“Regional Leagues” by Ken Auer

In the last few years, we’ve seen the growth of Regional Leagues that provide a good entry to the sport for beginners as well as those who just want to limit travel in order to participate. There are a half dozen or more regional leagues in various areas of the nation where there are a reasonable amount of Ninja Gyms within a few hours of each other.
At this point, the Regional Leagues all formed and act independently of each other and each decides on its own set of rules.  We suspect that, over the long haul, there may be some way where the regional leagues feed into some larger organization directly, but that is not yet on the drawing board of any significant party that we know.

Our Ninja Carolina League is in its 4th season.  We adopted the basic rules of the now defunct Athlete Warrior Games – which adopted its rules from one of the Australian leagues.  We feel these rules work well for both beginners and more advanced athletes, giving progress points as an athlete progresses through the obstacles.  We also provide both beginner and advanced divisions for all age groups which do not yet exist in the more established leagues for any age but adults.  We believe this will be a trend as athletes new to the sport are not capable of competing with accomplished athletes who have been at it for several years, and that eventually, there may be several recognized levels of athletes with competitions identified for each level.

Right now, Rock Solid Warrior has defined its own levels with tests to advance to different levels.  We generally recommend that levels 2 and 3 are ready for beginner competitions and the more advanced competitors are what we define as level 4 and above.