Bouldering vs Ninja Warrior

Rock climbing and ninja warrior have a fair amount in common, with both requiring upper body strength, grip, endurance, coordination and the ability to execute committing movement and often in a high pressure environment. I thought it would be interesting to take four ninja warriors to the climbing gym and go head to head in a climber vs ninja warrior showdown to see how well ninja skills translate into climbing. We picked out five folders and the ninjas had the chance to figure out the problems as a team and climb them in relay whereas I only had a couple of goes to try to get my boulder climbed. Here's how I got on. It looks like he's got some cheeky crimpy holes and some nice little footwork so far we'll go for that one. So reds at the depot are the three to five. So they are pretty tricky and not easy to flash. So Ash has laid the gauntlet down a little, I would say. Don't expect that to keep up. I am quite nervous, I won't lie. I'm keeping up, I'm keeping up so far, this is good. You spotted this, I didn't use this at all. I stand here, you stood here, so you might have stood there. Ninja instinct, you can just jump through everything. I suppose so. If you guys come to sit, does that mean I have to come to sit? Yeah, of course, obviously. Right, okay, this could get interesting. So it's your pick. This is my pick, I picked this blue. Red's my favourite colour, don't ask me what I picked. Right, here we go. You have to come to sit, only hands, no feet. Okay. Stems the rules. Go on. Yeah, come on. Yes, come on, come on. I heard a rumour Henry. Yeah? Is it true that you don't believe in chalk? I don't believe in chalk, yeah. I don't know if me and you are going to get along. As a Ninja Warrior veteran and lover, chalk is the enemy. Yeah, because chalk's not allowed on the show at all, no. Do you think that it makes a difference with Ninja? I think so, yeah. I think if you train with chalk and you're used to having chalk all the time, when you come to Ninja and you can't use chalk, then yeah, you're a ghost. I also think training without chalk makes your hands stronger and longer. Yeah. I can put this off. Before we get into my campus challenge, I wanted to have a quick word from the sponsor of today's video, which is Squarespace. I've been working with Squarespace for the last year, but I've been using their services for far, far longer. I've used them pretty much ever since I had my first website and I just love how easy they make it to maintain a professional-looking online presence. Recently, Nathan and I have been running our small shop. If you saw the launch of that last week from our Squarespace website, and we've just been finding the whole process so easy as Squarespace handles shipping and fulfilment and taxes and payments and checkout and more, all in one place. If that sounds like something that you need in your life, then head over to www.squarespace.com forward slash HannahMorris and then when you are ready to launch your own website or domain, use the unique code HannahMorris for 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. So thanks very much for listening to the sponsor of this video and now back to the depot and climbing with the ninjas. There. Wow. Nice technique. Big reach. Go on, away. Right, good use of momentum. She's swinging to get her height. Go on, nice. Oh, she's getting there. Go on, yes. Last move. You can do this in turn if you want. You can match and go if you want. There we go, she's got it. Go on, yeah. So this one was more of like a ninja challenge. Yeah. Or like a parkour challenge to run, step off the wooden wall. Right. Turn around two feet on top and then go straight to the blue. But I have no idea what it's going to look like here. For me, like these trainers, well they're not even trainers. They're not going to stick to the walls like I'm used to with parkour. Yeah. I'm happy to give it a go. See if we can black it and make it look like it's something. Yeah. You've got to really commit, like you've got to run at the wall. And like, I do this a lot in my climbing. I like approach that kind of running jump move like that. Yeah, I like, I've already decided before I even set off that it's not going to happen. So I'm just like, I'll touch it. And that's it. Yay. I've got a touch, yeah. I've got two hands on it. That means I've won, doesn't it? I've got two hands. Yes, I did it. One nil card. One nil ninjas. Okay, now I get to pick an order. Second attempt. I think we should. Like a penalty for not attempting. What do you think? Okay, yeah. Go on then. Oh, did you give her a hint? I think we should try this cake. No. Because I get the feeling that it could be Ash's project. So I'm playing dirty now. Now that I'm like playing catch up. So I found through my experience with Ninja Warrior through climbing that climbers make amazing ninjas but ninjas don't really make amazing climbers because they have so many grip types in climbing we just don't have in ninja. You think of