EUGENIZATION.

One of my recent guilty pleasures is watching a show called Ninjawarrior on G4TV. The premise behind Ninjawarrior is pitting athletes (and those who fancy themselves opt-notch athletes) against a giant obstacle course - think a Crossfitter’s wet dream. There are 4 “stages” to conquer in this gigantic playground, and beating all 4 stages (which only 1 man has ever done) wins you the title of “Ninjawarrior”.

Sounds like fun? Looks like it - I would love to get a crack at Stage 2 myself. Stage 2 could be renamed “the Grip Challenge”, as the competitors have to scale walls, traverse chasms holding onto thin planks and a curtain, and swing on chains.

One thing I really enjoy about this show is watching real athletes (such as Olympic gold medal winner Paul Hamm) try and fail on the courses, while “Normal Joes” (who obsess over the show and practice at home on makeshift versions of the obstacles) somehow grind through the levels. It only serves to hammer home the concept of specificity in athletics - if you want to excel at an event/sport, practice that event/sport.

Recently Renzo’s niece Kyra Gracie (who taught the women’s class at the academy) was on the show! Imagine how psyched I was to see the clip. But how’d she do? Check it out for yourself.

(This new version of Blogger doesn’t yet support embedded video so I’m afraid you’ll have to click here to view it on YouTube.)

Oh well. The more you see specificity in athletics, the more incredible a Babe Didrikson or Jim Thorpe becomes. I’d better get back to my snowboarding training now.

UPDATED:

I found some more clips of Ninjawarrior on YouTube (just for you, Michele). Enjoy them now before they get taken down:

Olympian Paul Terek defeats the First Stage, barely.

Olympic Silver Medalist Morgan Hamm redeems himself on Stage One.

Alas, not everyone takes this competition seriously. It is Japan, after all.