SUMTER, S.C. — The Ultimate Ninja Athlete Association World Series Championship Final saw kids coming to Orlando from all over the world, including from the Midlands. Eight Sumter kids competed in the international competition.
"It's kind of a nice jolt of electricity to kind of, you know, it's an adrenaline rush to do it," 18-year-old Kasey Fraser explains about the sport. "And I think that's always been one of my favorite things about it."
Fraser and her sisters Karleigh and Claire have been learning about the sport of ninja, which combines obstacle course racing with upper body strength and balance.
"I have friends, we like to push each other," Claire smiles. "It’s just fun to compete and get better.
The Fraser sisters recently traveled to Florida for the competition, where they went up against other athletes from all over the world.
"We all kind of went together and got to see and compete on a world stage against athletes," Sumter Ninja Warrior Director Seth Reimer explains. "In a competition, you'll run seven to 15 different obstacles back to back to back. They’re given points in certain leagues, and in certain leagues, sometimes you go as far as fast as you can."
Reimer lists off the different countries that participated: Australia, China, France, Russia and Italy, among others.
Reimer and says watching students push themselves is his favorite part of the job.
"In classes here, we teach a lot of showing kids that progress is progress, no matter how small it is. So if they held on for one second longer, or they jumped farther, that's progress. And they need to see that so they can build confidence and have mental toughness and kind of keep going and feel good about themselves when they do something that they didn't think they could do at the beginning of the month or at the beginning of the class. And it's just, it's a lot of fun to watch that happen," Reimer details. "My favorite part about being a coach is just watching the progress. Is watching a student come in and go from, like, fearful to fearless."
The classes are open to students over the age of six. That includes a range of people, from students in their 60s to teenagers like 17-year-old Luke Brazell.
"As a sport, I love it. I think it's great," Brazell smiles. "And I think the fact that we can do it here in Sumter is awesome."
Brazell tells me he’s grown mentally and physically since starting the sport three years ago, which he showed off at the competition.
"It was scary because I mean, you can see people from all over the world that you know, you know, it's crazy. It was big. It was cameras everywhere," Brazell remembers. "I mean, it was, it was a really cool experience to be able to go to worlds at 17 and compete."
Outside of competing, Kasey Fraser tells me it’s an opportunity to stay busy while having fun.
"A lot of a lot of entertainment now, it's been pulled all together in the technology, social media, movies, TV shows, video games and all that," Fraser begins. "Bringing athleticism back into the mix and some kind of exercise, and you know, at the same time being able to get the same kind of adrenaline rush you would get from anything else, I think that's really valuable. And it's definitely different from other sports that you could do too."
Reimer says giving students that opportunity is what he aims to do.
"I think our our goal locally here just within our gym is to continue to build this program and show our community and the surrounding counties that really there's not a limit to whether you want to participate once a week and get a fun workout, a fun family activity to do," Reimer explains. "But then if there's that next step that you want to take and be interested in a local competition, we hold them here."
As for the collective effort from ninja warriors across the country, Reimer says the goal is for ninja to become an Olympic sport.
Out of the eight students that competed, Reimer says all of them finished in the top 50th for their age range.