Colony Square Mall, 3575 Maple Ave, Zanesville, is now the home of Ian Lauer’s Kenpo Karate, a martial arts school.
Owner and Instructor, Ian Lauer, has a 3rd-degree black belt in American Kenpo; 1st-degree black belts in Coszacks Karate, Hapkido, and Tae Kwon Do; and a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He studied wrestling and Dutch Kickboxing/Muay Thai. Lauer is also a certified personal trainer. In addition to his impressive martial arts career, Lauer has been in several films including Enter the Fire and The Musician where he was cast in the lead role. He was also in the award-winning film The Reliant.
Lauer started instructing about two years ago but, quickly needed his own larger space due to his business growing. “I chose this location because one of the systems I study is ju-jitsu, I was in Los Angeles for 13 years as an actor so I did a lot of movies and everything and I have multiple black belts and have been training in a lot of different systems, but one I train in is ju-jitsu so when I came back I wanted to find a ju-jitsu school, so I found the one next door. And so I was talking with Jason, the owner over there, and he knew I wanted my own school. So he let me sublet from him, so I rented space from him for a while, and then after a while it was like ‘ok’ we are both growing and there wasn’t enough mat space for us both to be teaching at the same time and when that happened I decided to find my own space. And fortunately for me, he did all of that research five years ago and I looked around too. – I just talked with Jessica and it was surprisingly reasonable here when you compare it to other spaces in the town.”
Six main principles are taught at the Kenpo school; respect, self-discipline, focus, awareness, confidence, and growth. There are classes for all ages beginning at age four and continuing through adulthood.
“We are thrilled to welcome Ian Lauer’s Ken Po Karate here at Colony Square Mall,” said Jessica Bailer, Colony Square Mall Manager. “He has done a beautiful transformation with the space and this is going to be providing some good services here to community members of all ages. This is going to promote wellness, and honing in skills, and building confidence, and it is going to be something we are really proud and happy to provide here to the community. We are proud that he came to the mall.”
The Kenpo school is decked out with all the necessary equipment “We do some take-downs and throws, it’s not a throwing art per se, but if we have techniques where someone has to go to the floor we have padded floors for that, and some additional mats,” explained Lauer. “Kicking shields and hand targets we have all of that, so we can work on developing power and targeting as we train, we have mirrors because that helps students see what is going on when they are training. I have a setup to do personal training because I got certified in personal training in 2004 so I have been training for over twenty years and so I thought you know there are a lot of hours where I am not in a class so now I have this setup to do personal training, and I may open it to parents of students so while their kids are training they can workout.”
“Probably 90% of people who get their black belt want to have their own school,l so I have been very fortunate to be able to do that,” said Lauer.
Lauer’s Kenpo Karate is located next to JC Penny in the Colony Square Mall. The school has an outside entrance so they have hours that extend beyond the normal mall operating times. You can find more information and class times by visiting ianlauerskenpo.com. Also, follow Ian Lauer’s Kenpo Karate on Facebook for updates.