the cliffhanger as being like a half crimp but it's not because there is a little bit of a lip on it. It's kind of a jug. Whereas if you look at these edges here, they're very crimpy. So wherever there's any sort of technique involved, you end up going straight down. Yeah. Wish me luck. Yeah, you got it. You're having a strong climb. I'm not quite sure how to start this one either. It might be a bit unconventional. Yeah? We'll see. You got it. Come on. Ninja. Yeah, come on. Yeah. There's nothing on that next hold, whether it's the angle I'm climbing at or I don't feel as if when I take my hand off the third hold that I've got anything to hold on to either. So if someone can out-technique me, I shall take my hat off. What are you thinking? I'm thinking game plans. I'm thinking which techniques to use. I don't know, I just like the whole dino-campus thing. Yeah, it looked cooler. Yeah, no feet, all ninja. Yeah. So we're thinking Henry's got a span here. So we can get onto that. Span across. Yeah, so strong. Come on. Yeah, come on. I've never seen Izzy look nervous before. Norma, she's so casual. Nice. Is he going? Yeah, come on. Strong. Come on. Go on. Oh, great effort. Feeling the pressure? I'm feeling like I'm not a technical climber. I like to jump in dino, but I feel these edges. Is this where, like, experiencing ninja comes in handy in these high-pressure environments where you're like... Not in technical climbs, no. No? I don't heel hook. I don't toe tipsy or whatever. Toe tipsy? It's in your tail. It's fine. OK, let's go for it. Let's see what happens. You've got it. Come on. Yeah, come on. Yeah, I was looking at this, and I thought, there's no chance of me spanning from here to here with my feet. Yeah. There's no flexibility for that. I thought I could hold on to the wall, squeeze it in any way to get to a jump. I bet you've got that. Yeah, definitely. You're right foot in there. So technically, going by your rules, we can start from up there. Yeah. We can all start from up there and try and get it. Getting there is the hard bit. So you could climb into the penultimate hold on the down part. Feeling confident? No. No, you definitely could. Definitely. I could just feel my fingers peeling away. I was like this. Trying to stay on top. Never mind. Is that progress on your... Oh, yeah, definitely. I've never made it to the penultimate hold before, so. Perfect. Happy with that. Have you always just done ninja or did you start with gymnastics? My background is acrobatic gymnastics. Yeah, you can tell. You can tell. Watching your flexibility, I'm like, wow. I did that for about seven or eight years. Yeah, OK. And I joined these amazing people in ninja sports. Yeah. It's really good. Yeah, I feel like a lot of climbers come from gymnastics. Really? And it serves them really, really well. It helps them a lot. So much flexibility. Flexibility. Last go, best go. Exactly what you did last time. You looked so focused. I'm just thinking, do we need to go to these at the top? Or if I was to hold on to this one? Are you thinking jump to the top? Try and get the feet over. And then go for it. And do we just need to touch with two hands? Or do we need to hold it? Because I could probably dino cheat and touch it. Hold it in control. Yeah. Hold it in control. See, control is my problem. For ten seconds. Ten seconds. For an hour. Then do a pull up on it. Then muscle up on it. Then do a backflip off it. And then you've got it. Okay, so finish with a backflip. Yeah. Tactical. What's the word? Tactical advantage going down here. Scheming. Yeah. But in the spirit of the competition, I'm not going to listen. I can get to your last position, which was there and there, wasn't it? Yeah. And then I'll try and stretch over from there. What's the grip like at the top? Not great. It feels like the further you go up, the harder it is to hold on to it. See, this is the part where she goes out to get the climbing tools to make it easier. Saving experience. Over cheating. Just pure brawn. It's like, I'm going to dust it. I'm going to chalk it in. That's special chalk, that. It's an extra grip. It's stupidly hard. Cheating, yeah. So I think I'm going to go. I read it differently because I'm not as comfortable or as confident compassing things. Okay. I think I'm going to go for the toe hook. Start. And see how that plays out. Yeah. Good. I reckon you should compass because we compassed. It's not a good hold to compass to. Who added the holds in? Watch that yellow. It's human. What happened? That hold's not good, is it? No. You get one more go and we go to the head. Oh no. I'm not too confident. No, I think we should be getting it on the second go. I see what you mean about, like, am I allowed to brush the big hold? Up to you. What's that? Up to me. If you want to cheat yourself, then you can cheat yourself. Yeah, if it feels like cheating, it must be. I'm going to do it. Who's got the butter? Okay, let's butter it up. From our viewpoint as well, if she goes for the same technique