The Ninja Fitness Zone in Moorestown celebrated its grand opening this month, when residents met Marc Schneider – known as the Mohawk Ninja – and learned more about the popular sport.
“My vision of this was to create a space where when you walked in, you couldn’t not smile,” Schneider said. “It had to be colorful, it had to be fun, and it had to make you smile.”
The decals on the walls read “Endurance, Practice, Believe to Achieve and Good Vibes Only,” among other sentiments, and were personally designed by Schneider with the help of an artist.
“Just about everything you see in here was very calculated, very thought out,” Schneider explained. “The most important thing for me is that that’s the legacy that I want to leave behind – changing lives one obstacle at a time.”
For Schneider the sport of Ninja isn’t easy and comes with more failures than successes, but his vision is for people to understand that if they work hard for it, they will see results.
“Sometimes in the sport, where you’ll try something 30, 40, 50 times to connect two obstacles or swings or whatever it may be, you may not get it that day,” he noted. “But that doesn’t mean you give up. You come back the next day or the day after and you try again and eventually you get it.”
Schneider and his daughter Madison, a coach, ran the former WOW (Will-Moor Obstacle Warriors) program at Will-Moor Gymnastics in Mount Laurel for six years before moving to a new facility in the Moorestown Field House.
“Everybody says, ‘You get to live out your dream,’” Schneider related. “I say it’s not really a dream. I don’t believe in dreaming, because if you lay on the couch and dream all day, things won’t happen.”
“If you have a vision and you make it happen, then you get to live it. So I’m living my vision.”
The Ninja Fitness Zone offers level training programs that include the Ninja Tots program, beginning at age 3; the Ninja Fit program, starting at age 6; and the Advanced Ninja Team program for kids and teens who want to train and compete.
Adult beginner to Ninja classes will be offered in the evenings. Fitness obstacles include the warped wall, devil steps, the salmon ladder and the spider climb. Last year, Moorestown native Josiah Pippel advanced to the national finals on NBC’s American Ninja Warrior for a chance to win a top prize of $1 million. He will join the team as a trainer.
“He’s got a great attitude and it fits the mold here,” Schneider said. “He wants to help with the advanced group because he wants to inspire kids to challenge themselves more.”
Schneider noted how supportive people in the Ninja community are of one another, and all he’s wanted is to influence kids who come to The Ninja Fitness Zone in a positive way. He’s looking forward to seeing members grow both individually and together.
“We’re here to change lives one obstacle at a time,” he pointed out. “That’s the legacy I want to leave behind. If you leave your children with me I will build them and they will become better Ninjas.”
“They will become better human beings, they will become better athletes and they will become better people.”
For more information on The Ninja Fitness Zone, visit https://www.ninjafitnesszone.com or its Facebook page.
