NinjaZone Academy in Geist and Westfield

What is NinjaZone and the ninja sport?

Carmel-based NinjaZone is taught in over 240 locations internationally, serving over 80,000 children aged 3-13. Parents love the character and athletic building, kid love the athletic fusion of gymnastics, martial arts, obstacle course training, and freestyle movement.

NinjaZone programs have always shared gym space with gymnastics, parkour, or cheer classes – until now. The NinjaZone Academy in Grand Park and Geist are the very first of their kind, offering Ninja classes in a specialized environment. These innovative, stand-alone facilities incorporate state of the art technology, expert trained coaches, and personalized instruction to ensure students build fundamental core athletic skills through early positive experiences.

• Children begin their NinjaZone Academy experience in “Ninja School,” a set of three introductory classes, designed to allow children to try out the program prior to enrollment.
• Ninja School is an introduction to the fundamentals of Ninja Sport where children learn essentials of safety, learn cool tricks and skills, and experience “The Rig!”, NinjaZone’s unique obstacle and climbing system.

NinjaZone Academy for Kids

Follow along as Indy with Kids editor, Tori and her son navigate the amazing extracurricular sport of NINJA! She’s blogging every month and sharing weekly on Instagram. Or, go see for yourself, NinjaZone offers great pricing on intro classes.

Demo Class at NinjaZone Academy

Tori visits NinjaZone for the first time with her six year old son, Mears. She’s sharing what she loves about the academy and the classes. Spoiler alert: they love it and Mears is now enrolled in NinjaZone.

What to expect during your first NinjaZone Class

Mears is officially a ninja! Tori shares exactly what to expect during your first NinjaZone class at the NinjaZone Academy.

Summer Camp at NinjaZone Academy

NinjaZone Academy offers a fun summer day camp option for kids ages 3-11 years old living in the Indianapolis, Geist, Carmel, Noblesville, Fishers areas.

Parents Night Out at NinjaZone Academy

Parent’s Night Out is Kid’s Night in at NinjaZone Academy! Adults can drop their children off for a few hours of open gym fun that’s supervised. Members and non-members are welcome, please register in advance.

NinjaZone as a Christmas Gift or Other Gift

Classes and membership at NinjaZone Academy are a great holiday gift or birthday gift. Children and pre-teens will learn valuable life skills while mastering the sport of ninja.

Character Development at NinjaZone Academy

It’s not just flips, and kicks and chops. The character development of each student is just as important—it might be even more important. Tori shares about the successes and triumphs that Mears is experiencing at NinjaZone Academy, in and out of the gym.

What to Expect During Your Child’s First Class at NinjaZone Academy

When I hear “ninja,” I immediately think of the black-cloaked, sword-carrying, Ninjutsu masters from the movies. Thanks to Ninjago, my son just thinks ninjas are super cool crime fighters. So when we arrived at our first ninja class at Ninja Zone Academy, neither of us was sure what to expect. So here’s the 411 on NinjaZone Academy!

Be Prepared

NinjaZone classes are very physical, expect your ninja to sweat and work hard during class. Ninjas are constantly moving, no one is ever sitting off to the side waiting for a coach or piece of equipment. Definitely bring a water bottle and we also suggest a small towel for the extra-sweaty workouts.

Class begin promptly at the scheduled time and it’s a good idea to get there a few minutes early to get your ninja settled and ready for class. If you’re new, check-in at the front desk for extra assistance. Parents are encouraged to sit and watch, and believe me, there will be many “hey mom, look at me” moments!

The Uniform

If you’re coming to a trial class or your first night, just dress your child in comfortable, lightweight athletic clothes. There are no special shoes necessary as most kids go barefoot or wear the special ninja grip socks. Cubbies are available to store shoes warmer clothes during those cold winter months.

Once your child has been enrolled a few weeks, they are required to wear the ninja uniform at each class. Like many things at Ninja Zone, the uniform is very symbolic to the young ninjas. Not only are they are responsible for their own uniform, but the uniform creates a sense of camaraderie among the ninjas and helps them to keep the focus on class.

The Creed

Although NinjaZone classes are very physical, there are many mental components to the curriculum. Each week, a new lesson from the Ninja Creed is introduced. The Creed is explained at the beginning of class and then becomes the theme of the class. The topics vary, but they all focus on building character throughout the ninja’s life. Some examples of the ninja creed include “using my ninja powers for good,” “work hard at everything I do,” and “resolving conflict.” During class, the ninjas are given examples of how to incorporate the creed into their everyday lives.

