Guinness Warrior May Get TV Face Time

Ron Cooper and his wife, Katie, traveled to Miami earlier this year to compete in the Northeast Regional competition of the television show American Ninja Warrior.

The Northeast Regional airs tonight on G4 and continues Monday night on NBC.

Ron said he is not at liberty to say how he and his wife did in the competition but parts of it will air the next two nights.

Ron, of Marblehead, knows how he did in his attempt to set a Guinness World Record in February.

He did 36 pull-ups in 60 seconds at the Lynch van Otterloo YMCA. 

He was told last month that he officially set the world record for most pull-ups in a minute.

Later, he and Katie, who are well-conditioned athletes, decided to give Ninja a whirl. 

Ninja is a challenging obstacle course that tests competitors' strength, agility and endurance.

Ron tells us that there are 6 regions and the 150 top athletes from each region are invited to compete.  The top 30 athletes from each region competes in the regional finals, which air the following Monday nights on NBC.  

Then the top 15 from each region plus 10 "wild card" athletes go to Las Vegas to compete in the main competition, which is 4 stages of obstacle course bliss, he said. 

Ron and Katie keep themselve quite fit. Late last year in Swampscott they came in first in the men's and women's categories in the. 

Here's an earlier Q&A we had with Patch's favorite local ninja:

Are you training specifically for Ninja? If so, what are you doing?

Definitely. I'm doing a lot of different types of training, as I'll be facing lots of different types of obstacles. I am doing many variations of pull up exercises, poly-metric jumping drills, running, biking, balance exercises, rock climbing, basketball and strength training. I've even started to do a little bit of free running on my own, which involves efficient movements around obstacles through running, jumping, rolling, climbing and vaulting. All very hardcore, just the way I like it. 
   
How will your mindset be the same or different for Ninja as opposed to the Guinness World Record challenge?

I will try to be in the moment, which is what I did for my Guinness World Record attempts.  

You must be excited to display your talents before a huge audience. Do you think you will be nervous?  Ultra focused?

Like Guinness, I'll probably be a bit excited, with a little bit of nerves mixed in, but mostly excited.  I'm not really doing this to display any talents I may or may not have.  I'm really doing this because I love it.  I love training for it, I love watching the competition on TV, and I love competing in obstacle course races.  It makes me feel like a kid again running, jumping, climbing and doing crazy things. A year ago, I didn't know any obstacle course races existed. Now, at age 34,  I'll be competing on national television with the best in the country to try and do something no American has ever done.  If that's not cool, I don't know what is.  

I'm curious to know what sport or individual — or member of the animal kingdom — you most identify with when competing?

 I wouldn't say I identify most with any real sport or individual or member of the animal kingdom.  I take pieces of training and competing from different times of my life, different sports, and try to put it all together.  This is such a unique activity, so it's tough to relate it to any real mainstream sport.  And the beauty of the competition is that the people who succeed are so varied.

Gymnasts, professional stuntmen (and stunt-women), and professional free runners do well, but in Japan, where this show originated and is huge, one of the few people to beat the course is a humble commercial fisherman who trains on his boat, and another is a shoe salesman.  There is no real recipe or background for success other than hard work, focusing on training specific for the obstacles, maximizing one's strength to body weight ratio, and building up grip strength.