Are You A Ninja?

If you haven’t watched Ninja Warrior before you should.This Japanese game show is a fantastic obstacle course. Here in the US the closest thing we have is Wipeout, which basically is blind luck to get through. Sure physical ability helps, but it’s still mostly luck. For Ninja Warrior this course is all about skill, strength, agility and some stamina. For those that watch the show the names Makoto Nagano, Tashihiro Takeda, Shingo Yamamoto, and the like are legend. This course is difficult. Really difficult. There are 4 stages, and generally fewer than 10% of the contestants make it past stage 1. Many olympic athletes have been contestants including several elite gymnasts. Paul and Morgan Hamm and Jordan Jovtchev have competed. All three have made it through stage 1 in at least one of their attempts, but Jordan has consistently done better than the Hamm twins. Completing all 4 stages is so difficult that only 3 men have ever completed all 4 stages. There have been 24 seasons of this show with 100 contestants in each show, which means only 3 of 2400 attempts have been successful. That’s just 0.125%.

So, why am I posting about a Japanese TV game show? Well, for one, it’s actually pretty cool to watch. Secondly I want to mention that the American Ninja Warrior submissions are happening right now. There will be a few challenges down in LA later in the summer, and video submissions are due before June 30. Yeah, that’s coming up quick. I’d like to do a group video submission. Anyone with me? Last year’s American Ninja Warrior featured some athletes we know well. Our own Shane Daniels finished in the top 8 with Brian Orosco to qualify to travel to Japan and compete in the real Ninja Warrior. I want to note that some of you would have crushed day 2 of the American Ninja Warrior challenge. Day 1 was the obstacle course. Day 2 was a test of work capacity. Many of the top contestants had a rough time with this. Let’s see what we can do and qualify to Ninja Warrior.