A bird's eye view of what the obstacles of your day will look like! Are you ready?
Obstacle 1: Quadruple steps:
Any american ninja warrior fan knows this one all too well. This skill is the equivalent of the tic tac in parkour. It teaches you the ability to spring off of an obstacle that is slightly angled and starts the race.
Obstacle 2: The Gravity Deck:
This is a series of vaults designed to go over, under, or on top of depending on your skill level or the direction of the arrows on the posts that day. They are ever changing for competition purposes. The detour to this deck is the parallel bars. Designed to strengthen the core and practice straight arms to strengthen the "block" needed for parkour or gymnastics, this obstacle you can get creative. swing it, crawl it, straddle it, or if you really want a challenge do a parkour balance walk on it! You decide.
Obstacle 3: The Gravity Wall:
This is where we "challenge gravity"! There are three ways to challenge. 1) Use the rope to walk up the face and onto the ledges. 2) Challenge yourself at the next level by climbing the face with no rope or 3) Do a cat leap from the gravity deck and land at the top with a pop up. Know your obstacle skill level and go for it. Once on top...the fastest way down is fireman style. Down the pole you go!
Obstacle 4: Tire slalom:
Remember the old school football drills. This one is knees up with precision landing on the toes. Speed , balance, and agility is the name of this game.
Obstacle 5: Tire wall:
As if running through tires was not enough, time to climb. You can go up and over the tire ladder or take the detour through center tire. It is the marked black tire in the middle labeled detour and if you are going for speed a parkour dive and precision role is the ticket.
Obstacle 6: Ova-unda wall:
This is the first 7 foot wall you encounter and is designed to either popup and over it as quickly as possible or skirt under in a hurry. Style points on this one if you can look cool vaulting it!
Obstacle 7: "Rays-Up" (salmon) ladder:
Again ANW fans, another piece from the show, the classic salmon ladder. This obstacle uses skill and strength to raise up higher and higher upon each rung to get to the 10 foot height where you then transition to the leap of faith scaffolding. This one may take practice so there is a mini Rays-Up ladder in the waiting area out of bounds to practice your technique while you wait. There is a detour to this obstacle and it is marked. it is the cargo ladder. This is to be scaled from the bottom side of the ladder until you reach the x at the underside of the mini-walls deck. Little ones may be better suited to just climb the topside here.
Obstacle 8: The Cat Walk:
This is a skateboard grindrail 16 feet long designed to work on balance. This is one you may want to take your time at first, but the real skill is in running this....fast!
Obstacle 9: Monkey bars:
Not your schoolyard bars, 14 foot long till the end. This builds upper body strength and coordination. Want more of a challenge, use the door knobs on the outside or the finger crawl on the inside...can you say grip strength!
Obstacle 10: Spider Crawl:
Old school mudrun and military. Get low. Crawl. and oh yeah...don't let any other part of your body except hands and feet touch the ground soldier! Spiderman pushups build this kind of power.
Obstacle 11: (coming soon!) Spider Wall:
The 3rd installment from american ninja warrior and a childhood favorite. Wedge yourself between two walls and climb to the top. Once up, reach out to the two bars and get to the downspout to slide down the pole as quickly as you can.
Obstacle 12: Plyo-Run:
3 plyoboxes, 3 different heights; one goal. Jump on or over them fast. This is a great time to rejuvenate the upper body while running the next 3 obstacles.
Obstacle 13: Tire Tramp U-turn:
This is a tarzen rope off of a tire trampoline with the intentions to land on top of the U-turn barrier. Simple enough right?
Obstacle 14: Beast Mode:
This is where you get to make up speed and dig deeper. This is the final sprint to the end. Use this lane to gain speed and trigger a mindset to beast out!
Obstacle 15: Tire Kong:
This is a 3 row tire vault. The fastest way over is a parkour kong vault, but there is other ways. Just get over it....fast, and don't look back.
Obstacle 16: Cat Vault:
This is the perfect time to engage your inner cat. Leap and land and then pop-up and over as smoothly as possible. The detour here is to the left and it is a midvault. This is again all about style!
Obstacle 17: Deadly Rival Warp Wall:
You can see the checkered flag....but can you reach it? This is why you are here. Get to the top of this 14 foot wall and you earn the respect of your inner competitor. Not ready to go all in...no worries. Take the detour. 8 foot mini wall. Great job! way to Playtuff!