Sarnia’s local martial arts academy, the Butcher Shop, specializes in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Kickboxing, all while cultivating craft and creating community.
“I've been training Jiu Jitsu for about 15 years,” said senior instructor, Kevin McGlade, who co-owns The Butcher Shop with his wife, Marcy.
McGlade, who is Irish, started training in Jiu Jitsu in London, England before moving to Canada. He worked in marketing, advertising and film work, “but I was always doing Jiu Jitsu,” he said.
When the pandemic started, things were shut down but as restrictions eased, McGlade found ways to host safe social gatherings. “I converted my garage into a little gym,” he said.
“We would do Jiu Jitsu for a couple of hours in my garage… it really became this, re-entrance back into the real world again… after being separated and isolated for basically two years.”
McGlade, a marketing director at the time, was laid off from his job during a third wave of pandemic closures affecting the industry. “I spoke with my wife and we just got so much joy out of teaching Jiu Jitsu and bringing people together and building a community,” McGlade continued. “We were like, maybe this is an opportunity for us to start something, and just decided to go for it.”
After looking at different properties McGlade knew he wanted the East Street location. “It was what I had in my mind… I could just see it,” he said.
Setting up the Butcher Shop took the efforts of 10 friends, who all committed to help paint and renovate, mud walls, clean floors and lay flooring down. Some travelled in trucks and vans to go pick up mats in the U.S. and drive them back across the border. Friends in the UK helped create the graphics and design on the walls of the gym and the logo and McGlade’s father built the butcher block benches used in the gym.
“We had to get this place up on its feet,” McGlade explained.
Open since 2022, the Butcher Shop offers a wide range of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Kickboxing classes geared towards hobbyists, but also trains anyone interested in competing.
“We’ve built a great little Jiu Jitsu team. We've gone over to Detroit a handful of times, and we've won a couple of team tournaments. Last January, we won best overall team, which was a huge achievement,” said McGlade.
“We’ve got like five kickboxers that have competed in events in London and we have a blue belt that's going to compete in the world's in Las Vegas in December as well, which is super exciting,” added McGlade. “But I'd say we're mostly hobbyists more than we are competitors.”
For beginners, the Butcher Shop offers two fundamental classes every Tuesday and Thursday at 6 p.m. “We’ve got a kids program with [over 40] kids in it, it's just been a real adventure,” said McGlade.
The Butcher Shop offers a free seven-day trial, providing the chance to test out unlimited classes and get a feel for the studio without needing to commit.
“I think a lot of people are looking for third spaces, right? You've got work…home, and what is that third space where you can go and be yourself apart from your home and apart from your work that's just your thing that you can grow in and be passionate about,” explained McGlade. “I think [the butcher shop] for a lot of people has become that third space,” he said.
Jiu Jitsu is not easy. It is a very physical martial art. The first three months are difficult, explained McGlade. “It's like learning a new language, but I feel like that’s what people love about it, that when they start to figure it out, it feels very satisfying because it wasn't easy, it was challenging,” he said.
“Do the first class. You'll find out that it's really not nearly as scary or as intimidating as you built it up in your head or you thought it was,” McGlade continued. ”I think we've got a really good culture in the gym of encouragement, challenge and kindness.”
The Butcher Shop name comes from McGlade’s own childhood. “My dad was an Irish butcher in Ireland growing up and the butcher shop to me was a place where people were highly skilled at what they did. His craft was so impressive to me,” McGlade said. “The butcher shop was a real hub of the community, a place where people would have a chat as they bought their sausages over the counter, where they'd catch up and everyone knew each other.
When asked if anyone enters the gym looking for an actual butcher shop, McGlade said, “I had a man come in looking for sausages and I had to disappoint them. It's like the third time in two years.”
“People have even said I should start getting my dad to make some sausages I can keep in a fridge and sell some if people come in,” he said.
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