Hey! Good news everyone our site was pretty stealthy and we have moved everything from our blog to a legitimate website!! Check it out and bookmark it, we will now be using the website as our main site instead of the blog to provide solid content on training, building, and news from the show.
I will also be attaching alot of our pages on the website into the the new site. Thanks for your support and interest in the CCNWTC without your support we will not have been able to take the steps and grown how we have. This is our last blog post here :)
An here we are our largest competition yet with a full 54 competitors coming into Stage 1 of the 2 day event. Please visit our online live stream as we broadcast our tournament live at CCNWTC: LIVE BROADCAST
Get ready to go on a Quest for Total Victory 4!
Alex Jolly
Matthew Garcia
Riley Kane
Steve Herbalman
Tyler Ruiz
Aryan Guenther
Alvaro Campos
Chris Luera
Hugo Hurtion
Lowe Rodd
Tom Carpenter
Andrew Thompson
Brad Murasco
Corinne Kohlen
Gabe Hurtado
Jeff Fox
Micheal Mori
Scott VanBuskirk
Alex Krumland
Cristopher vom Kohlen
Barry Betha
Kirk Johannns
Robert Ing
Jamil Antoine
Emmanuel Lopez
Jacob Ellis
David Mytyk
Richard Mori
James Paugh
Greg Fox
David Mori
Forest Grey Chang-Turpen
Kelvin Antoine
Ryan Wakefield
Travis Weinland
Mike Bernardo
Ryan Black
Timmy Do
Chad Pickens
Chris Baum
Joseph Range
Mira Manickam
Ricky Chen
Kyle Kim
Yen Chen
Chris Yang
Andres De la Rosa
David Campbell (coming sunday)
Brian Kretsch (coming sunday)
Thaddeus Robeck
and our Half-Day(mini-ninjas) who are competing in just stage one are!!
M51. Alex Kexel
M52. Alan Connealy
M53. Ali Leitheiser
M54. Grant Connealy
I'm looking forward to meeting all my good ninja friends and the new ones. Lets have some fun and play safe!
In 1 week we will be starting our last Seasonal Invite event of this year. With an estimated 40+ competing ninjas over a Full 4 Stage (all near/full scale obstacles) competition! We are guessing from what we have seen at other Ninja Warrior events on this side of the US that this is probably the largest event on the West Coast not associated with the tv show "American Ninja Warrior" by NBC/G4.
I am super excited and a little scared haha but we are going to have a blast. I feel so blessed to have an amazing course to where I can hold events like this for all my ninja buddies and help bring new people into it as well. So let me give you the download on the event if you didn't know.
IT's STREAMING LIVE!
That's right we got a Ustream account and will be streaming the stages live via this link: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ccnwtc
Follow it! Bookmark it!
We may even do a ninja breakfast broadcast from Batter Up Pancakes haha
If you couldn't see it before here are the complete event details below: CCNWTC Fall Invite Event Details - PDF View If you have been training for Ninja Warrior and wish to sign up you better hurry! Read the ALL of the event packet and if it looks good to you email me at ccnwtc@gmail.com and I will give you the registration link. NOTE: Registration closes at midnight, October 22nd, 2013
We have some amazing sponsors and one new one! Our Course Sponsors are:
As you may have guessed it So iLL Holds is our newest course sponsor. These guys are amazing and have been in business for 11yrs. They own a state of the art climbing gym(Climb So iLL) with full member services like 24hr climbing. As well they make some amazing and unique and durable holds that are pretty ill (see what I did their ;)) Make sure to check out their website and consider them for your next or first climbing hold purchase, they are really cool company. I find that they are perfect fit with the CCNWTC as we both like black and green haha and we both like to be different and unique. Enjoy the video below.
I was expecting a good video from our local news channel KSEE 24 News being interviewed by reporter Angela Greenwood.
