Ninja Warrior Training Specialization

        As activities like Ninja Warrior, parkour, and obstacle courses grow, we start to see a similar growth in specialization of athletes. What were once more niche groups of older athletic individuals now spread across multiple generations of now specifically sport-trained athletes for these activities.

        Ninja warrior began as a TV show in Japan, its contestants covered a wide swath of individuals of varying athletic ability, which of course made for an entertaining show. The more it grew in popularity, the more contestants began to practice and train up a little bit for it. Once America licensed it out and simulcast it to an even wider audience, the contest became serious. Japanese participants began building at-home training courses, american athletes started to fly over to Japan to compete. The course needed to evolve to match the level of the athletes.

        As seasons went on, the course became more and more difficult, obstacles grew in scope and scale, forcing athletes to train even more for the course. As we follow along the timeline of the show, younger generations who watched the first few seasons, unable to participate at the time, were biding their time and waiting to join in the competition. Some began to train specifically at younger ages to participate in the future.

        Then it came to America. The show wasn’t too huge at its start, but given the history of the Japanese show’s growth, what came next was not surprising. The game show had now become a sport. Anyone who had grown up watching the TV show was now able to compete, but the course was not the same as it was. America has to do things the American way. The show is no longer just a one-off competition with 100 would-be ninjas, no. Now we have regionals, finals, trick competitions, and time trials. Multiple fan-made leagues for anyone to compete in, all to fill the massive demand for ninja competition. 

        It is around this time that Ninja Warrior specific gyms begin to open their doors to the public. In order to keep up their training, former and future competitors turned their hobby into a career. The sheer volume of training required now to compete, matches that of any other sport; and the further it continues, the age requirement of specialization gets younger and younger.

        Now we come to the state of Ninja Warrior today, children that weren’t even born when we started watching Sauske are training for American Ninja Warrior leagues and competitions completely separate from the show. I don’t mean for this to come across as negative, merely it’s an astounding feat that a game show created on the other side of the planet, has become recognized sport in America.

        This article serves a sort of introduction into Ninja Warrior, and some possible topics to come. From a training standpoint, Ninja warrior offers a wide range of physical and functional skills, it helps train strength and endurance. In the next article we’ll dive more into sport specialization, as both a positive and negative training stance, and how it relates to Ninja Warrior.