Sheri hangs on a bar while moving it across a marked distance on the course without letting go or touching the ground
Most people have probably heard of the TV show American Ninja Warrior and its counterparts in other countries like Australia. Ninja competitions started in Japan in 1997 under the name Sasuke with an edited version shown in some other countries. American Ninja Warrior started in 2009 with the finalists from the first few seasons traveling to Japan for the finals in Sasuke rather than having their own finals in Las Vegas as the later seasons did. Australian Ninja Warrior ran on Australian TV from 2017 to 2022.
building the outside course in Boggabri
In the early days of the show in the USA the ninja competitors generally came from other sports like gymnastics, parkour, or mountain climbing. Now there’s ninja gyms set up with all the equipment where people learn ninja skills and ninja competitions where they can start competing even as little kids so the younger ninjas on the show now have often grown up as competitive ninjas and tend to do very well against the seasoned competitors. The minimum age to compete in Ninja competitions is 6. On the show everyone competes against each other on the same course, but these Ninja competitions have separate categories and courses for different age groups. They also have mats rather than water under the obstacles.
putting a cover over the outside course
There is a league that has the same one fail and you’re out rules as seen on TV, but there’s also another league called UNAA (short for Ultimate Ninja Athlete Association) that allows 3 fails before going out in their competitions. There is a world championship held in the USA each year. Athletes from many different countries earn their way to worlds by qualifying in their own country’s regional qualifiers or other qualifying competitions. They have to qualify in an area qualifier in order to compete at their country’s regionals.
kid on rings in an outside course
UNAA Comps Australia is an Australian division of UNAA, through which Australians can compete and work their way up to qualifying for the world competition. In November of 2023 they held their regional competition in Boggabri, NSW where many of their athletes qualified for the world competition to be held in Anaheim, California in July 2024. Videos livestreamed during their competition can be seen on the UNAA Comps Australia youtube channel.
testing the under the sea course
A lot goes on behind the scenes both before and during a competition. From planning and organizing the event itself to planning, constructing, and testing each course to finding people to do each job, there’s way more work to be done than most people attending the event realize. While most ninja gyms have just one structure for their courses, the Boggy Ninja Academy in Boggabri has both inside and outside structures so they could have one course set up at the same time in each one. This gym belongs to Cruze Morley who was known as the Boggy Ninja on Australian Ninja Warrior. It takes a lot of time to set up each course so after the first two age groups ran simultaneously with one in each structure the others were usually one in use and the other in changeover to the next course, though sometimes it took longer to change courses so neither would be in competition. The outside course had a cover over the top to provide some very necessary shade and there was a covered seating area for the audience to get out of the sun as well.
Hanna on a balance beam in a coffin in a graveyard in a Halloween themed ninja course
The courses each include a variety of obstacles designed to test different skills. Some are for balance, others for things like strength, agility, coordination, and speed. When flying through the air from one obstacle to another sometimes they are required to Lashay, which means they have to completely let go of one obstacle before taking hold of the next. Other times they can span the obstacle, which means they can take hold of the next thing while still hanging onto the one they are currently on.
kids on the waterslide
Besides the competition going on, there also was a field with food trucks, merchandise stalls, and a blow-up waterslide to keep the kids cool, happy, and entertained. Ice cream and other frozen treats were crowd favorites in Australia’s sun and heat. There was a brief but intense rainstorm one day during which many people took shelter in the inside gym.
boys podium from the 11 & under food themed course
Each of the courses at this competition had a different theme. Prizes in the prize bags for the winners were filled with items matching the theme of their course. The top 3 in each group got prizes, medals, and team jackets but the top 5 all got certificates indicating that they qualified to go to worlds.
girls 9 & under podium
Unlike the TV show where males and females compete against each other, in this league each age group is separated into males and females. Everyone of each age group competes on the same course, but the males are only competing against other males and the females against other females, with first through third of each gender rather than just each age group getting prizes and first through fifth of each gender qualifying for worlds.
Hannah on the Halloween themed course
Courses in ninja competitions don’t usually have themes, but at this competition they did with under the sea for 7 & under, transport for 9 & under, food for 11 & under, space for 13 & under, Halloween for 15 & under, and for the adults the over 40 amateurs have their own division called masters which had a retro theme, amateurs 15-39 had Christmas, and for the pros the theme was Australia.
kid spanning hooks in the under the sea course
Each course had a time limit determined by the difficulty of the course and number of obstacles in it. Competitors were allowed to stay on the course until their time ran out, but after three fails no more obstacles counted for points even if completed flawlessly. Some obstacles are worth one point and have to be completed fully not to count as a fail, but others are worth two points. If they get to the spot where the first point is awarded for that obstacle it is not considered a fail even if they don’t earn the second point. Scoring is done by most points winning, but if more than one person has the same number of points the one with the faster time places higher.
Sheri walks across a rope in her ninja course
Some of the athletes have a tendency to psych themselves out at the possible difficulty of a new or unfamiliar obstacle that they have to face on their course. While watching a course I overheard a teenage girl telling her friends who were feeling a bit that way that when she saw a new obstacle she just assumed that it was easy and she could do it no problem, which seemed like a really good attitude for a better chance of success when it came time to tackle that obstacle.
this course also involved horizontally climbing a rope across a distance
Two people at this competition were disqualified for bad behavior, which is quite rare for this league. One was a boy from the 9 & under category who in frustration at his failure to complete an obstacle threw a peg that was used to move along that obstacle into the audience, hitting a person sitting there. The other was a teenage girl competing in the pro category who had several confrontations with officials and volunteers over the weekend of the competition with the last one nearly resulting in a physical fight with a volunteer. This would have disqualified both if the other (also a teenage girl) had been a contestant as well. Instead she will be required to take volunteer training before helping out at any other competitions. Both girls were banned from any further competitions in this league for 3 months if they apologize and 6 months if they don’t.
masters women’s podium
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