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Since you can’t beat the Wolfpack, join them

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Since you can’t beat the Wolfpack, join them

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Throughout the early years of American Ninja Warrior, the sport was littered with competitors from all different backgrounds. However, in 2014, a group of rock climbers that nicknamed themselves “The Wolfpack” took the sport by storm. Led by Brian Arnold’s record-breaking 2013 run, the group became a force to be reckoned with, especially after Isaac Caldiero became the first total winner of the show in 2015. Prior to the Wolfpack, parkour was viewed as the sport that transferred best to Ninja Warrior, though rock climbing is now seen as an essential training activity for anyone who wants to be a serious competitor on the show. This is due to the positive transfer of skill that exists between the two sports, according to Identical Elements Theory. This hypothesis states that two tasks that share a greater number of similar elements are expected to transfer more highly than two tests with less similar elements. Since rock climbing is dependent on proportional upper body strength, grip strength, body control, flexibility and balance, it has the most identical elements with Ninja Warrior than other sports. Nearly every obstacle has some correlation to an element of rock climbing, and the obstacles that historically have been more difficult require a larger number of component parts seen in rock climbing. Dating back to the days of the Japanese show, no American man was able to conquer the Ultimate Cliffhanger, a Stage Three obstacle that was essentially an arms-only over-vertical climb using small ledges for grip, until rock climber Brent Steffensen did so in 2012. Since Stage Three is almost entirely dependent on upper body and grip strength, often while hanging in the air, rock climbers have a tremendous advantage late in the competition. While I rock climbed semi-frequently before I planned to try out for Ninja Warrior, I ramped up the frequency of my climbing outings to help better my chances on the show. After more serious rock climbing training, I found that I could complete obstacles like the Salmon Ladder and Devil’s Steps with less effort than I had before.

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Individual differences abound at the Warped Wall

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Individual differences abound at the Warped Wall

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Without a doubt, the most famous obstacle of Ninja Warrior is the Warped Wall, a 14’6” sloped ramp that ends over vertical. The final obstacle of the qualifying course, it was infamous for taking out shorter competitors, especially women. Up until Kacy Catanzaro conquered it in 2014, a run that went viral and resulted in a nationwide CitiBank advertising campaign starring the 5’0” former gymnast, no woman had ever made it up the Warped Wall. However, male competitors often do not struggle with the obstacle, and less and less athletes fail on it each year. This obstacle is a prime example of the importance of individual differences, as the Warped Wall is significantly easier for the taller male competitors, whose longer frame allows some men to make it up the obstacle using just two steps, like my 6’3” friend does in the video below, while Catanzaro had to use six steps in order to have the momentum to leap to the top. Even at 5’10”, I struggled often at the beginning of trials, failing to reach the top once during my first training session. However, I began to develop other traits and strategies that allowed me to match the capability of my much taller friend. While height is the top determinant of whether someone is capable of reaching the top, there are other factors at play that allow a diminutive athlete like Catanzaro to complete the obstacle. Shorter competitors can compensate for a lack of stature by acquiring a strong jumping ability or a strong quad drive. Catanzaro, as the former top gymnast in NCAA Division I, utilized her dynamic athleticism developed from her sport in order to reach the top of the wall. Additionally, one can overcome their negative individual differences by practicing often and well, as plotting one’s steps and keeping your eyes trained on the lip of the ramp will improve form and allow a more limited athlete to have a chance at finishing the Warped Wall.

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To climb the Salmon Ladder, what you can’t see will make or break you

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To climb the Salmon Ladder, what you can’t see will make or break you

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A classic obstacle that has been a staple of the show since the Japanese days, competitors face the Salmon Ladder after completing the Warped Wall during the City Finals, and it reappears in different forms throughout later stages. The obstacle is essentially a pullup bar, but is unattached to the wall, instead resting on two pegs sloped upwards at 45 degrees. On the frame of the obstacle, there are six pegs per side leading up to the top. The athlete must perform a forceful pull-up, and at the top of the motion, lift the bar out of the pegs and place it in the next highest set of pegs, one foot higher than the starting pegs, repeating the motion until they finish the obstacle. While watching the Salmon Ladder on TV this appears to be a solely upper-body task, though how well one performs on this obstacle is due to their ability to use proprioceptive feedback. Since the bar is five feet long, it is impossible to keep both pegs in your visual field. Thus, competitors are forced to focus all their visual attention on only one, which creates serious problems for novices. According to lecture, experts more often use proprioceptive feedback to correct an error, while novices frequently use visual feedback. In my first few tries, I focused on my left hand, and was successfully able to land the bar into the second peg, though I kept on landing short on the right side. This sent me falling ignominiously back to the mat, and frustrating me greatly. As seen in the movie about Ian, the visual system can override the proprioceptive, which could be the reason for the common novice struggles on this obstacle. However, a veteran ninja told me to mentally focus on my right hand while watching my left, and consciously raise my hand hand higher than I would have thought. More in tune with where my body was in space, I found it easier to land the right side of the bar into the peg without sacrificing the left side. However, even experienced ninjas can be plagued by slip-ups on the side they are not watching, as the preference for visual feedback can be overpowering. This can be seen in the video, as I slip up on the second jump, but got lucky and was able to correct my mistake.

