I have trained every week consistently with Max McManus since Fall 2014. I came to him broken, physically and mentally. I hadn’t been able to do martial arts in three years due to a back injury. After a two-hour meeting/interview, Max figured out what no doctor, PT, chiropractor, or even I could, and we got to work. Within three weeks I was symptom free, and the rest is history.
I brought Max into my fifth-degree black belt test in 2016 as my strength and conditioning coach. He was the secret ingredient to my success within that test. He did not just increase my rate of improvement physically in martial arts. In those two short years of training Max elevated my mind as an instructor, coach, and individual. Max was a huge inspiration and motivator in me starting my own academy. I find it very easy to say, there would be no Dojo Reno without Max McManus.
When I began designing Dojo’s first black belt test for none other than Ben Jaksick, Amanda Jaksick, Kai Hiratani and Emma Harris, I was steadfast on the details of the exam that would make it more sophisticated than any test I had been a part of before. The number one way that was going to happen was by bringing Max in as a coach to this team. My gratitude for Max’s dedication to our students is un-contained. He has made every one of them better in a way I never could. I cannot thank him enough for taking all of us in. And especially, designing the physical requirements for our testers. What he imagined, innovated and created is perfect.
Max is more than a coach for me. The word “trainer” is a term I would never use to describe his role. He is an expert of athletics. He knows food on a molecular level, anatomical systems to a T, and never boxes himself or his patients into a comfortable and complacent space. I find myself thinking and often saying aloud, “How do I have access to this person?”
Max, you changed the trajectory of my life, as I’m positive you’ve done for hundreds of others. I am so fortunate to have you as one of my dearest friends. My love for you fills me up, and all I am left to say for it all is thank you. Thank you for everything.
Pictured is Max and a seven and a half month pregnant me, getting in our fourth training session that week. This was the summer of 2018, four years to the day, just four months after opening Dojo Reno. Wow, what a special time in my life.
Michelle Clancy