This video came out amazing and the editing I thought was extremely good. I hope KSEE can come out again sometime and dive a little more into what I do here at the course besides training. Big shout out and thanks to Thad Robeck, Chris Yang, and Genesis(aka Goku Parkour)
If anyone is interested in training at the course feel free to contact me. It is a private facility but sometimes its opened in limited amounts. I am also planing on holding my SasukeFit classes coming soon if your interested in gaining strength and conditioning to better prepare you for Ninja Warrior along with some specific obstacle training. Please email ccnwtc@gmail.com
As of now I have started a new semester at Willow International and am working towards my bachelors in engineering. School is taking priority over new construction and training so some of these updates will slow down. Take care everyone I'll chime in soon.
You can also LIKE our Facebook page in the meantime.
So this past week alot of things have happened. Some big things are in store for our humble course. I had a two hour interview at the beginning of last week with a freelance journalist. Who is going to write my story and the story of the course. I'm excited to see how it turns out!
Plus one of our local news stations KSEE 24 and Angela Greenwood came out for a couple hours to record what we do here and interview about training for Ninja Warrior, CrossFit, and how it all came to be. It will be edited into a video a couple minutes long as part of a special on cool things that are happening in the Central Valley people may not know about. The piece should be out sometime mid August.
Plus now that we have a decent set up I'm going to be releasing more training videos and workout videos to help improve your strength, conditioning and mental state while trying to run obstacles. Heres two videos that we just released and fee free to subscribe to us on Youtube. Thanks!
So I've been really busy this past week and will be into the next 2 as I continue to construct and build our Ninja Warriors Stage 3 section. Known as the Gauntlet. Its coming along and on schedule. I've put myself through hell working on construction by myself as I resurrect this beast! 19 feet long and 39 feet wide from 10-12'ft high.
Tomorrow I should be finishing up the last bits. Adding a few more pieces of lumber and concreting in 6 posts. I already have all/most of the materials to install and build the Rumbling Dice. I will be working on that and plan on going out Tuesday/Wednesday to make a large purchase for most of the materials I need to build these obstacles. Most of which will range from 12 to 20'ft long and be hanging from the rafters. Here is a few photos and video we released over the past week on our Facebook. If you haven't already like our page and get updates faster!
1,580lbs of concrete for our supporting posts
I think I'll it the sanctuary!
A mans tools for getting through 2ft of hard-pan
Its THIS big!
Starting the day off with a refreshed beginning
Almost their! Raising the left wing.
Angled beams for support of the 16' arms
This video talks about design and how things will be laid out. Not interesting if your not into that.
Cool view of some of the crazy things I did to build this.
A short video about recent progress and a funny challenge to ANW6
Sorry it has been a long time since I last updated on the progress of the training course! Things are moving by so fast. Last week we had our second local competition which I will include a video of that down farther in the post. We began "prettying up" the course and using the black and green koi theme on the Koi ladder through the course. We finished the Half Pipe Attack! and I'm pretty stoked to think(I do think) that this is the first near size replica of the HPA built in a backyard course.
Now we set plans and invites out to our big Invite Open Training Day at the CCNWTC and have begun the construction of our new mega expansion nicknamed The Gauntlet. Alright here we go!!
Half Pipe Attack Construction
So just before our second local competition I was hard at work finishing up the Half Pipe Attack! It took practically the rest of all my plywood and pre-cut lumber. I spent 1 week y myself building this little beast and taking footage/photos of parts of her construction. The weather started getting really hot this week. Here's come photos and clips from her constructions. Blueprints....eeeh maybe. We'll see.
New Legendary Obstacle. The Summers Shuffle.
This wicked upper body unstable crimp obstacle is from the pits of hell. The unknown child of the vertical limit and unstable bridge birthed into a beautiful but ever deadly ninja killer. Inspired by the man, the legendary 3rd stage garage course ninja Shaun Summers! Trust me its a beast, in the video below its not properly installed but will sill kick anyone's ass. In a couple of weeks its home will be set up.
June 29th: Quest for TOTAL Victory 2
Our second local competition at the course went down. This time we had quiet a few more people show up. Including about 5 guys from the local Central Valley Parkour, 4 crossfitters from my gym. CrossFit FTF, 2 skateboarders, and myself. A total of 12. Had a good vibe everyone was excited and a bit nervous.
