Hey Steemians,

Today I would like to share my experience competing in the first ever Ninja warrior style competition in Australia! This competition was super tough and tonnes of fun. It was held at the Ninja Academy gym in Perth, Western Australia and featured some international athletes like Travis Brewer and Evaninja who travelled to compete. I'm going to share some insights of what I was thinking while I was attempting to complete the obstacles.

This finals video is the conclusion of 3 qualifying rounds which took place over the last half of 2016. The finals were split over 2 days, '3 stages' of obstacles and 70 athletes competing. The only aim is to get through all 8 obstacles without touching any of the blue flooring or falling even once and beating the time limit. If you fall a single time or move too slowly your out of the competition even in the qualifier. Only 16 athletes completed all of stage 1.

Ninja challenge 2016 finalists

Day 2 consisted of 'stage 2 and 3' and this is where I was knocked out of the competition. The cannonballs got the better of me in my fatigued state. I have completed them many times in practice but in the competition I was too out of breath and was unable to conquer them. Overall in the finals no competitors completed stage 2 and the only attempts at stage 3 were all unofficial. I was super happy to have been invited to compete in this competition and I placed 7th overall which is not too bad at all!

Now for a few points about the obstacles. This course was newly unveiled on the day of the competition and 6 or 7 of the obstacles were brand new so the ninjas were all on a level playing field with having never tried them before. many of these obstacles it was my very first time trying them! At 3:05 if you look closely you can see my feet slipping down the see-saw balance beam and can hear me complaining about my cheap shoes. On the very next obstacle I was super unlucky because the flying monkey bar was placed badly in its cradle and when I jumped up it completely fell out which used up a lot of extra forearm strength. At 4:05 you can see me rubbing chalk on my pants, I did this so if my hands were sweaty and I was hanging mid obstacle I could just slap my my leg with one hand and get some chalk on nice and quick.

THE DAMN CANNONBALLS. I have practiced these many times before and was very unlucky to fall here. Each ball hangs from a small pin and if you watch closely when I go for the second ball the tip of my finger hit the pin so I could not wrap my hand on top of the ball. I knew I was in trouble after the first 2 seconds of being on the obstacle. I recovered but then super unluckily I hit the pin of the middle ball with my finger again and it was game over from that point.

Please let me know if you like this style of content :)

Ninja Challenge Finals 2016: Jack Gooch from Ninja Academy on Vimeo.