Queens Tribune: All it takes is a dollar and a wall
Outdoor handball courts empty out during colder months when hands begin to sting from slapping the ball. But serious handball players take the sport indoors and train at the Elks Lodge on Queens Boulevard, as part of a new Elks Fraternity membership initiative.
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Handball hopefuls get a game in at CC Moore Homestead Park.
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It’s easy to find a ball and a wall in Elmhurst.
On any mild day at CC Moore Homestead Park on Broadway and 45th Avenue, teenagers play handball, smoke cigarettes and hang out. Because of limited park space, handball is a popular recreational sport in the neighborhood. Outdoor handball courts empty out during colder months when hands begin to sting from slapping the ball.
But serious handball players take the sport indoors and train at the Elks Lodge on Queens Boulevard, as part of a new Elks’ membership initiative. These players credit handball with keeping them out of trouble, and several players have become nationally ranked by the United States Handball Association (USHA), in Tuscon, Ariz., where officials recognize Elmhurst players by their first names.
“I have a lot of friends who messed up their lives with drugs,” said Victor LoPierre, 22, a nationally ranked player and senior at Queens College. “Handball kept me away from that because I was busy playing. [It’s about] using handball as a tool to get more people focused on their lives.”
This motivated breed of Elmhurst handball players has another thing in common – they were all coached by Michael Watson.
Watson, 42, a former professional handball player, has voluntarily coached players on public courts for the past 15 years. He said he has traveled with his players to tournaments in Toledo, Ohio and as far away as Venice Beach, Calif.
“When I hit about 28, 29 [years old], I would go around the park, and nobody would play with the kids,” said Watson, a computer consultant who lives in Maspeth. “In the previous generation there was a disconnect, [experienced players] stopped playing with younger guys.”
But Watson said someone needed to teach young people the proper techniques of the game. He currently works with about 30 to 35 handball players, and approximately six to 10 closely several days a week.
“I always tried to pick the kids who are going to school, working, and are decent, well-mannered,” said Watson. “Every kid that I’ve touched has been a national champion at the junior level.”
There are three different types of handball games depending on the how many walls are in play – one-wall, three-wall and four-wall. While in New York, handball is predominantly played on concrete, one-wall courts with “big blue” balls, the rest of the country (and collegiate tournaments) tend to play on indoor four-wall courts with smaller ace balls.
LoPierre, of Forest Hills, was coached by Watson and has traveled all over the country and to Europe to play. In November, LoPierre placed third at the Italian handball tournament in Nizza Monferrato.
The sport is gaining international appeal, with Italian and Basque handball federations inviting U.S. players to compete. On the national level, the USHA said collegiate handball is the fastest growing tournament with 35 to 40 different colleges slotting up to 30 players in competition.
Some of Watson’s players have leveraged their handball skills into college financial aid packages.
“Ever since I found out I could get a [college] scholarship or some help, I started to fulfill my dreams, both academically and physically,” said Jonathan Iglesias, 21, a senior at the renowned handball college, Lake Forest College in Illinois.
“Everything I learned through handball I can transition to any part of my life,” said Iglesias, of Elmhurst. “[I see] how you can use handball to network, get into a good school and grow as a person.”
Now, these handball players are joining the Elks Lodge and focusing on giving back to the community. Coach Watson, an Elks officer, said he has recruited about 16 to 20 members – all handball players – to become junior members of the Elk’s Antlers under-21 program. They play handball on the indoor court, but also visit veterans’ hospitals and engage the community.
“It is almost a perfect situation because [the Elks are] in the neighborhood,” said Watson regarding the effort to boost the fraternity’s membership, which once swelled at over 5,000 members. Since then, the Elks have sold their historic, landmark building and rent the adjacent gymnasium facility. Membership has dwindled to 350, with the average age around 65.
“Only the youth can recapture the excitement of what the Elks was all about,” said Innunzio Russo, exalted Elks ruler.
But on another semi-warm day, kids crowd in Broadway Park and play street handball with cigarettes dangling from their mouths, whacking at the big, blue ball – it’s all part of the urban culture here.
“Anybody can play,” said LoPierre, an Elks member. “That’s what’s so great about [handball]. You can buy a ball for a dollar at the store and go play.”
