February Birthdays 
The Wall Street Journal
THE A-HED
DECEMBER 3, 2011
Outside the Box: For Young Musicians, This Exercise Has a Ring to It
Students at School in Upstate New York Take Breaks From Instruments to Hone Jabs; Punching in Triplets
By SCOTT CACCIOLA
Students of the Eastman School of Music throw punches in sync during their workout routine.
ROCHESTER, N.Y.—At the Eastman School of Music, students toil away in classrooms and concert halls hoping to one day join music royalty like Yo-Yo Ma and Renée Fleming. On a recent Saturday, however, a group of them filed into an industrial building with much different goals.
"I love having this one hour where I don't have to worry about anything except punching stuff," said Danny Ziemann, a 21-year-old senior double-majoring in music education and jazz performance.
Here at ROC Boxing & Fitness Center, a no-frills gym, about 20 music students are subjects of an experiment by Eastman professor James VanDemark, a double bassist who believes boxing breeds better musicians. To test that theory, students are spending about an hour a week this semester with longtime trainer Dom Arioli, who has them work the heavy bag, hone their jabs and bang out push-ups.
[Boxing]
Boxing long ago ceased to be confined to dingy gyms in hardscrabble neighborhoods. It has worked itself into fitness centers nationwide, with classes for everyone from kids to suburban moms. Recreational boxing stats aren't closely tracked, but the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association says participation in cardio-kickboxing classes, a variation, was up 22% from 2008 to 2010, to 3.4 million.
As far as Mr. Arioli is concerned, there's only one way to teach the sport. "We don't do any of that aerobic boxing nonsense here," he said. "We're old-school boxing."
The Eastman students say the benefits are manifold, ranging from improved posture and cardiovascular fitness—which help them produce bigger, more precise sounds as musicians—to stress relief.
"It does feel satisfying to hit something," said Thomas Steigerwald, an 18-year-old freshman who can spend upward of nine hours a day practicing the piano.
Music professor James VanDemark, who took up boxing himself two years ago, has been taking students to boxing classes in Rochester, N.Y.
Mr. Arioli, 56, a former Kodak employee, doesn't expect to produce the next Manny Pacquiao—or even the next Ela "Bam Bam" Nunez, whom he trained to a women's world featherweight title in 2008. That much is evident when he puts on punching mitts and works with students in the ring. "Every once in a while," he said, "they'll miss the target and punch me in the face."
Despite appearances, safety is emphasized. The first thing new students learn is how to wrap their hands with thick swaths of protective tape. Their hands, after all, tend to be important. The students don't actually spar with one another, so they avoid absorbing any blows. Instead, they take out their aggression on Mr. Arioli's various pieces of equipment. He teaches them the fundamentals—hands up, elbows in, step in, step out—and the lessons get more advanced from there.
"It's go, go, go, go, go," said Mr. Steigerwald, who has a predilection for Russian music. "You need strong arms and fingers."
Mr. VanDemark, 59, took up boxing two years ago. Early reviews were mixed. "My God, he was awful," Mr. Arioli said. "But he had desire. He had heart."
More important, Mr. VanDemark sensed that boxing was helping his performance as a musician. A regular at many of the world's top music festivals, Mr. VanDemark now moonlights as a 5-foot-7, 134-pound lightweight. He said the sport hinges on rhythm—the one-two combinations, the steady breathing and even the speed bag, which boxers punch in triplets. "Ba-da-dah! Ba-da-dah!" he explained. It became clear to him that boxing and music intersect. "It's all about muscle coordination and rhythm," he said.
Last year, Mr. VanDemark introduced a handful of his students to Mr. Arioli and was pleased with the results. The double bass is an unwieldy string instrument that stands more than six feet tall, and it can be physically demanding to play. James Sullivan, a graduate student who gravitates toward esoteric works by such composers as Alfred Schnittke and Sofia Gubaidulina, said he was struggling with tension in his shoulders and in his bow arm before he discovered the unique thrill of throwing a hard right hook. "I'd never heard of anything like this," Mr. Sullivan said. "Not for musicians."
This fall, the school opened up the weekly workouts to its entire student body as part of a wellness initiative. On a recent day, Mr. VanDemark patrolled his students' workout sporting a cutoff T-shirt and the remnants of a fairly spectacular black eye that he'd sustained during an early-morning sparring session.
There is some precedent for this sort of thing. Jazz icon Miles Davis was a huge boxing fan—and even did some training, according to John Szwed, a professor of music and director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia. "He loved that entire scene," said Mr. Szwed, who wrote in his 2002 biography, "So What: The Life of Miles Davis," that Mr. Davis "skipped rope, did floor exercises, and worked the speed bag with bebop phrasing and triple-tongue rhythms."
Shelly Mammoser, a fifth-year student from Chicago, said the school's previous recreational offerings of tai chi and yoga felt bland to her. She had tendinitis in her wrists from playing the French horn—"I could barely turn a door knob," she said—and wanted to do something more active. She got hooked on boxing immediately.
"It's just more my style," she said. "I can work out and feel like an idiot because I'm throwing these punches and don't really know what I'm doing. But I'm working up a sweat and figuring it out."
That's important to the instructor. "I'm a stickler for technique," said Mr. Arioli, who also has coached high school boxing for 31 years. "What happens if these kids leave to go to another gym and they're asked, 'Where'd you learn to throw that right hand?' I want to make sure that when they say 'Coach Dom,' they're doing it right."
He's tried out some new moves, too. After Mr. Arioli's wife surprised him with a conga drum as a gift, Mr. VanDemark urged him to bring it to one of the workouts for a jam session with a student who plays the double bass. Mr. Arioli said he was so nervous he stayed up late the night before, practicing until his hands were raw.
His concerns were unwarranted. "He had great rhythm," Mr. VanDemark said.
Write to Scott Cacciola at scott.cacciola@wsj.com
—Ivan
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