Here’s my submission video for American Ninja Warrior 4. Hope they see the value in a 40 year old father-of-three that can bring the heat despite long odds! Check it out and click LIKE if you appreciate my crazy-ass obstacle course obsession!
Share on Facebook Tweet about it Tell a friendThe first entry in what I hope will be a series of competitor profiles, I’d like to present Christopher Christensen. Christopher has been in all 3 American Ninja Warriors to date, and is known in the competitor community as a passionate and super-helpful guy. When I was considering applying to American Ninja Warrior 2 a couple of years ago, Christopher was one of the first guys on the bulletin boards to really encourage me and go out of his way to answer questions. A really great guy and a determined competitor who gets a lot out of his pursuit to compete.
Please click LIKE if you like the concept of a series of competitor interview profiles and would enjoy seeing more interviews like this one.
Share on Facebook Tweet about it Tell a friendWe’re all geeks for Ninja Warrior, right? If we weren’t, we wouldn’t be here right now, reading some random blog from some random guy about his delusional middle-aged aspirations to become the first American Ninja Warrior. Well, for those of us who love Ninja Warrior, the earth has shook and the planetary rotation of the Ninja Warrior orb has been turned on its axis as the entire structure and premise of American Ninja Warrior has changed in the last few weeks. Most of us came to love Ninja Warrior by watching re-runs of Sasuke (incorrectly translated as “Ninja Warrior”) on G4 of the epic competitions in Japan to find the world’s best obstacle course runner. And, yes, it was to find the world’s best obstacle course runner, because although most of the competitors have been Japanese, the producers of the show have always tried to bring in the world’s best foreigners to compete, extending invitations to Olympic athletes in various disciplines to come and try their hands at the increasingly difficult course. They too, like many others, ran and failed at some point in the 4 stage course we learned to love named Mount Midoriyama. In recent years competitions like Sasuke Malaysia and American Ninja Warrior have sprouted up around the globe to become their own events to select the top competitors to get their shot running Sasuke on the hallowed grounds in Japan. For all Ninja Warrior aspirants around the world it was all about getting a shot somehow to run that course in Japan.
Now all that has changed (at least for we Americans). With the uncertainty of future competitions in Japan, and the relative success of American Ninja Warrior the last couple of years here in America, the NBC/Comcast entertainment conglomerate has secured the rights to produce American Ninja Warrior as a standalone network program here in the U.S. No longer is American Ninja Warrior a feeder competition for Ninja Warrior Japan, but it is (for the time-being at least) its own bad self standing on its own bad own. Meaning that instead of having 10 Americans going to compete in Japan at Sasuke against the legendary Japanese group of competitors, there will be 100 Americans that will arise out of 6 regional competitions to compete in a new mega-course they are building in Las Vegas. That’s right, Vegas baby. The owners/producers of Ninja Warrior Japan are consulting on the building of the course, which is good news for American Ninja Warrior competitors who have pointed out that in recent U.S.-based competitions the quality of some of the obstacles was lacking. Whether it will be an exact replica of Mt. Midoriyama is unclear, but I believe most expectations are that it will be very similar, and will certainly be composed of many of the iconic obstacles we all love and fear like the Salmon Ladder, the Warped Wall, and the Ultimate Cliffhanger.
So 6 regional competitions going down in 3 cities (LA, Dallas, Miami), each with reportedly 125 runners, will happen throughout March to pick the top 100 guys to compete in Las Vegas on this new course reportedly on April 21-22. I believe that there will be some coverage of these regional competitions on G4 before they (for certain) show the 100 person final in Las Vegas over several weeks on NBC this summer. This is supposedly NBC’s competitor for ABC’s very popular Wipeout (although the surest way to see an American Ninja Warrior competitor go apoplectic is to ask them if their competition is similar to Wipeout).
This is a major shift in the structure and identity of American Ninja Warrior. It now stands alone, and is no longer the cable network feeder program for Ninja Warrior Japan, but its own bad self (did I say that already?). Competitors and fans have mixed emotions about this, with much loyalty and love being reserved for the original Japanese competition. While I myself am saddened at what is an increasing likelihood that Ninja Warrior Japan will “go away” at some point, I’m glad that there is a strengthened competition here in America that could keep the spirit alive even as the Mother Ship goes into retirement.
For those of you seeking to compete in American Ninja Warrior 4, go to this page on G4 to learn about the application process. Below are the locations of the regional competitions, the submission dates for the videos, and the estimated competition dates for those locations (they will confirm and narrow these dates soon).
LOS ANGELES (Northwest and Southwest Regions) – Video Submission by Feb. 14th, Competition Window is March 1-5
DALLAS (Midwest and South-Central Regions) – Video Submission by Feb. 27th, Competition Window is March 14-18
MIAMI (Northeast and Southeast Regions) – Video Submission by March 8th, Competition Window is March 27 – April 1
Share on Facebook Tweet about it Tell a friendAfter months of uncertainty concerning the future of American Ninja Warrior in light of the bankruptcy proceedings of the Japanese company Monster 9 which owns the rights to Ninja Warrior, apparently the powers-that-be are beginning preparations for the next American Ninja Warrior to be produced (American Ninja Warrior 4). Competitors from the last season of American Ninja Warrior (myself and my buddy Ron included) were contacted in the last couple of days by Smith & Co., the casting agency for American Ninja Warrior, in order to tell us to start getting our submission videos ready for American Ninja Warrior 4 later this year. No additional information was provided, like if this 100% means there will be another Sasuke/Ninja Warrior in Japan, or when any event will actually happen. They said they will contact everybody again in a few weeks with more details, but the fact that they are bothering to call past competitors to make certain that they are getting a jump-start on preparing their submission videos can only be seen as a very positive sign about the likelihood that another American Ninja Warrior will actually happen (although it is not a guarantee, of course).
