BY WIL CREWS
SPORTSCREWS@
OPELIKAOBSERVER.COM
OPELIKA —
Out Tha Mudd Boxing is hosting a women’s self-defense class this Saturday, Oct. 22.
Located at 1051 South Fox Run Parkway, Unit 3, Out Tha Mudd Boxing LLC is owned and operated by Rod Welch, a decorated boxer and boxing coach.
His women’s self-defense class is $20 and can be paid for at Out Tha Mudd on the day of the event. Classes will be underway from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, taking place in 30- to 45-minute sessions throughout the day.
Since Out Tha Mudd opened in August of this year, business has been slow but good, Welch said.
“It’s been a little slow but it’s starting to build up piece by piece,” he said. “I think as soon as the word gets out, I think it will be a big help for the community.”
Welch said he hopes his self-defense class will provide another avenue for getting traffic to his business, as well as provide what he sees as a need in the community.
“I want to teach them boxing skills that will help them on the street,” he said. “So they can attack their pursuer and then make it to safety.”
Welch ultimately decided to go forward with hosting a self-defense class when he heard stories from people he knew about women being attacked.
“A lot of women have been asking me about it,” he said. “Some people I used to train told me some female friends of their have been attacked. I said to myself a lot of women do need self-defense … single mothers and especially college students.”
In the class, Welch will be teaching women the basics of boxing, and how to apply that to self-defense out in the world.
“I’m showing the basics of boxing and the mobility of moving around — footwork — to help get in and out of certain situations,” Welch said. “It’s impossible to teach boxing in one day, so it’s just enough to take on a person, throw some punches, where to punch on the body, how to drop somebody, what they can aim for. It’s also going to teach them to control their emotions, because once you do that in certain situations, once you get your breathing under control, you can get a solution out of the situation.
“I always give them a speech, that if you ever need to use this stuff, if you ever get them to the ground, do what you have to do to get out of that location. Defend yourself and get out of there.”
Welch said that if this weekend’s class goes well, he hopes to have more in the future.
Ultimately, however, Welch is hosting the self-defense class — and lowering his membership price to $35 a month — in hopes of exposing more people in the community to the benefits that boxing can bring.
“I’m trying to make it to where everyone can experience boxing,” he said.