Mt. Laurel man competes to be a ninja

By Sean Patrick Murphy

Chris Wilczewski wants to make it to the top.

The 22 year-old Mount Laurel native placed third at the recent American Ninja Warrior contest preliminaries in Los Angeles.

Because the contest has yet to air, Wilczewski is keeping mum about the final results.

Wilczewski said his younger brother was the person who first got him into the original Japanese show, “Ninja Warrior.”

“We always watched the Japanese one on G4 and wanted to compete but before American Ninja Warrior there was no way for Americans to compete aside from moving to Japan,” Wilczewski said.

Then last summer his brother showed him that G4 was accepting submission videos to get a chance to compete in American Ninja Warrior.

“We both thought it was a long shot but we decided to film various Parkour, free running and feats of strength and send it in just to see and sure enough I got invited to go to L.A. and compete on the show,” Wilczewski said.

According to Wilczewski, the Ninja Warrior show in Japan will hold its 27th competition. The American Ninja Warrior competition is designed to replicate the grueling obstacle in Japan.

Only the best are selected from 1,000 video submissions to compete on the course. The contest is held in Los Angeles and the competitors usually include professional stuntmen, gymnasts, and professional athletes.

Wilczewski said the contest set up is simple. There are three rounds. A preliminary round, a semi-final round, and a final round.

In the preliminary round approximately 500 competitors run through an obstacle course all trying to get the fastest time. The competition is extremely steep and usually only a few seconds separates the competitors and all of the 500 are trying to make the top 30 spots to move on to the semi-finals. During the semi-finals the top 30 run an extended course and the top 15 finalist are chosen to compete in a boot camp where they will compete against each other for a chance to be one of the 10 to compete in Japan.

This year the obstacle course included quad steps, a log grip, bridge of blades, jump hang, jumping bars, and a warped wall.

Wilczewski said he would “definitely” consider American Ninja Warrior a sporting event.

“The competition requires skill, coordination, and unbelievable upper body strength and endurance,” he said. “It also requires the athletes to be well rounded.

“For example you can have phenomenal upper body conditioning but if your legs aren’t strong you will never make it past the warped wall of if you have great lower body strength and your upper body isn’t as conditioned you will surely fall off one of the later grip strength obstacles,” Wilczewski added.

He said last year he only trained for six months going into it, finished in 10th place in the preliminaries but lost in the semi-finals by falling off the salmon ladder.

“After losing last year I changed my life around dramatically to prepare myself better for this year’s competition: I stopped drinking completely, started eating extremely healthy and training every day to stay focused so I wouldn’t fall short again,” Wilczewski said. “I train in Parkour, rock climbing, slack lining, and yoga to help prepare me for the contest.”

Preparing mentally, however, is sometimes more difficult.

“I think the hardest part of the competition is dealing with the anxiety of the pressure going up to the competition,” he said. “It usually becomes very hard for me to sleep the nights right before I actually run the course.

“You can train all year long and be 100 percent ready but one miss placed step and you could be falling into the water,” Wilczewski said.

He’s also in it for the long haul.

“I will be competing in this for as long as the competition lasts,” Wilczewski said. “It is an amazing competition with amazing competitors and as long as I am physically able to compete I will continue competing.”

A student at Burlington County Community College, Wilczewski is studying in hopes to be a gym teacher some day. The name of the business he and his brother use to teach classes from is the Warrior Lab. Wilczewski is also a personal trainer certified by American Aerobic Association International/International Sports Medicine Association (AAAI/ISMA) and both he and his brother are certified Parkour trainers from ADAPT.