This year a new casting company is handling American Ninja Warrior, and they are well aware of how badly the previous casting company handled their competitor pool, and it appears they are working hard to be more professional and considerate this year (last year many submission videos were lost and they only notified us 3 weeks before the competition that we had been accepted to compete). The new casting company seemed genuinely enthusiastic about working on American Ninja Warrior, and we’re happy to have them!
Rumor also has it that NBC will be more involved than ever, so there is a possibility that more of ANW will be shown on NBC beyond the final stage in Sasuke Japan. No details here…but anything that further promotes ANW and increases the possibility that it will live a long healthy life is welcome!
Click LIKE or re-tweet if you are happy to hear that news that there will be another American Ninja Warrior in the future! Yippee!
Share on Facebook Tweet about it Tell a friendJust like after American Ninja Warrior 2, I received more than a few questions from friends and family after American Ninja Warrior 3 about whether I planned to keep competing in Ninja Warrior competitions or I planned to hang it up. My response is the same every time, an incredulous “Why would I ever voluntarily stop? This sh*t is awesome!” I guess these inquirers just don’t have a sense of how much fun it is as a grown man to leap, climb and scamper around random obstacles. It must look like work to most people, while for the competitors it is pure fun. I’m DEFINITELY going to be back trying to get into American Ninja Warrior 4 and see if I can work, sweat and compete my way to a shot at running on the hallowed ground of Mt. Midoriyama at Sasuke in Japan.
I immediately “started” my training for American Ninja Warrior 4 the day I got back from Venice Beach at ANW3 back in May. I took a bit of a break this summer, or at least slowed down, for a couple of months when my training buddy Ron fractured his foot and I coincidentally also had a crazy spike in my job work, but I am back on the horse trying to get faster, strong, and smarter for whenever ANW4 goes down. With the popularity of ANW3 on G4 and then the big airing of the season finale on NBC, I expect a huge surge in applications to compete for ANW4, which means my submission video to get accepted has to be better than ever. I’m already mentally working on it…more to come in the future.
And for training, how am I going to prepare? I plan on continuing with my core training of rock-climbing and parkour, with some yoga and strength-training support. I also hope to get more time working on actual obstacles, which no doubt is a big differentiator between the top guys with courses in their back yards and “leisure competitors” like myself who train but don’t have a warped wall or salmon ladder in their back yard! I might have access to a couple of courses from guys I know here in New Mexico, and plan to take a trip or two up to train with the hard-core APEX guys at Boulder. Overall my training is similar to previous years…lots of grip and upper body strength combined with the intuitive speed and approach of the parkour demons (that’s my goal, at least), and then throw in more obstacle-specific work wherever I can.
Who knows if ANW4 will happen later in 2011, if the networks decide that they want to send Team America to the very next Sasuke (which happens twice a year), or it will happen in the summer of 2012 for the ‘standard’ once-a-year trip that ANW has offered so far in its three seasons. In any case, when it happens is out of my hands…the only thing I can control is whether I’m getting ready for it whenever it does down! As always, thanks for your support readers, it means a lot.
Share on Facebook Tweet about it Tell a friendAccording to this article in the New York Times, as well as a couple of other media sources I found, apparently the season finale on NBC for American Ninja Warrior 3 brought in fairly strong ratings. I think in absolute terms the ratings weren’t so terribly high, but for that time slot (Sunday night during the summer) they were relatively very good. This is fantastic news for American Ninja Warrior fans and competitors, meaning there is an increased likelihood of future competitions and media exposure.
This is total speculation on my part…but I have to believe that it also means that there is an increased likelihood of American Ninja Warrior 4 going down later this year in 2011 in order to send Team America to the very next Sasuke in Japan. Remember ANW has only been happening once a year, while Sasuke happens twice a year, and with Sasuke ratings flagging in Japan they may need an infusion of new interest and NBC licensing money to even run another one.
Share on Facebook Tweet about it Tell a friendNBC announced it will air the season finale of American Ninja Warrior 3 on Aug 22nd in primetime. Sort of curious since I don’t think the ten American finalists from ANW3 have even competed in Sasuke yet! I doubt that NBC would publicly slot it in there if they weren’t confident that the next Sasuke would be filmed and produced prior to that date. But then again, what the hell do I know?
Anyway, G4 starts their airing of the series on July 31st, so set your DVRs. Or in the case of those on DirectTV, ask your friends to set their DVRs so you can go over to their houses and watch it. I think this is good news for the prospect of American Ninja Warrior 4 happening in 2011…if NBC likes the numbers of the season finale, it may push for ANW4 to happen sooner rather than later, and they’ll have plenty of time to coordinate a fall (Oct or Nov) ANW4 to happen in order to make the next Sasuke that will probably happen in the beginning of 2012. All this would mean that ANW4 would air sometime in late winter or early spring.
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