When Concord entrepreneur Dale Grant was first approached with the idea of creating a “Ninja Challenge” gym over a decade ago, he had no idea where the venture would end up.

Ninja-based sports, which are equal parts gymnastics, obstacle course, track and field and climbing gym, have continued to grow in popularity. Now, with the expansion of the USA Pentathlon to include obstacle course racing, Grant’s USA Ninja Challenge gym in Concord is poised to train new levels of athletes in an emerging area of sport.

A few years back, after evaluating 62 proposals to replace equestrian show jumping in the pentathlon, the International Olympic Committee landed on “obstacle discipline” for the 2028 L.A. Summer Olympics.

The modern pentathlon includes the events of swimming, fencing, pistol shooting, running and now obstacle racing, which is most similar to a Ninja Challenge style course.

Grant believes the expansion of the competition will further legitimize the sport and provide avenues for the kids to continue to build and lead healthy lifestyles and to compete at the highest level in a sport they love. Moreover, it will hopefully attract parents and kids who don’t quite fit into a traditional team sport format.

“I think parents now are looking for, ‘How can I develop a well-rounded child?’ In our mind, it’s school, sports and music,” Grant said. “We can be the sports part, then they’re actually getting a very well-rounded physical education as well.”

Enter the Ninja

Grant, a structural engineer, was inspired by a friend who showed him a video of a kid going through an obstacle course and the rising popularity of the TV show American Ninja Warrior. With a background in gymnastics, he started to develop “ninja” curriculum and obstacles. In March 2015, he opened the first USA Ninja Challenge location with his co-founder Richard Knight.

Gyms similar to it have now opened up around the country, and they focus on training boys and girls ages 4 to 17. Here in Concord, the gym offers six levels of mastery of the sport that all “build children’s self-esteem, confidence and sense of accomplishment, one obstacle at a time.”

They teach students how to work on and use rings, balance obstacles and tumbling surfaces, cargo nets, traverse walls, slack lines, ropes, ladders and warp walls. They teach conditioning, strength, flexibility and all-around athleticism.

“The gymnastics gym in the next town over is not our competition. Soccer is our competition. Baseball in the spring for boys is our competition,” Grant said. “So we work together for Ninja, much like we did with gymnastics, just to promote the sport for the betterment of everybody.”

Ninja competitions incorporate a type of obstacle course racing that requires athletes to use elements of gymnastics, climbing, cross training and track and field to demonstrate balance, endurance, strength and skill.

Competitions were first popularized by a Japanese TV show called Sasuke and exploded tremendously in America since American Ninja Warrior has since become a game show classic.

New levels

The modern pentathlon has undergone vast changes since its first iteration in ancient Greece and has become one of the most challenging multisport competitions at the Olympics. After concerns over the safety of horses and contestants alike, the Olympic committee adopted the changes to appeal to a younger audience, stay in line with the spirit of the pentathlon and add new dynamism to the competition.

Kevin Montford, CEO of USA Pentathlon, explained that many pentathletes start with one sport and branch out into others. The reconfiguring of the Olympic competition will allow current members to easily add this new discipline while garnering more interest from new athletes by attracting obstacle course racers.

It’s also led to new partnerships like the one between USA Ninja, Grant’s Ninja Challenge and the USA Pentathlon Multisport Olympic Team.

“We’re all sad to see the horses go, it’s a big part of our history, but you have to evolve,” Montford said. “You have to keep moving forward and being in the Olympic games is extremely important to our sport.”

Grant and Montford see plenty of promise in the expansion of the Pentathlon. Now, Ninja athletes can crossover with other disciplines and have new levels of competition to work toward.

“There might be some potential to really grow our membership base through those types of events, our umbrella events, our sister sports events, but the pentathlon, it’s such a demanding sport,” Montford said.

Alexander Rapp can be reached at arapp@cmonitor.com.