FREDERICKTOWN — It’s a brother and sisterhood at Jacques Tarr’s karate studio.
“I run my school like a family,” Tarr said.
Ten students of Tarr’s karate family from Mid-Ohio Karate 4 Kids competed at the All Star Karate National competition in Atlanta, Georgia, securing several trophies to bring back to Fredericktown.
In Georgia, each karate division had between 30 and 60 kids, divided by age groups with the tournament’s final count being over 800 individuals participating.
Fredericktown’s competitors described the event as nerve-racking due to being in a large tournament.
A number of Knox County families journeyed 9 1/2-hours to Atlanta for the one-day event, bringing back hardware to add to the studio’s collection.
The students prepared by having relentless practices, coming into the studio four days a week, sparring and honing weak points in their technique.
For Tarr, the Atlanta trip was a humbling experience. He was able to see his student’s work showcased for a wide audience while representing Fredericktown.
Tarr, an eighth-degree black belt, has been practicing karate since he was 4 years old. His passion for the sport turned into teaching, pushing his students to become better versions of themselves — mentally and physically.
Tarr’s love for karate became intertwined in teaching where his first school opened in Mansfield. He moved to his shop to Fredericktown Sept. 8, 2012.
Students from around the north-central Ohio come to practice with Tarr, from Mount Gilead, Bellville and all across Knox County.
Arwen Furnis, 17, has been a student and mentor at Mid-Ohio for 10 years. Furnis’ mother brought her to Tarr’s studio to instill confidence.
In return, Furnis has learned self-confidence, and motivation and has become a mentor for others who aspire to learn more about martial arts.
When students like Furnis excel, it’s an awesome feeling for Tarr, he said. It’s contagious. His goal is to give his students more recognition for their hard work.
“There are days I wake up in the morning I’m like ‘OK, God, why do I keep doing this?’ and the answer always comes back to helping the kids,” Tarr said. “I know how to self-motivate myself and I just have that drive. I don’t know when to shut down.”
Tarr doesn’t discount the mental/psychological benefits of karate either.
“I’m very big on self-defense,” Tarr said. “Especially when it comes to ladies and girls. I have four girls of my own – I made it a point that no one would ever do anything stupid with them. So I taught ‘em to fight.”
Tarr sets affirmative goals for his roughly 100 students such as harnessing their fears and building fundamentals in self-control.
Now in his 60s, Tarr is still tearing it up on the mat.
“I still love being out there on the floor and teaching because I teach every day,” he said. “The biggest thing I enjoy is the fact that I can teach somebody to build their confidence. That’s the big one.
“If I can build confidence in somebody because most people — whether they will be honest or truthful — when they go to a karate class they came there because something happened to them in their life.”
For kids to be successful karate students, Tarr requires passing grades, which he says he sees as a form of discipline.
“If they can discipline themselves in karate, they should be able to maintain (their grades) because what I put ‘em through a testing and rigorous tests on my requirements. I know they mentally have to use their brain,” he said. “When they go to school and they don’t want to mentally take that focus into their schoolwork they’re not going to get anywhere in life.”
It’s also about making sure students have a clear vision of what they want to achieve after high school, he said.
“I push my kids to be A and B students,” Tarr said. “Because I know mentally they can handle it. Because if they can handle what I put them through, they can handle any education.”
