Encouraging Courage through Ninja

O-NinjaGym-Blog

What is ninja? And is it suited to my child? 

Ninja is about continuing to challenge yourself, to find solutions when faced with problems and to combine both precise yet powerful movements. Coming from a gymnastics background, I quickly fell in love with ninja. To me, it encompasses the focus, skill and precision of gymnastics while introducing aspects of creativity and imagination. Learning and developing skills in any aspect of life is about trying and also knowing your limits. We support our ninjas to be brave!

Wildly imaginative 
I love that when you step into a ninja class, you are not just stepping into Twisters but into a world of lasers, lava and weird and wonderful creatures. Every session, I ask my ninjas what persona they are embodying today. I am always amazed at the diversity of personas and powers they come up with, from earth, fire and water ninjas to dragon, lego and even milk ninjas. It excites me how motivated and truly energised ninjas are by the prospects of getting a power of super-grip, laser eyes or invisibility. 

Learn to move in more than one way 
Ninja is a dynamic sport that encompasses a range of skills and movements. We foster strength, spatial awareness, balance, power and rotational skills.  One of the greatest challenges of ninja but the most crucial is generating power whilst maintaining precision. Referring to our ‘6 pillars of ninja’, through ninja, we develop foundational shapes, stealth, agility, focus and also teamwork. All of these pillars, whilst important in the gym have practical applications in life. We have been thrilled to see the team embrace its first year of ninja testing and gain a better understanding of the vaults they are working towards and the value of the drills they are practising in training. 

Builds independence 
One of my favourite aspects of coaching ninja is  the independence we foster in classes. While we have very clear skill progressions through our testing, these progressions are somewhat more intuitive and individually driven. Activities are centred around making it challenging for yourself. Ninja is about encouraging courage. It is about learning one’s limits and pushing them when you feel comfortable to do so. It’s about telling yourself ‘ I can jump further, I can reach higher, I can be more precise etc.’. 

As I say in all my classes, as a ninja you will fall and you should fall. As coaches, we praise and value safe falling even if they didn’t complete the skill properly. You should always aim to go that little bit further, because ‘worst case scenario’ you will fall but as long as you fall safely with ninja flow, no one will know and you will be fine. Safety is the centre of ninja. It is this ability to fall out of skills safely that underpins a ninja’s ability to take control over their own skill development within and beyond ninja classes.

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