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Beaches
Living  |
Farber takes his
art to highest
degree
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| Kirk Farber
took top honors this month in musical forms and
Katas and placed second in black belt sparring
at the Southern Sport Open Karate Championships
at the Arlington PAL. (Photo submitted)
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June 29, 2005 -
by JOHNNY
WOODHOUSE
ASSOCIATE
EDITOR
Fifth-degree black belt Kirk
Farber is known locally for his martial arts
prowess.
But the secret to his success
may be juggling.
Farber's knack for
keeping several projects in motion at the same
time began in 1981 when he worked days as a
computer programmer for Prudential Insurance and
nights and weekends as a martial arts instructor
in Atlantic Beach.
"I had two full-time
jobs," Farber, 46, said last week from his
business office in Atlantic Beach.
"One
was peace of mind. The other was
income."
The juggling act fell apart in
the mid-1990s after Farber's rock-solid job with
America's largest insurance provider got moved
out of state.
Operating a martial arts
studio seven days a week at the Beaches also
took its toll on the former math major at the
University of Florida.
Farber closed Body
Arts, a combination karate, movement and dance
studio, in 1996 to pursue computer opportunities
in the dot-com world.
When that industry
crashed in 2001, Farber fell back on two
constants in his life: the martial arts and his
talent for multi-tasking.
Today, he
juggles a number of diverse entrepreneurial
projects tied to his passion for the martial
arts, including corporate self-defense seminars
and fitness and character education for
school-age children and at-risk
kids.
"Kirk Farber has been the one
speaker that the kids in the Pre-Trial Detention
Facility get the most out of," said Ponte Vedra
Beach resident Peggy Johnson, founder of the
Youth Development Program at the Duval County
jail.
"He breaks boards and juggles for
them. He tells them that power is not about
violence but about inner
strength."
Johnson, an expert on
professional dressing, Farber, a black belt
since 1980, and motivational speaker Almon
Gunter of Baldwin combined their talents three
years ago to form an eight-week course for
at-risk kids called "Power, Polish and
Purpose."
Farber is the power component
of the trio.
The longtime Beaches
resident rose to the level of fifth-degree black
belt in 1997.
An accomplished weapons,
forms and fighting competitor, Farber made local
martial arts history in 2003 when he won both
the black belt forms and black belt fighting
titles at the annual Jacksonville Open Karate
Championships.
Surprisingly, the 6-foot-3
Farber never participated in high school
sports.
Then in 1976 as a freshman at the
University of Florida, he saw a flyer on a
telephone pole advertising Cuong Nhu, a style of
karate that incorporated, among other things,
judo, which Farber had taken
briefly.
Cuong Nhu founder Ngo Dong went
to UF from Vietnam to study entomology in
1971.
By the time Dong earned his Ph.D.
in 1974, Cuong Nhu
(pronounced chong new)
was the largest intramural organization on the
UF campus.
Farber took up Cuong Nhu in
1976, a year before Dong set up his first
official U.S. dojo, or school, in
Gainesville.
Cuong Nhu, which means "hart
soft" in Vietnamese, is now taught in more than
100 dojos across the U.S.
Farber's first
martial arts studio in 1981 was known as the
Beaches Cuong Nhu Oriental Martial Arts. Among
Farber's first students: Jacksonville Beach
Mayor Fland Sharp.
"We started with a
handful of students. Fland helped me put down
the floor," Farber recalled last week.
"I
charged $15 a month. That's what we charge now
at UNF."
Cuong Nhu is taught as a
non-profit entity four times a week at the
University of North Florida's basketball
arena.
Students pay only an activity fee
to use the UNF facility.
Farber, who
operated Body Arts Studio for 16 years at the
Beaches, said as many as 15 blacks belts are in
attendance at the "Osprey Dojo."
"When
you get to this level [black belt], it's about
giving back to the community," he
said.
"Now, instead of owning my own
school, I can spread out and do more school
programs."
Besides his volunteer work
with at-risk youth at the Duval County jail, the
Police Athletic League and the Jacksonville
Marine Institute, Farber created F.A.C.E.
(fitness and character education) in 2003 at
three Beaches-area elementary
schools.
The eight-week, after-school
enrichment program includes fitness activities
such as jumping rope, juggling, martial arts and
public speaking. Farber said the program builds
self-esteem and helps fight obesity among
children.
Farber created a spinoff event
from F.A.C.E. known as "Don't Be a Bully … Be a
Buddy!" The general assembly was held for up to
700 students at six different schools this past
school year.
When he's not working with
kids, Farber holds "Common Sense Self-Defense"
seminars for women and seniors. He held his
first such seminar in 1985 at Prudential, where
more than 300 female employees
attended.
The seminar is the most
requested service Farber solicits through his
Atlantic Beach consulting company, The Working
Warrior Inc.
His firm also offers two
other unrelated services: web design and martial
arts-themed birthday parties.
To date,
Farber said he has designed about 15 Web sites
for area businesses.
He incorporates
board breaking and joggling (a combination of
juggling and jogging) he learned from his twin
brother Rhett, as the main event at children's
birthday parties.
He has also co-authored
a soon-to-be published book on sales tactics
titled "Black Belt Selling."
Farber's
fees range from $75 an hour for private martial
arts lessons to $1,000 for full-day corporate
workshops.
The divorced father has wasted
little time training his own son in the martial
arts.
Kael Farber, 6, is pictured
executing a sidekick on his father's Web site,
theworkingwarrior.com.
And the elder
Farber is not ready to exit the competition ring
anytime soon.
Earlier this month, Farber
took top honors in musical forms and Katas and a
second-place in sparring at the Southern Sport
Open Karate Championships at the Arlington
Police Athletic League.
He also served as
the center judge for the tournament's children's
division.
"If I'm going to talk the talk,
I have to walk the walk," said Farber,
explaining his reasons for competing on a local
and national level.
As one of the 10
highest ranks in the world in Cuong Nhu, Farber
is still one level away from master status.
He'll test for the coveted rank of sixth-degree
black belt next May.
"Only two men have
ever created their own [martial arts] styles by
the time they were 30," Farber said, referring
to the late Bruce Lee and Cuong Nhu founder Ngo
Dong, who died in 2000.
"I've learned
from a true master. Once you do something for
four or five years and become good at it, it
becomes a way of
life."
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