Up on the Range, in Virginia Minnesota, a new kind of school gym was added to the North Star Elementary School. This gym not only focuses on physical education but was also designed to help train and teach kids ninja skills.

At the newly built North Star Elementary School, the community has a new gym offered to them, a ninja gym. With a variety of poles, ropes, climbing walls, and equipment the gym is filled with tools to help train physically and learn about the sport of ninja. An example of the sport of ninja can be seen in shows like American Ninja Warrior.

What is a Ninja Gym?

Angela Hanson used to work at Northern Twisters Gymnastics in Virginia. the ninja coach, shared with us what they do at the gym. Her boss at the time inspired her to try to be a ninja coach. She was sent to a ninja con which inspired her to be the best ninja and to be a ninja coach.

“When I heard about this place, I fell in love with it immediately. And I’ve always wanted just to be a ninja coach. And you don’t hear that very often. Like, what’s your profession? It’s a ninja coach.”

Their ninja program is a mostly community education program. It is after school and invites anyone to join. Currently they are hosting classes on Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays, as Angela says they are “trying to get them in a rhythm, like a normal sport, like hockey.”

They host an age five though nine class and nine through fifteen class and are hoping to get older involved as well. There are also hopes for doing ninja competitions in Minneapolis. Angela adds, “Hopefully we get it into like a regular thing where like a ninja coach would be a normal thing and a ninja program would be a normal sport.”

Training to be a Ninja

The classes taught help walk the students through the course while focusing on keeping kids active and physical. This can be found at the three days a week classes, or the Warrior Program taught on Mondays that focuses more heavily on physical education.

“So, we’ll use the blocks and then we’ll go to the rings and then we do it. Like the next step would be something like climbing. And then we’ll do like ninja rolls. So, it’s all like a step-by-step program to get all their muscles moving. Not just one.”

“I think, that will get to help with other sports. So, it helps with agility and figuring out, like solving problems so that they have the problem solved on how to do like the next thing. And I think that’s awesome because that helps in other sports.”

The ninja gym not only provides training in athletics but has a focus in growing confidence for the kids in themselves and their abilities. An example of their outreach for 2024 classes, is shown below.

“A lot of them struggle with their own selves. Like a lot of them won’t be confident enough just to reach for a ring. And for me, it’s just like if they can try to aim for their best to grab that ring, then that’s the best thing I see through the communities is them trying their best. So just effort and them trying their best is the best thing for me.”

For interested parties in the gym and/or the classes, can be found on their Community Education Website. There you can find their Ninja Warrior Classes, and at least 20 other classes where you can sign up for different things like cooking, ninja classes and everything else. For more on the school itself check the school’s website.