{"id":82239,"date":"2019-10-29T16:26:06","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T21:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=82239"},"modified":"2019-10-29T16:26:06","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T21:26:06","slug":"kids-take-ninja-warrior-to-new-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/kids-take-ninja-warrior-to-new-heights\/","title":{"rendered":"Kids take Ninja Warrior to new heights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Junie Burns and Selah Holland<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Medill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">Most people view Ninja Warrior as an entertaining sports competition where strong, agile athletes compete. But to the kids of the Ultimate Ninjas Chicago Elite team , it\u2019s more like life outside of school.<\/p>\n<p>Across the nation, kids are taking the American Ninja Warrior world by storm. This year, Universal Kids launched American Ninja Warrior Junior, a new show where kids race each other across the obstacles made famous by NBC&#8217;s adult competition series, American Ninja Warrior.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"EliteNinjas\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/369599866?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>On the <a href=\"https:\/\/ultimateninjas.com\/elite-team\/\">Ultimate Ninjas Chicago Elite team<\/a>, several of the young ninjas have already found success competing on the first and second seasons of American Ninja Warrior Junior.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think for the future of Ninja as a sport, the kids &#8211; they\u2019re blowing it up,\u201d said team coach and four-time American Ninja Warrior competitor Michael Torres. \u201cThey\u2019re doing things that we can\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Most of the kids\u00a0 go to the Ultimate Ninjas Chicago\u00a0gym\u00a0in Ravenswood five or six times a week to practice and spend weekends competing in ninja competitions. The Elite team tryouts occur three times a year and are open to boys and girls in the age ranges of six to eight, nine to 11 and 12 plus.<\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">Photo at top: The Elite team swings through the practice course at the Ultimate Ninjas gym in Ravenswood.(Video still by Selah Holland\/Medill)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Junie Burns and Selah Holland Medill Reports Most people view Ninja Warrior as an entertaining sports competition where strong, agile athletes compete. But to the kids of the Ultimate Ninjas Chicago Elite team , it\u2019s more like life outside of school. Across the nation, kids are taking the American Ninja Warrior world by storm. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":611,"featured_media":82240,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4780,28,29,31],"tags":[4830,4831,4832],"class_list":["post-82239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2019","category-general-interest","category-health-and-science","category-sports","tag-american-ninja-warrior","tag-ultimate-ninjas","tag-ultimate-ninjas-chicago-elite-team"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kids take Ninja Warrior to new heights - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/kids-take-ninja-warrior-to-new-heights\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kids take Ninja Warrior to new heights - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Junie Burns and Selah Holland Medill Reports Most people view Ninja Warrior as an entertaining sports competition where strong, agile athletes compete. But to the kids of the Ultimate Ninjas Chicago Elite team , it\u2019s more like life outside of school. Across the nation, kids are taking the American Ninja Warrior world by storm. 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