“Ninja academy” — that’s a place for sword-wielding spies who do flips and tricks with a “hee-ya,” right?
American Ninja Warrior veteran Daniella Blanchard is used to the confusion about the term.
“People think of kicking stuff,” says Blanchard, who is the lead coach at the new Los Angeles Ninja Academy in Culver City. “One time I went somewhere and they were like, ‘Can you kick this lamp?’ And I was like, ‘No, that’s not exactly what ninja is.’”
As Blanchard explains it, “ninja” is a nickname for the sport of competitive obstacle course racing.
And that’s what aspiring ninjas can train for at the academy, which opened in August. Tucked in an industrial area of W. Jefferson Boulevard, the large gray building looks unassuming on the outside, but inside, it’s a 7,000-square-foot giant adult playground of metal climbing structures, climbing walls, balance beams, and other tests of athletic ability.
The Academy modeled the gym after the type of obstacle courses tackled by reality TV contestants on American Ninja Warrior.
If you’ve ever watched the show and thought, “I could do that,” let me just say that those courses are harder than they look.
At the Academy, you can hone in skills on individual disciplines like their floor-to-ceiling climbing ramp, or time yourself through the entire course.
For this reporter, at least, the easiest part of the course was setting up the tripod and posing in athletic wear. Personally, I believe that if I had worn different shoes, I would have done a little bit better. My laceless, Nike slip-ons flew right off my feet the second I tried the sloped climbing ramp at the beginning of the course. And the parts of the course that didn’t require foot agility required upper body strength, which I also don’t have.
Coach Blanchard, who was in the middle of training for a sophomore season of American Ninja Warrior, flipped over gymnastics bars effortlessly. She and some of the other coaches played it down for the adult beginner course they were teaching, but when the students weren’t looking, they jumped from obstacle to obstacle in seconds.
This is the third ninja gym for business owner Madelyn Scarpulla, who also owns two ninja academies in New York City. This is the first of its kind in Los Angeles.
Coaches at Scarpulla’s Brooklyn Ninja Academy guide hopefuls through their obstacles. Credit: Youtube.
“My goal is to build that same ninja community that we have on the East Coast, and to just continue to grow it and make it a national sport,” says Scarpulla.
Competitive obstacle course racing started in the 1850s, and similar events like steeplechase and a now defunct “obstacle swim” first entered athletic contention in the late 19th century. Both those events debuted at the 1900 Olympics.
The sport really picked up steam as a form of schadenfreude-based athletic-entertainment television after the Japanese reality competition show Sasuke aired in 1997, birthing what we know today as “ninja.”
Sasuke featured 100 competitors running through larger-than-life set pieces in a timed obstacle course. The American channel G4 started airing an English dub version in the early 2000s. Then, NBC took the show concept and created its own American Ninja Warrior in 2009.
Now ninja is getting a chance to be a serious sport. Obstacle course racing is heading to the Olympics for the 2028 Games.
Ian Adamson, a multisport director who coordinates events for the Olympics, says an event like obstacle going to the Games doesn’t happen often.
“Creating a sport out of activities and TV shows … is quite challenging. Most people would say, ‘Ah you’re going to create a sport and get it on the Olympic program? It’s going to be 50 years to never.’ There’s about 400 organizations trying to create formalized sports, probably 390 of them will never make it,” he explains.
Before its addition to the Olympics 2028 roster, the height of a professional ninja career was either appearing on NBC’s American Ninja Warrior or competing in independent amateur leagues. However, the sport isn’t its own independent event yet.
“To be very clear, by the way, this is on the Olympic program in Los Angeles [as] the obstacle discipline of modern pentathlon,” clarifies Adamson. “That doesn’t mean that in the future, there couldn’t be standalone events like ninja warrior type stuff by themselves in the Games.”
Modern pentathlon is a five-event multisport in the Olympics. Traditionally, the five sports have been fencing, swimming, running, shooting, and riding horses.
The 2024 Summer Games were the last year for equestrian on the pentathlon. The reason behind the change depends on who you ask: Some allege difficulties between horses and athletes, horse mistreatment, or just an antiquated approach to a sport that should feel more interesting.
“There were some [things] that have happened over the last several years that have led to a requirement from the International Olympic Committee for Pentathlon to modernize and change from the horse discipline,” says Adamson.
The Olympics committee evaluated around 62 other sports to replace equestrian. Part of what put obstacle ahead was the entertainment factor.
“When people see what we’re doing in the sport context, it looks very much like these TV shows, which are produced entertainment, but they’re still competitions,” explains Adamson. “Imagine these crazy, technical, fun obstacles where they’re flying through the air at running speed. That’s what they’re doing. They are literally flying.”
Coach Madelyn Scarpulla lifts herself through multiple reps on a swing obstacle. Photo by Kelsey Ngante.
Back at the Los Angeles Ninja Academy, founder Madelyn Scarpulla says she sees her gym as a future training ground for the next generation of ninja Olympians.
“That’s the whole point. We want to train athletes here. Yes, we’re an after school program for kids. Yes, we have weekend programs, and we do birthday parties and all that,” she explains. “But the primary drive behind what we do is to create athletes and consider [ninja] a legitimate sport. So it being part of the Olympics is the first step towards that.”