Find Your Rhythm, Find Your Flow, Box to the Beat

Patrick DeCarolis and daughter Shaelee DeCarolis take their boxer stance, wearing BoxUnion's original glove style. (Carolyn Burt / The Corsair)

There’s plenty of things you can do in 45 minutes. You can watch an entire episode of Game of Thrones, sit in traffic as you commute across town, or you can invest in yourself, strap on some gloves, and focus your energy on boxing to the beat.

Welcome to BoxUnion, a boxing focused fitness class here in Santa Monica, where you listen to the music and let that rhythm guide you as you punch it out.

It’s more than just this style of boxing that sets apart BoxUnion from other boxing classes. “Team boxing. We feed off each other,” says Kyle Shneider, a Founding and Master Coach for BoxUnion. He’s been with the group since before they opened their studio and were operating out of Co-Founder Todd Wadler’s garage. “Obviously you have your bag to yourself, but if it weren’t for the other people around you, it wouldn’t work,” Shneider said.

“We want to change lives using boxing as our vehicle”

Founding Coach

Kyle Shneider

(Carolyn Burt / The Corsair)

This sense of community and camaraderie is apparent as soon as you enter the studio. Before class you can find members catching up as they put on their wrist wraps and stretch. Coaches greet each member with a fist bump as they head in to their bag, a gesture that helps to ease the nerves that might come from taking the class for the first time.

As you get into the rhythm of the motions, your coordination starts to improve as you follow along with the coach and align yourself with the flow of fellow members. The class is vocal too, as fellow boxers let out a “Pow-Pow” as they throw their punches and cheers after completing a combination. “When you have a whole team around you, you can feel the energy in there, you can feel how we’re all rowing in the same boat, we’re all fully invested in each other's success” says Shneider.

It’s clear if you take a glance at their Instagram (@BoxUnionStudio) that the group loves to celebrate their members. One of their most coveted achievements they give to members is the 100 Punch Club, for those who have completed 100 classes.

“We just love our people, it’s that simple,” says Shneider. “We want to create moments for our community.” They do just that by making this achievement an event, decorating the front desk in their honor, giving them an official shirt only fellow 100 Punch Club members dawn, and highlighting this victory on their Instagram page.

Shaelee DeCarolis, a sophomore at the charter school Windward, has been attending BoxUnion since it’s early days along with her father Patrick DeCarolis. The pair have made it their own weekly tradition, and are in agreement of what keeps them coming back, “Definitely Kyle, we love going to Kyle’s classes,” says Shaelee.

Shneider takes the role he plays in members lives seriously, “They tell us, that they are mentally clearer, less stressed, mentally tougher, able to take on the other things, that’s why I love this place so much.”

It takes consistency to gain these results. “We tell our first timers you’re probably not going to get it to start, but as you keep coming back and keep going through classes, it clicks”. This drive plays a big role throughout class, knowing that even if you might not be getting it now you’ll be improving. “All big things start from small beginnings.”

In addition to their Santa Monica location, BoxUnion also has their Robertson studio located in West Hollywood, and are set to open up their third location in Sherman Oaks the first week of April.

To find out more information about BoxUnion you can visit their website boxunion.com or email info@boxunion.com.

Boxing Gloves, designed with palm trees and their logo, hang on display on the walls in the lobby of BoxUnion. (Carolyn Burt / The Corsair)