No one was allowed to touch the course, we had them start fresh and in random order with those who have ran it before as the last to run the course.
We had quite a few slips, some face slams on the quintuple steps and for once on the warped wall saw someone fall face first on it when his feet slipped out from under him. Pretty crazy.
Only 2 made it clean through stage 1. Another would of if he didn't grab a off bounds area of the course. Me? I grazed my foot on the ground coming out of the Half Pipe Attack and didn't know it. Made it up the Warped Wall in one fell swoop and placed the fastest time when they announce I was DQ for touching the ground. Damn! that sucked haha but we had alot of fun. Ended up running out of time and didn't get to do stage 2. Everyone agreed to get ready for the big one coming up late July!
Course Walk-through. Like they do on the show when your brought on.
You wont see me in this video except for the intro. Our GoPro crapped out in the 100 degree heat and cut off right before my run lol nice!
MOAR PAINT!!
I joke that our course(a girl) found make up and started prettying herself up lol
I decided to bust out the 22 sheets of Masonite I have had in reserve for the past 4yrs and put it to good use. Painted it up and gave our 3 large obstacles a make over. The Warped Wall, the Balance Tank, and the Half Pipe Attack. Now the course is taking on an identiy the Koi fish leading you through the course as to where to go next. Man I think were going to need to make some t-shirts now!
The CCNWTC Invite Open Training Day and BBQ
I've been waiting to hold this event for almost a year now and it will fall on the 1yr anniversary of the ninja warrior training course since I started breaking it down from its Mini Mega Skateboard ramp days. I am inviting alot of my CrossFit and Ninja Warrior buddies within a couple states. Were excepting no more than 50 ninjas to come and have fun all day from 8am to sunset training practicing, we"ll have a fun mini competition, and an amazing BBQ!
I am working in full gear and build mode! Building measuring cutting not only to finish our next major expansion The Gauntlet(which I will go over soon) but to build shade out in the acres cause its 100+ degrees outside with no shade and even the best of ninjas aren't going to last long in that weather.
Alot of planning is going into this event to make sure everything goes well and everyone has fun!
The Gauntlet. A Epic Expansion. 07/06/2013
We made a point to focus on stage 1 type obstacles where we first started. The logic was you need to get past the first stage before you get to any of those upper body crazy obstacle. So why build them right off the bat. Start off with the basics and once you have a decent Stage 1 built, then begin on your 2nd and 3rd stage.
Well we finished the majority of our stage 1. Now we begin on really the first expansion we've needed to do. The gauntlet is a massive structure that will house 8 stationary stage 3 obstacles and one central hanging area that will have over 20 interchangeable hanging obstacles inside of it. With recent donations from local competitions, visits, and now donations from the upcoming event we are able to fund this $500+ expansion!
We just made our first purchase and will probably be making another 1 or two back to Home Depot to finish this project. When finished it will be almost 40ft wide an average of 10ft high and 20ft long. It will take up and 800 sqft area of our backyard. Here is a few pics from its recent progress.
As you see I released another video series. This time on the construction of a Salmon ladder that can easily change gaps and distances between rungs with no effort. Its an awesome design and an idea/ feature presented from the Koi Ladder.
The series runs 20m long. If you want to see the finished product and aren't interested in the construction just skip to the 4th video.
I was however presented with quite a challenge though. After my first mini test I knew the spacers in the design were weak and would need reinforcing. So I thought up a faceplate design and tested that as you will see in the 4th video. It was good for a little while but couldn't withstand the brutal impact and the ladder itself started to split and crack.
So are we going to trash it?! Nope no need. We have an excellent design just not a strong enough materials. If it was built from composite wood decking it be fine and good. Cost a bit more to make but wouldn't still keep with the original design.
or
You can make it out of wood but would have to ad pins through the rungs and sidewalls of the ladder. This is so the pin takes the force of the inplace and not the weak wood. Which is undoubtedly less stronger then metal. You just give up a little of the design having to remove and insert a pit every time you wish to switch or move rungs. Hopefully end of this week, beginning of next I will have the two blueprints up and available to use.
