In Business: Former Pro Fighter Teaching Self-Defense in Cohasset at JZ Kickboxing

JZ Kickboxing had been located in Hibbing for the last 13 years, but the owner, Jared Zahalka of Grand Rapids, recently made the move back to his hometown and is currently teaching hundreds of students’ self-defense from his own garage in Cohasset.

Zahalka has had a love for martial arts his entire life. He began training taekwondo at the age of 6 and eventually went on to fight in six professional fights before realizing his true passion was teaching self-defense to others.

“I just got obsessed with it. I travel everywhere around the world and train with the best trainers in the world, and then just bring everything back,” explained Zahalka. “It’s a great feeling. I mean, not only are you getting in shape, but you’re learning the skill that you’re going to keep with you for the rest of your life.”

For 13 years, Zahalka ran a successful gym in Hibbing with hundreds of clients coming through every day. But no amount of success could close the distance between him and his family.

“My parents are getting older and you know, it’s family,” he said. “I just had to make a decision on whether to move closer to them and help them out or to stay in the city. So I decided to move back and be closer to the family. And it’s obviously worked out; things are going really well.

Throughout the month of April, JZ Kickboxing was teaching high schoolers in the Deer River School District about self-defense. Zahalka had 100 new members sign up for his classes last month, and his current clients seem to keep coming back.

“I hate exercise, I’m getting old and fat and lazy, and I was just tired of being fat and lazy,” said Troy Barnes, a client of JZ Kickboxing. “As much as I hate cardio, as much as I hate exercise, Jared has a way of just making it fun. I don’t know how he does it, but his personality is awesome and he finds a way to make me laugh and makes me want to exercise and be better, basically.”

“As a mom, just having that security, too, of just knowing like, ‘Hey, I’m strong, I can do it,'” explained client Chelsey Carson. “And it feels really good when you’re done, for sure.”

Zahalka says one of his favorite parts about teaching is getting other students passionate about fighting, but he also loves seeing the confidence of his students grow after each class they take.

“There’s just a lot of real amazing benefits to it,” added Zahalka. “I’ve had multiple people that have come to me later on in life and had really amazing stories about how they got their self out of a sticky situation with something that I taught them, and that’s a really good feeling.”

Zahalka told Lakeland News that JZ Kickboxing will be moving out of the garage and into its own commercial space, complete with multiple mats, bags, full size rings and cages, and other gym equipment. Zahalka hopes the move will happen sometime this year.