. (Esmee Verschoor/ TommieMedia)
Lily Semo spars with her partner Ben Nichols. Semo is a graduate student and French teaching assistant. (Esmee Verschoor/ TommieMedia)
Ben Nichols and Lily Semo practice their pad work. No experience is necessary to join Purple Gloves; all techniques are learned in practice with the help of the club leaders Laura Bearth and Devin Lenz. (Esmee Verschoor/ TommieMedia)
Purple Gloves club members practice their hand-eye coordination using tennis balls. The club meets every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. (Esmee Verschoor/ TommieMedia)
Students Katie Kline and Courtney Yurich practice sparring. Club members team up and switch from punching bags, to sparring pads, to tennis balls every three minutes. (Esmee Verschoor/ TommieMedia)
Student Miguel Tinsay practices his punching under the guidance of other Purple Gloves members. Tinsay is a first-year student majoring in physical therapy. (Esmee Verschoor/ TommieMedia)
Student Courtney Yurich practices her bag work at a Wednesday practice. Students box for the first half of each practice and learn jiu-jitsu for the second half. (Esmee Verschoor/ TommieMedia)
Two students train at Purple Gloves in the Anderson Student Center at a Wednesday evening meeting. (Esmee Verschoor/ TommieMedia)
To release stress that college life can bring, some St. Thomas students have turned to Purple Gloves, a student-led boxing and jiu-jitsu club on campus.
The club meets three times a week and offers students a unique workout option that includes cardio-based classes along with heavy-bag punching, jiu-jitsu submission training and sparring practice. Club leader and senior elementary education major Laura Bearth said anyone on campus is welcome to join.
“Purple Gloves is a club for everyone. We want to build community and confidence through cardio,” Bearth said. “It has been my go-to stress reliever throughout college. Sometimes we get into those moods where you just want to punch something. Purple Gloves allows you to release that frustration with a purpose.”
Many of the club’s most enthusiastic participants were initially apprehensive about joining according to Bearth, including herself. She explained the only reason she initially attended Purple Gloves was to get a friend to stop nagging her about it.
“She kept bugging me, ‘Come try it. I love it, try it,’ and one day I said, ‘Fine I’ll try it this one time,’” Bearth said. “It was not part of the plan to like it. My plan was to come, try it and get her to shut up, but I went into it with an open mind and it was awesome.”
Bearth noted the people and sense of community initially attracted her more than the martial arts.
Since then, Bearth has gained a deeper appreciation for martial arts; however, she explained that the greatest aspect of the club is that everyone is working toward a common goal of self-improvement and discipline.
“I initially thought, ‘This is bad. It’s violent, why are we entertained by people hurting each other?’” Bearth said. “But once I experienced it, I realized violence isn’t the ultimate goal. It is about the training and education of mastering what the human body can do.”
Education is something that Bearth is passionate about. As an elementary education major, she hopes to transfer lessons she learned in martial arts to the classroom.
“I want to incorporate kinesthetic learning as much as possible in my classroom,” Bearth said.
Kinesthetic learning emphasizes learning through physical activity instead of traditional lectures.
“You want kids to be healthy, to get the wiggles out and to be able to focus. I don’t think it’s ever bad to get kids moving and have intentional movement in the classroom,” Bearth said.
Members of Purple Gloves think Bearth will make an excellent teacher, just as she makes an excellent club leader.
“She’s very good at what she does and she is very passionate about it. She is endlessly positive,” sophomore club member Devin Lenz said. “My mom is an elementary school teacher and they both are constantly positive and on top of things.”
Bearth will soon be licensed to teach kids from kindergarten through sixth grade. As for the growth of the club, Bearth hopes to continue seeing students step out of their comfort zone and give martial arts a chance like she did.
“I would say if you’re nervous to join, you’re in the perfect mindset to really love Purple Gloves. We have rules set in place for safety, one of them being check your ego at the door,” Bearth said.
“If someone is super nervous, it’s honestly perfect because you’re not here to prove something, we’re all on the same mission to improve ourselves and it makes for great community.”
Kyle Manderfeld can be reached at mand4052@stthomas.edu.