In the meantime were working on a new obstacle that is massive! and will devour most of are lumber. That and pre-pairing to support all our ninjas in Vegas. Finals are coming up this June 21st!
So a few days later I put a little paint on to make it stand out and go to install this new little beast for its first test runs and make sure it can stand the abuse.
Things I like about this design so far.
It can be carried and transported, each beam weighs about 12-15lbs(w rungs) so if you want to take it to a friends and strap/screw it down you can.
The rungs are straight forward and simple to construct, therefore easier to replace if broken.
Varied gap distances can be changed in a matter of seconds weather you want to make a 6", 12", 18" or 36" gap! :o
It was about 90+ degrees out when I first test the ICSL. All rungs were set to a 12" gap. An the bar felt about 100 degrees hot on touching it. If you watch the video you see after the my first leap I fail me second this is due to a flaw in the current design.
The 4" spaces inbetween rungs were splitting due to the pressure when swinging, leaping, and landing on the . rung. This was causing the rungs to slip and actually drop about 1-2" and sliding out. Not good! So I've come up with a new modification to add to the design to make it stronger and hopefully should do the trick. I will need to cut all new rungs though :/ Thank God they are all fairly easy to make though unlike the Koi Rungs.
Yes another NEW version of the salmon ladder. This was a inspiration from the Koi Ladder and its engineering. I saw the ability to easily exchange it rungs in and out an wanted to convey that into a traditional Salmon Ladder type. So came the Interchangeable Salmon Ladder (ICSL)
This design is built off the traditional dimensions and measurements of the ladder except it rungs are easily removable. They can be slid in and out to make any sort of combination of gaps in 6" increments in under a minute!
This is simply done with good design and engineering. Here are a few progressive photos from its build.
I will be making this ladders blueprints available and a video series will be put out on its steps of construction before the end of June.
Surprising enough this is what I think is the first true full size Barrel Roll I've seen built. If you can find another I would love to see it. Just place the link in the comments below. Heres a walk through and basic explanation of it. Its not 100% complete in this video yet.
In this video I have two clips of my testing the Barrel Roll. One without the new 6ft walk out platform and the second clip with the new platform. I added this in cause the total length of the rolling barrel would be too long and speed would be to great towards the end. Now you have about 16ft of rolling space.
Today was a recover and maintenance day. Thad came and new arrival Tyler Perry came to help with week whacking and moving wood and debris off the ground. We were clearing out about 20ft in all directions and racking all of it up. Alot of work about 3hrs in we called it a day(finished about 90%) and here in this video is some fun things that ensued soon after ;)
So its about two weeks out till Denver, CO has their turn at the ANW5. Normally I wouldn't be able to make this kind of trip but with some help from the people in my life and the CrossFit box I work out of, they are helping raise money for my trip and I do not want to disappoint! So Denver has a different elevation, a bit higher than where I'm use to coming from Central California. How is the best way to train and pre-pair my body for that elevation? Here it is...
At higher elevation there is less pressure. Less pressure to force the oxygen into your lungs and system so the build up of acid in your muscles will be quicker. You will feel more tired and wont be able to perform as long as your use too. Plus the course takes about 1 to 2 minutes to complete. So I'm going to give you a few tips here on how to help charge your system for the course.
Condition:
There are many great ways to do conditioning. CrossFit being one of them, but I'm not here to tote for CrossFit. The best way to get your body conditioned, in a short amount of time is to help reduce the speed at which the acid begins to build by doing Interval Training.
Running or rowing: 1 minute on, 1 minute off. For 6 to 10 rounds. Give your MAX effort for that 1 minute and then rest 1 minute. If you can do this well without getting tired to much (or without seeing a decrease in your average round) decrease your rest time by 10-15 seconds.