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Crossing the Devil’s Steps is easier than explaining how to do it

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Crossing the Devil’s Steps is easier than explaining how to do it

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In Ninja Warrior, the course layout is different each time, but follows a general trend. During the qualifying stage, which features six obstacles, the fifth is always the most difficult and is upper body-intensive. One such obstacle is the Devil’s Steps, where the athlete must climb backwards up a ladder sloped at 45 degrees using only their arms, with one large gap halfway through the ascending portion to increase difficulty. When they have reached the top, they must reach across a large gap to another staircase on the opposite side, which they then must climb down to finish the obstacle. The challenge is intended to be physically taxing rather than requiring incredible athleticism, and those who fail to complete it often due so as a result of fatigue rather than an error. Upon trying the obstacle, it came quite easily to me and I was able to master the Devil’s Steps fairly quickly. However, when my friend attempted it, he grabbed onto the first step and was immediately confused about how the obstacle was supposed to be undertaken. He asked me how I had positioned my hands, if I had put both my hands on each step or just one and what strategies I used to handle the transition points. Despite doing the obstacle just minutes before, I couldn’t visually replicate how I had completed the obstacle. After stammering out “Just climb it”, I thought harder about what exactly I had done to reach the top, and how to best explain it to a novice.

As discussed in class, it is difficult for experts to teach a beginner a motor task that has become autonomic for them, especially in a task that is rhythm-based such as the Devil’s Steps. My strategy was stored in my unconscious procedural memory, making it difficult for me to verbally describe it to my friend. However, I learned that the most efficacious way to communicate the proper way to tackle the obstacle was when I explained it using analogies. During his first few attempts, he would instinctively use a crimping grip on the stairs, and when I told him to fix the habit and lay his hand flat, he would often revert back to his initial hand position. However, when I described the proper hand positioning as a rectangle with one end open rather than a “C” shape, he was able to keep the flat fingers shape throughout the obstacle and was able to maintain his grip long enough to complete it.

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Conquering the Rising Quintuple Steps requires the perfect blend of speed and accuracy

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Conquering the Rising Quintuple Steps requires the perfect blend of speed and accuracy

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One of the latest fitness trends to go viral in the United States, Ninja Warrior, the obstacle course game show that rose from humble beginnings as a Japanese-only broadcast to a primetime slot on NBC, may be the truest test of athletic prowess we have today. As a middle-schooler, I found the original Japanese show on the now defunct channel G4 and immediately fell in love with the concept. I was a hyperactive kid with a competitive streak, and I told my mom that once I turned 21 (the minimum age the show requires for participants), I would go on the show. With my 21st birthday just months away, I have began to turn my dream into a reality. A friend of mine found a Ninja Warrior gym (essentially a warehouse filled with obstacles from the show) and I began to routinely attend to hone my skills. The first obstacle I undertook is the first obstacle faced by the athletes in the competition, known as the Rising Quintuple Steps. The obstacle consists of five boards, three on the right and two on the left, set at 45 degree angles and six feet apart from each other while increasing in height the further you get down the obstacle. The athlete must leap from board to board to traverse the obstacle.

In my first try, I ran as hard as I could at the first step, hoping that my momentum would be enough so that I wouldn't run out of speed by the fifth step. When I hit first step with little care to where my feet were placed, I was unable to properly transition to the second step. Eager to fix my mistakes, I carefully plotted out where I wanted my feet to land on the steps, though when I got to the third step I had so little forward momentum that I was incapable of jumping to the fourth step. This trade-off between speed and accuracy represented by my struggles with the Rising Quintuple Steps can be described by Fitts' Law, which states that for a movement task, speed and accuracy have an inverse logarithmic relationship. When tackling the Rising Quintuple Steps, maintaining the right blend of speed and accuracy is paramount to completing the obstacle, especially considering that the Index of Difficulty increases with each step, since the boards get progressively smaller as you ascend. However, by identifying how accurate I could be without sacrificing speed, I was able to master the Rising Quintuple Steps.