again, it shows that we were doing it wrong from the start. That's not how it's supposed to be done. Whereas if she goes for something completely different, we won't feel so bad about ourselves. Dinos. I think because you guys are so confident, like, hanging around for a long time, you can... It's not so much of an endurance problem for you guys. Whereas for me, if I just use my arms, by the time I get to, like, the third hold, I won't be able to hold on to anything. So that's why I use my, like, toes and my heels to take things off my arms. I think it's more that we just don't know how to use our toes and our heels. It'd be interesting. You guys should try it with the toes. The one toe was fine, it's when both toes went, and I was like, wow! What is this? What is this witchcraft? We won a point! Another point! Good effort though. Thank you. It's amazing watching you climb, like, actual technique and, like, wedging your... I can't do all that stuff. That should be your next T-shirt. Give the toe a go. Send it to all the ninjas. Yeah, come on. Next. I'm going to give it a toe. Yeah? Give the toe a go. You should stop smoking. I don't smoke. Come on. Yeah. And then I give it up there? No, I think you can go with your hands first, and then... Yeah. Bring the left... Yeah. Come on. So much harder. Come on. Nice. Come on. Yeah. Yeah, come on. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. We're just going for gold now. Just... Competition's out the window. I'm still in competition, but I don't know about you guys. Come on. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Nice. Yeah, really nice. Come on. You're too big. Do you think there's a way for you to double dino this time? Yeah, possibly. I was thinking more like... Yeah, like geckos. We could just like Spider-Man to the top. See, we're nearly there. Yeah, these in. They are for your feet. Yeah, this is definitely not my game. Go on, you got it. Stand up first. Press yourself in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That thumb is doing nothing. Thumb, thumb. He does this. That's not a grip you get in Ninja. No. Tag in, Izzy. Go on, Izzy. I wonder if the foot needs to be the other way around too. So you can maybe get your right foot on here. That makes sense. Stretch. And then we've got two that we swap feet over. Wow. Strong, come on. So good. So the hard bit for me will be the easy bit for you. Come on, Izzy. Yeah, a bit higher, a bit higher, a bit higher. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, so good. Come on. Stretch, stretch, stretch. That was great. Great attempt. So that means we could start from here. Nice. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Okay, so where am I starting from? Two feet on there. I was not trusting. Huh? Oh, yes. Come on. Get the printy one. Yeah. Woohoo. Well done. I thought that'd be easy going from there. Halfway up, but it wasn't. This is your opportunity. Yeah, usually I like this kind of climb. I like small, crimpy holes. I feel like because I'm maybe not, or for a long time climbing, I wasn't like physically the most strong. I kind of developed good, but that might all be about to fall apart. The hair's going up. It's getting serious now. Oh, the hair's getting tied up a little bit. Not over yet. Amazing. That's really hard. One of these. Thank you very much. Thank you. Well done. Thanks. Oh, I had the shape, like proper shapes at the time. There's something in Henry about this. This is our walk wall. Spin around this way, Ash. So here at Ninja Warrior, we've got a walk wall. So we're going to tic-tac off this one, run up, try and catch the top. Yeah, it's going to be fun being a little bit shorter than this guy, but let's see what we can do. How's it make you feel? Well, for context, if you don't climb at the depot, the yellows are like one beneath the hardest set. So, yeah, like I'm a bit mind blown, to be honest. So, that brings to an end our ninjas fairly safely say that these guys are pretty good climbers and absolutely thrashing it. So I think we decided that the scores on the doors were six points to two. So I... What, I only managed two? No, you didn't. You counted them. Six to four. Yeah, so as a team, these guys go out of the water. And I've got a lot of thinking to do. I think your compass challenge that's where I came in first place. That was amazing. I was really impressed. Thank you. No, I love guys, you're all very, very good climbers. You can tell that I've got the strength. And that's all. And this. So, yeah, I was very impressed and it was really a great point that I made. I'm going to leave each of your social media links in the description of this video so go and make sure you check them out. Also Facebook for ninja, like, flying, coordinating stuff that I just came up with. Yeah, thank you very much for watching and I'll see you in my next video. Thank you for having us. And watch this space for me potentially going and trying to do ninja rowing. Yes. Ninja challenges, yeah. Let's go.