For more specific training I suggest going TABATA. This type of training can be applied to pullups, bar holds, box jumps, and any other type of movement you can perform on the course. *TABATA is a very specific format of working out. 20s of max effort work, followed by 10s of rest, do 8 rounds of that one movement and then move to the next. Usually you see TABATA is grouped with 4 movements*
Here is a workout I called "TABATA Bing" that you can try. Post your total # of reps in the comments: Rowing (count total meters) Pullups(kipping allowed) Back Squats at 95lbs Deadlift Hold w/ Fat Bar at 155lbs (count only seconds held. after bar drops do not pick it back up till your next set)
This type of conditioning will help train your body for that 1-2 minutes of running the course. Keeping your muscles from tiring too soon, cramping up, and keeping your heart rate down. PLUS drink lots of water!!
Eating:
We all know diet is a huge part of how we perform! I just wanted to let you on to a recent scientific study found about Spinach. It is more of super food than we actually knew, no its not all the iron in it! An also Creatine is a big part of buffering your system to prevent muscle fatigue.
Researches have found that eating a minimum of 3 cups(or about 300g) a day for 3 days can increase your cells ability to take in oxygen by 3-5% which is massive in such a short period of time! Translated it will allow you to take in less oxygen for the same results and you will become not as tired as quickly during physical activity.
Creatine Monohydrate, one of the most research supplements out there and proven. What it can do for you will increase that amount of times you can give your max effort. More explosive jumps, longer grip hold, and so on.
Take 5 grams twice a day. Morning and night or 30 minutes before a workout and with a post workout shake. If you keep this up your system should have a larger amount of stored creatine needed to help give you an extra edge.
How does Canam Productions for American Ninja Warrior choose submission?
I know I wondered this when I thought I put out a killer video for this season 5 of ANW. I talked to one of the casting agents at Canam and asked, "Why was my video not chosen? Was there something wrong or didn't include? Is there something I should be marketing myself more towards?" and this is the response I got.
Paraphrasing here: "Jason we looked through every single video and for your region there was alot. Somewhere around 2000 and yours was up there among the best we picked. You had a really good video so we picked it among others and then we gave it to the producer. The producer looks over the videos and tells us which ones he wants. I'm sorry" I asked if they knew what kind of things he looks for. I just got a blank answer and saying that they don't really know.
So I was sorta shocked to hear that my video was held very high, felt honored to but didn't get picked. But as was said its a two step process. The main casting agents(Canam) do simply that cast out for potential contestants for the show. However it is not their decision who gets on, it is fully up to the Producer and whatever personality or skills hes looking for to qualify those top 100+ invites to the show.
Honestly I should have already known this seeing its exactly how it works in the walk on spots. They film around and the producers picks who he would like out of the line.
After I talked about this I asked if there was any possibly way I could get an invite to Denver? I was told it would be a really hard region to get an invite in but I did have a good video. Its just the producer rejected my video once what will keep him from doing it again? So they put my video in at the pot of videos for the Denver region. From what I was just told today Canam is finishing their call backs next week. I'll hang on tight and see if it all comes through. If not?
Its alright, I'm going to go for a walk on too so lets see how this all plays out!
Train hard my friends and if your not already from that region or high of elevation start conditioning and acclimating yourself to that environment. PS: Elevation masks wont help. They will simply allow you to burn more calories because your taking in less oxygen. You need to increase oxygen intake not decrease it!
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We made a point to focus on stage 1 type obstacles where we first started. The logic was you need to get past the first stage before you get to any of those upper body crazy obstacle. So why build them right off the bat. Start off with the basics and once you have a decent Stage 1 built, then begin on your 2nd and 3rd stage.
So a few days later I put a little paint on to make it stand out and go to install this new little beast for its first test runs and make sure it can stand the abuse.
So I was sorta shocked to hear that my video was held very high, felt honored to but didn't get picked. But as was said its a two step process. The main casting agents(Canam) do simply that cast out for potential contestants for the show. However it is not their decision who gets on, it is fully up to the Producer and whatever personality or skills hes looking for to qualify those top 100+ invites to the show.