‘My Mom Can Fight.’ How boxing is helping Parkinson’s Disease patients fight the battle of their lives

FORT DODGE, Iowa — The Norma and Tom Schmoker Center at Friendship Haven in Fort Dodge serves as a community space for residents.

Twice a week, it’s a training center for seven boxers fighting the toughest battle of their lives.

“I want to help slow down Parkinson’s,” Gary Klaassen of Pomeroy said.

Though mostly male dominated, the pride of Manson is ready for another round. Most people know her as Kathy ‘South-Paw’ Johnson. I’ve always called her, mom.

‘I can’t hit dad,” she said as my father helped put on her gloves. “They told me I can’t do that.”

She’s never lost her sense of humor.

To better understand the journey my mother and our family has been on, it’s important to go back before Parkinson’s disease impacted her daily life, like it does now.

She loved to paint, could carry a tune at church and during the early stage of her diagnosis, her grandkids had a hard time keeping up with her. But, as time has passed, the cruel reality of the disease has become more noticeable. Instead of mourning what she can’t do, which most of us close to her are guilty of, she’s focused on keeping what she still has. My mom has never been known to throw pity parties.

“No. Never have been. I have the personality of a person that goes for what I can do,” she said.

Rock Steady Boxing is designed to help Parkinson’s patients beyond the obvious physical component by taking participants through a series of non-contact cognitive tasks. The goal is to improve confidence, decrease symptoms and become more efficient with movement no matter what stage of the disease the person is at.

“That’s my whole purpose here. I want my body to be in better shape and my mind to be more active so they can coorperate with each other,” Klaassen said.

The group meets twice a week for one hour, with each class led by Kourtney Lenz who was certified to teach the program thanks to the efforts of researchers like Dr. Lynn Struck, Medical Director for the Americans with Parkinson’s Disease Association.

“We went statewide and tried in as many of the communities as we could to get access where patients said they had an interest,” Dr. Struck said. “We got the people certified as instructors for Rock Steady Boxing, Big & Loud and LSVT and that way it brings it to the community. They can’t drive two hours each way twice a week to do exercise, so you’ve got to bring it as close to them as possible.”

After years of driving hours to appointments and various therapies, my dad, Craig Johnson, like other caregivers, are grateful.

“When I heard this was available here in Fort Dodge I jumped at the option, so the more aware people are of these things the better it is,” he said.

The need for these types of accessible therapy options will steadily increase over the next decade, Dr. Struck said.

“It’s still a disease where typical onset is around 62 and-a-half-years of age. The problem is with the aging of the population, the numbers of people impacted are substantially increasing and probably within ten to 15 years it will double as far as number of people impacted,” Dr. Struck said.

From their first days learning the ropes to setting new personal goals, something else has happened most of these warriors didn’t expect.

“We’re becoming a family and we care about each other and that’s why I come, I think that’s the biggest reason I come is we got a good group of people here,” Klasseen said.

He’s not alone.

“I never realized I had depression but I do once in a while. It’s nice to be able to come to a place with all this positive energy,” my mom added.

The Rock Steady class costs $80 per month. Friendship Haven is hoping to add more classes as more people sign up. To find the nearest class to you click here .

The Iowa Parkinson’s Conference is set for Friday, June 7 at Hope Church in West Des Moines. Information on registering to attend in-person or virtually can be found at this website . You can also attend virtually.

More information on current Parkinson’s disease research can be found on the American Parkinson’s Disease Association’s website .

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