(13 Questions)
1. Club name/Location:
Manimal Athletics Training Facility is located in Lucasville and offers dryland training, personal training, Nova Scotia longest running Muay Thai program, HRM longest running Kickboxing program, BJJ, Japanese Jujitsu, and Kids programs.
We are affiliated with Halifax BJJ Society and Carlos Nunes and Scott MacMillan are our senior BJJ advisors.
2. Owner/Instructors:
Ryan Staples is the owner and he has a small staff of instructors all with various backgrounds.
He has been involved with fitness and Martial arts for over 20 years being certified in Muay Thai, a Blue Belt in BJJ and a former Kempo student.
Ryan is co-owner of Atlantic Combat Sports and also ran Nova Kickboxing promotion.
Sherri Hicks is a long time Muay Thai student and fitness enthusiast who runs morning boot camps. She has been training Kickboxing for years both in the U.S and here in Halifax, she also currently training BJJ.
Scott Roper has been training for over 20 years and is a 3rd Dan Black Belt in Japanese Jujitsu and Blue Belt in BJJ as well as a former Judo student and current student in Jeet Kune Do.
Ray McKinnon has been involved for almost 50 years and is a certified instructor in Japanese Jujitsu, Shoot wrestling, Filipino M.A, Jun Fan Gung-Fu/ Jeet Kune Do, North American Kickboxing and Muay Thai Kickboxing and Blue Belt in BJJ. Ray began introducing submission grappling around the province back in the mid 90s from Yarmouth to Sydney C.B and in between.
RYAN STAPLES (R)
RAY MCKINNON
3. When did you open your club?
In late 2021 we built our own building, a 2000sf training facility with all the equipment, outside obstacle course, green space and lots of parking. We have classes six days a week and a big part of it is dryland and personal training mixed in with group classes.
4. What made you decide to open a club and why did you choose your current location?
There is a few different history lessons here.
Ryan had been teaching personal training out of Clinch M.A for a number of years and his goal was to have his own spot.
He bought land in the community of Lucasville and has both his school and home there.
Many years ago he hosted the N.S Martial Arts expo, that brought various styles together from all over the province and he met Ray McKinnon there.
Ray had owned a full time school since 1994 and his club Bushido Kai Martial Arts has started both Muay Thai and submission grappling in the province in the early 90s as well he started the MXT BJJ program in early 2007 along with a student from his club who oversaw the classes.
Due to the pandemic Ray decided to close down his school and semi-retire from teaching but Ryan invited him to teach at Manimal. Lucky for Ray it was only two minutes from his house as well.
5. What is the main purpose of your club?
Family!
Both Ryan and Ray have trained amateur and pro fighters for MMA and Kickboxing in the past and also had students compete in BJJ on local, national and international events but Manimal Athletics is focused on being very family oriented and help the "recreational" Martial artists out.
We are not competition focused for our arts and more training for fitness, Self-defense, and tradition.
6. Programs available.
The gym is mostly to serve personal training sessions and dryland training. We do offer evening classes and morning boot camps also weekend classes. As an example BJJ is just offered three times a week and other classes at different times.
7. Gi versus NO GI
Our BJJ program is strictly Gi fundamentals and we are building the curriculum from the basic level.
We are working on developing the BJJ curriculum as a lot of schools don't follow any guidelines when teaching and although we do that somtimes as well, if you take a brand new student and established good fundamentals that will help them expand from it over time.
We encourage our students to always take notes and research.
We try not to take a beginner and give them "the move of the month" that they may need prior knowledge on to understand.
We do mix no-gi in from time to time based on a solid submission grappling curriculum established back in the 90s and now expanded on.
8. Has your club grown or expanded since opening?
Yes, many of our program have grown including two different kids class with around 40 kids all together. Our BJJ program went from six of us two years ago to around 23 now with seven females training ( our mat space fits around 20 so it's a good number). We also have a number of local Hockey groups now that train with us.
9. Describe a typical BJJ class at your school:
Depending on who is teaching it varies, classes are typically and hour and since our moto is "slow and steady with no agenda" we focus on fundamental movements and drill them with flow rolling at the end.
A lot of our members are over 40 / 50 and some have extensive experience in martial arts so there is none of the typical "white belt stuff" like trying all the hard moves first, in a rush to learn, chasing belts, etc...
Just fun learning with no agenda for ranks.
10. Do you host BJJ seminars?
Ray has hosted some amazing instructors from Royce Gracie, Oliver Taza Firas Zahabi, Max Trombini and Edgard Luke from Brazil to local BJJ instructors from the various province's.
We have also hosted instructors from Muay Thai and Japanese Jujitsu but no "Big BJJ" seminars yet.
(L) CARLOS NUNES (C) RAY MCKINNON (R) JOELJACQUARD
(L) SCOTT MACMILLAN (C) RAY MCKINNON (R) MARC SCHMIDT
11. Advice to anyone looking at joining a BJJ club?
As far as Nova Scotia goes we have so many great BJJ clubs so you can't go wrong with any of them.
Find a club that fits your schedule and is local to you and try a class, everyone should be welcoming to you but keeping mind every club may have the one student that "goes to hard" just avoid them lol.
Ryan firmly believes if the instructor says you can only train at one place and nowhere else, then you should go someplace else to learn.
Not everyone has all the correct answers.
12. Thoughts on the growth of the sport/ art in Atlantic Canada?
Ray has been around the art since day one in N.S although he may have not been training in it directly at the time, he started with the Renzo Gracie VHS tapes in his club with students and was more interested in Submission grappling ( that's another story ).
As an historian for martial arts in N.S he has seen the growth of various instructors and clubs as well as the competition scene.
There are so many Black Belts and clubs now as well as tournaments that it's easy to find one that fits you.
But like all Martial arts that grew in the province at some point it will flatten out and may not be as popular ? History will see and right now it's Is thriving in the province.
13. Any closing remarks ?
Ryan Staples has worked hard to create a unique training academy with so many experienced instructors and there is no other academy like it in the province.
Manimal Athletics is located at 495 Lucasville road, no website; but, can be found on Facebook easily.
