I dropped in to my first-ever Ninja class at the Movement Lab last night. It was a free class for signing up for emails from them. I was crazy nervous as I'm 36 and never had any experience with obstacle training, so I showed up an hour early and sat in the parking lot.
Getting signed in was far quicker than expected and almost non-chalant. In fact, the whole experience was extremely open and non-structured - too non-structured for a first timer.
Once it was confirmed that I couldn't sue by way of waiver, I was practically free to do what I felt like. To most, this is probably preferable, but not to a newb - and a slightly introverted one at that.
Dana was incredibly nice and welcoming. She gave me a tour (which I desperately needed) and made me feel relaxed and like I belonged. (The other two guys that i interacted with that worked there were fake nice and definitely gave off an egotistic sense of superiority and came off stuck up) Dana informed me that the class would be open, but that we might run to warm up. It turned out to basically blur together with the earlier Parkour class and was pretty much just 15 or so people hanging out socializing and radomly doing obstacles as the felt like it.
That approach is extremely not beginner friendly. Their website and their waiver make it sound like there is a specific approach to getting beginners introduced to Ninja training. What I needed was more structure and guided introductions to some of the less intense obstacles so that I can build my confidence.
I even expected we'd be doing some core work like I've seen guys like Sam Sann doing with his students. I definitely needed some instructions on how to specifically train at home to train up for the obstacles. I'm in good shape for a beginner, but doing an ab and pull-up regemin in the mornings and P90x in the evenings is apparently not what I need to be doing because I struggled mightily. I had some success with the hand ladder and ledge hang, but was embarrassing with the peg board and the few others I tried.
I desperately wanted to see how I'd fare at the salmon ladder and warped wall as both have been major life goals, but I didn't want to be the moron who can't do half the obstacles and just rumbles up the warped wall looking like he doesn't belong there.
I ended up bailing early as I realized there would be no instruction and I was basically thrown in to the deep end. I knew it'd probably end that way when they invited me to join in at the end of the Parkour class and just start doing forward flips and land on my feet on a cushion. I knew right there that they didn't know or care where I was at with things. I've never done a flip in my life. Not even when I was like most of them. 20 some years ago and made out of rubber.
I'm very sad, because I desperately wanted to take a good first step and I feel like I wasn't given a proper introduction beyond a tour. It seems like they will probably lose out on my $170 a month because I'm likely too embarrassed to go back after bailing.
I would recommend having a beginners class or at least offer some individual instruction for a price for first timers. Not everyone was a track star in school (football) and not everyone was priveleged enough to take gymnastics or had access to the same things when they were younger. I'm sure you do great with the younger ages, but I'd say you need to put more focus on bringing adults with zero experience along. Because, based on my experience last night, it felt more like you don't want my demographic as a customer. read more