Why your kids want to be ninjas, how to let them

Sioux Falls is ahead of the curve when it comes to ninjas.

The city has a dedicated ninja warrior training gym started by someone who competed on the TV show “American Ninja Warrior.”

Kids as young as 3 can attend Little Ninja camps at a local studio.

And, earlier this year, the Sioux Falls Sky Zone Trampoline Park became the first Sky Zone in the nation to have a two-story “little ninja” exhibit for kids 13 and younger, with special times reserved for toddlers.

Basically, if your child of any age wants to be a ninja, there’s a place to go. But why are kids so ninja-crazy?

“I think it’s just the fact that they get to be a little wild and crazy with their bodies,” said Miranda Fox, owner of The Studio 605, which hosts regular Little Ninja camps for kids. “They can jump. They can run. They can roll. They can do their karate chops. They think it’s really cool.”

Ninja obstacle courses satisfy the natural human instinct to want to climb and to push physical limitations, said Lacy Steinberg, who owns 605 Ninja with her husband, Jason, who competed on “American Ninja Warrior.”

“We don’t see this as a fad,” Steinberg said. “Kids are always interested in this kind of stuff, it’s just never been presented in this form before.”

She likens ninja obstacle courses to jungle gyms, and those aren’t going out of fashion anytime soon either.

The ninja warrior phenomenon also isn’t just for kids. Adults can train at 605 Ninja,  the only full ninja warrior gym in the state, and participate in competitions, use it as a form of physical fitness or just do the obstacles for fun.

At Sky Zone, though, the new ninja exhibit is specifically geared for young children and toddlers.

It teaches kids about hand-eye coordination and gives them a space to play and do obstacles separate from the older kids, general manager Ryan Sabers said.

“We didn’t have a whole lot of toddler areas here at Sky Zone,” he said. “Parents love that their kids can do it (the little ninja exhibit), and it doesn’t involve the bigger kids.”

Whatever the age, ninja courses provide an opportunity to get active and safely push physical limits.

“It’s safe for them and fun to burn off some energy,” Fox said.

It’s also the kind of solo sport that kids – and adults – can get into as much or as little as they’d like. It can be as simple as trying out a one-time class or as complex as competing on the national level and auditioning for the popular TV shows.

“Ninja is designed to be whatever people want it to be,” Steinberg said. “It can either be just for fun, it can be learned as a sport, it can be playtime or learned for fitness.”