Scott Bishop of White Bear Lake overcame a 2016 motorcycle accident to become a contestant on NBC’s “American Ninja Warrior.” At a local competition Sunday at Ninjas United Gym in Maple Grove, he was first to succeed on the most difficult obstacle on a pro-level course.
About eight athletes before him, all significantly younger than the 39-year-old Bishop, either failed or decided not to try. He did it in no time. Afterward, while cooling down, Bishop said: You’ll know what’s going wrong. ”
Most weekends, Ninjas United hosts 15 to 20 birthday parties, but owners Jen and Chris Vogt said partygoers don’t understand the big picture. . The real magic happens in daily classes and open gyms. Ninjas United caters to both obstacle race athletes like Bishop as well as families with 3-year-olds who scramble, climb, swing and dash around 10,000 square feet of obstacles. It’s a regular destination.
“There are a lot of kids who don’t fit into the team sport aesthetic of sitting and listening,” Chris Vogt says. “This environment is very exciting. It’s dynamic and always changing. We change the gym every week.”
Levi Kingsbury, 13, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, goes through an obstacle course Sunday at Ninjas United in Maple Grove “for the thrill of it.” (Richard Tsong Taatari II/Minnesota Star Tribune)
Ninjas United, one of about half a dozen Ninja gyms in the Twin Cities metro area (and hundreds nationwide), is a fast-growing business that turns playground fun into a lifelong fitness activity. is. Most of the other passengers on the subway are franchisees of Conquer Ninja, a company with operations in four states. Obstacles Academy in Eden Prairie is locally owned, as is Ninjas United.
The gym hosts competitions several times a year as part of a circuit with Ninja gyms in Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota. Bishop and 31 other athletes, ranging in age from 15 to 43, competed in the “Professional” division. The other five divisions for younger students attracted even more participants, with 230 participants across the weekend.
The biggest thing they learn is patience. “If there’s a bunch of people and you fall in front of them, you have to get up and move on to the next obstacle and stay focused on the course,” Jen Vogt said.
Rachel Gallagher, from Becker, who takes her sons Abraham and Saul to Ninja United every week, said: “In the last three years, I have never seen any of my children bullied or made fun of.” spoke. “The positivity here is so refreshing because you don’t always see it in other peer activities.”