Queens Chronicle: Tai Chi is winning over converts to exercise
Tai Chi Is Winning Over Converts To Exercise
By Lisa Biagiotti, Chronicle Contributor
11/01/2007
(Lisa Biagiotti) Dino Blanche leads a Tai Chi class, at Linden Park in Corona, for PTA members of PS 16, which is also located in Corona.
At the Cardiac Health Center in Fresh Meadows, Harold Normich’s eyes trace every movement of his body as his reading glasses dangle from side to side. He has been practicing Tai Chi for three years – nine times a week, an hour at a time.
“The doctors have taken me off most of my medications,” said Normich, a 75-year-old veteran who suffers from chest pain and has had two knee replacements. “I weighed 237 pounds when I started. I haven’t felt this good since my late 40s, early 50s.” He now weighs 177 pounds.
Tai Chi appears to be growing in popularity for young and old, thin and overweight, and sufferers of disease or abuse. Various ethnic and age groups find the practice appealing.
“The gamut of interest runs from children to college students,” said Dino Blanche, a 47-year-old, African-American Tai Chi instructor in Elmhurst. “As people’s health conditions are growing troublesome, with obesity and diabetes, it’s not just for the elderly.”
Research and studies have shown the health benefits of Tai Chi, ranging from reduced blood pressure and heart problems, improved functionality for chronic conditions like multiple sclerosis and osteoarthritis, to general stress management.
“Three or four years ago we took a close look at complimentary cardiac care,” said Dr. John Nicholson, medical director of the Cardiac Health Center. “But we wanted to make sure that everything we did in a parallel program was evidence based. Tai Chi and yoga were definitely evidence based and important for people in cardiac rehabilitation.”
This ancient Chinese martial art combines moving meditation, exercise and self-defense. In the various styles of Tai Chi, practitioners repeat sequences of circular movements while focusing on breathing.
To engage imagination and jog memory, some instructors describe movements with poetic, metaphorical animal movements, while others, like Blanche, use descriptions like “squeeze a lemon in a cup.”
Tai Chi was founded on the Taoist belief that good health results from balanced chi (life energy).
“Your body is the number one depository for anything. If your body is strong and your heart is soft, you are ready to face any problem,” said Grandmaster Wang Rengang, 42, who runs a martial arts studio, International Dachengdao Inc., in Elmhurst.
Wang, of northern China, said that Tai Chi isn’t only physical exercise, but should be practiced to cope with stress and mental well-being. He is scheduled to teach Tai Chi to emotionally disturbed children at a local treatment center.
According to Blanche, who has been teaching Tai Chi since 1995, interest is on the rise among battered and abused women in post-traumatic, stressful situations.
“Instead of taking a pill, you can take a moment to practice breathing and movement,” Blanche said. “The first line of self-defense is that you can calm yourself down.”
He currently teaches Tai Chi to the PS 16 PTA at Linden Park in Corona on Wednesday mornings and recently presented a workshop to public school teachers on how Tai Chi and stress management methods could help students perform better on tests.
“Children have a means to relax themselves, and Tai Chi can help deal with building confidence,” Blanche said. “I envision Tai Chi to be in every public school.”
He has been practicing martial arts since 1971 and teaches his two children, ages 7 and 13, the practice.
There are several opportunities to practice Tai Chi cheaply or no cost — at health centers, Buddhist temples, senior citizen centers, parks and libraries. At the Queens Botanical Garden in Flushing, approximately 150 local residents gather at 8 a.m. every day to do Tai Chi, according to Marketing Manager Scott Stefan.
On Saturday mornings, Wang instructs a free Tai Chi class for about 35 practitioners at the Elmhurst Library, where free classes have been offered for over 15 years, primarily due to the neighborhood’s 40 percent Asian population.
Jean Suchanek, who was born in Korea and lives in Middle Village, sat outside the Elmhurst Library reading about the free Tai Chi program.
“I bought the CD roms, but they didn’t help me, so I gave up,” said Suchanek, 59. “When you get older, it is easy to accumulate (weight). Instead of watching CNBC on Saturday mornings, my husband and I can come here and do Tai Chi.”
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