Punch, kick, grab—hold

From fist to feet; North Country residents find security in self defense classes.

Story and photos by Dimas Sanfiorenzo

About six months ago, 54-year-old attorney Stephen Miller walked into the Bantam boxing gym. A lifelong tennis player, Miller’s skills on the court had diminished with age. With his athletic stomach still rumbling, he wanted to try his hands in another arena.

Bantam gym owner and former Vermont, New England, and Amateur Athletic Union Golden Gloves Champion Billy Lefbrudge was there to give him a glove. Lefbrudge started by teaching him the simplest, purest punch—the jab. From that first jab, Miller was hooked.

“I wanted to try something that was an art, and also something that I could improve in,” Lefbrudge says. “Boxing seemed like a great choice.”

Learning to fight is part of any discipline of self-defense. However, it’s hardly the only reason why people from various ages, genders, and walks of life get in the ring. Whether it’s for the exercise, the matter of safety, or just out of curiosity, there’s no shortage of motivation.

"You’re going from the laboratory into the real world... until you get into the ring, you don’t really know what it’s like, and it starts to make a lot more sense."

When it comes to a sport like boxing, Lefbrudge, who watches 50 to 60 different faces enter his gym in a week, sees the aspect of self-confidence being the biggest factor.

“It’s very individual. It’s something you do by yourself,” Lefbrudge says. “It’s a team sport, but it’s not. If you’re in there, you’re going to win or lose.”

For Miller, who since that day has never stopped coming back to the gym, it was all about staying in shape. As time went by, though, he’s actually become quite the boxer. Now, he can be seen in the gym three to four days out of the week, shadow boxing, practicing his jab (which he now says is his best punch), working on his right hook (the weapon he wants to be his best punch), jumping rope, hitting the bags and—the aspect that is the most terrifying to novices—sparring in the ring.

“You’re going from the laboratory into the real world.” Miller says when explaining what it’s like to get in action with an opponent. “You doing all this stuff with the bag, and jump rope, and bobbing and weaving, but until you get into the ring, you don’t really know what it’s like, and it starts to make a lot more sense.”

The tiny Samantha Sperber, who stands at five-feet-one-quarter of an inch, doesn’t box. With short arms, she wouldn’t be much of a boxer anyway. Yet, she still has that competitive nature, and her legs make up for it.

“My arms are kind of short so it’s easier to kick,” Sperber says.

Her willingness to fling those legs lead her to the first floor of the Memorial Hall located on the SUNY Plattsburgh campus. There, every Tuesday and Thursday for an hour and 15 minutes, she can be found practicing kick boxing.

It’s not her first step into the world of self defense; she started when she was eight when she would glance at the local karate dojo near her house in Long Island.

“I used to tell my mom every time. ‘I want to do karate. I want to do karate. It looks cool.’ But my mom always said ‘no.’ Sperber says. “Finally, she gave in, and I have been doing it ever since.”

When starting school, she wanted to get in that realm again, but found all the karate classes in Plattsburgh to be too amateur and “boring.” So she found her way with kickboxing, a sport that has become rather therapeutic for her.

“It gets out my anger,” Sperber says. “I do it for the exercise, but it’s also a stress reliever.”

“I was thinking ‘Alright, so, maybe if I tweak it just a little bit more, he will tap out. So I did that, and when I did that his whole arm gave, and I heard a huge crack.”

While Tuesdays and Thursdays in the Memorial Hall are occupied by Sperber’s kicks, Kyle Phillips has a choke hold on Mondays and Wednesdays—literally. Those are the days where Phillips and about a dozen or so others get together to perform his favorite aspect of martial arts, grappling. It’s an art he picked up when he came to Plattsburgh a year and half ago. He started taking classes at Fred Villari’s Studios with master instructor David Boise. At the time, he was performing routine activities like punching, kicking, and breathing exercises, with only dash of grappling. This was not enough. After constantly pestering Boise, the instructor folded and dedicated two nights a week to what Phillips describe as “one big grappling class.” And that’s all Phillips ever wanted. He'd rather grab then punch or kick any day.

“Why? I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I don’t like getting punched,” Phillips says. “It’s a lot less brain damage…If you compare grapplers to boxers.”

Even though there's “less brain damage,” there is still a great risk factor involved that even Phillips would acknowledge. He recalls a match where the outcome was almost catastrophic. He had a peer locked up in a position and he refused to give up.

“I was thinking ‘Alright, so, maybe if I tweak it just a little bit more he will tap out, so I did that, and when I did that his whole arm gave, and I heard a huge crack,” Phillips says. “The nastiest thing you could ever hear…I let it go.”

When not practicing at Memorial Hall, he can be still found at Fred Villari's Studios working out with Bosie.  Boise, who has been participating in martial arts for more than 35 years and has practiced in Plattsburgh for 27 years, knows well the different ages and skill levels who step onto his carpet and has seen the changes in the climate.

“When I first started, it was a very ego maniac driven thing. You had hard core military, police, or civilizations who basically learned the martial arts and then would try to teach adults…it was a very brutal type mindset,” Boise says. “Now, it’s a lot more professional. You come in, you have fun with it, you go at your own pace, and that’s a pretty exciting thing for someone looking at martial arts now versus, even, 10 years ago.”

What doesn’t change, however, is the diverse crowd that comes in to practice. It’s a crowd that can be as old as 70 and as young as five. Though in the same dojo, children aren’t practicing martial arts for the same reason as grandma and grandpa.

“I have never had a parent come in and say ‘I want Johnny to come beat up Steven.’” Boise says. “Basically, for kids, what they get out of it is life skills. They’re going to have a lot of discipline, focus, and they’re going to be able to assert themselves.”

From boxing to martial arts, from child to adult, the span practicing self defense is long and diverse.  And for Boise, it’s all about people’s personal preference.   

“It’s like a giant pie with a lot of different slices. Some people like the self defense. Some people like the weapons. Some like the form. Some like the eternal arts or the breathing exercise.” Bose says. “I like to tell students try a lot of slices of pie—get more well rounded.”

What form of self defense interest you the most?