The Equipment

The first thing you’ll notice is the rig–a giant obstacle course with various climbing apparatuses. It’s very American Ninja Warrior on a slightly smaller scale. During my son’s first class, he was very interested in the ramp. Basically ninjas try to run up to get to the top and ring the buzzer. It takes several tries, but it’s quite the achievement the first time they make it up.

You’ll see a lot of gymnastics type equipment as well: trampolines, bars, mats, ropes, etc. It’s a lot to take in at first! Ninjas rotate between coaches and stations, so they have a chance to test a lot of different equipment during class.

Ninja Expectations

Ninja classes are all about focus and discipline. Listening to the coaches and following the rules are both very important and taken very seriously. Ninjas always take responsibility for their actions. When coaches are talking, ninjas are required to stand quietly in “ninja stance” which is facing forward with their hands behind their back.

The Class

For your ninja, expect to be in a class with all different ages and skill levels. The class starts with the ninja creed and then students are grouped by skill level for individualized instruction by the coaches (there are always 2-4 coaches per class). There are typically 3-4 skills introduced/practiced and each group rotates between the different stations. Classes run 50 minutes and include free-time at the end where each ninja can work on whatever they want.

The types of things the ninjas learn during class vary. It sometimes looks like gymnastics with cartwheels and flips. It sometimes looks like karate with kicks and chops. Sometimes it even look like gym class with a good ole rope climb. Ninjas develop core strength, not just physically but mentally as well.

One of my favorite parts of every class is when the students recite the NinjaZone Mantra. The coaches yell their part and the students respond with their loudest, strongest ninja voices.

Focused: Energy!

Work: Ethic!

Self: Responsibility!

For the Parents

While your ninja is in class, you have the option to leave or stay. I like to stay and watch because it’s pretty cool to see all the new ninja tricks. There is a gallery area with plenty of seating and tables, and they have WiFi. They offer a nursing mothers’ room and play area for smaller children if you need to bring any future ninjas with you.

Whew! You made it through. If you have any questions, feel free to drop us a line. Or, follow us on instagram to keep up with our weekly ninjadventures!

Five Ways NinjaZone Keeps Kids Active

When you think of Ninjas, you probably think of black-cloaked, Ninjutsu masters from the movies. But Ninja sports is one of the fastest growing sports in the United States. The craze is everywhere, and we’re lucky enough to have NinjaZone located right here in Central Indiana. Classes are physical, expect your ninja to sweat and work hard during class. Ninjas are also trained in the arts of self-control, patience, and perseverance.

As a parent, here are my top five reasons we chose NinjaZone to help keep my kids active.

A Different Sport

NinjaZone creates a solid general athletic foundation from which a child can grow. We had tried other sports, but struggled to find a good fit for my oldest, Mears. He just wasn’t that into it. We thought, “maybe he’s just not that athletic.” But we’ve found it’s about finding the right sport. The right fit, for the kid, and NinjaZone was that to my kid.

The variations of skills they practice makes it fun for the kids to learn and participate. Ninja incorporates gymnastics, martial arts, parkour, and more. So many skills to learn, there is always something different. If they don’t love the bars, there are plenty of other activities to enjoy. And, classes are never the same. Each week, the skills are the similar, but presented in different ways.

NinjaZone is an activity your child will not outgrow–classes are designed with the individual in mind. So your child learns at their pace, skills can be made easier or more difficult depending on the Ninja.

Obstacle Courses are Fun

Obstacle courses are designed for fun, fitness, and problem-solving, but can be hard to find. The Rig (the NinjaZone obstacle courses) is the centerpiece of the gym and kids are just drawn to it for all of these reasons. It’s something completely out of the ordinary and super fun, every single time they complete it.

The Rig is designed for every skill level, so if your Ninja masters the The Rig one way, there are plenty of other ways to practice. Best of all, obstacle courses like The Rig can improve cardiovascular health and increase the immune system–so important in 2020!

NinjaZone is Mental, Not just Physical

Being active in the cold months, is not just a physical problem. It can be a long time confined indoors and it’s take some patience and practice to get used to. NinjaZone helps with that too. Working on skills for many weeks, sometimes failing but always getting incrementally better teaches resilience.

NinjaZone also teaches self-control. From consistent training on Ninja stance, to the perfect form for a kick, kids learn they have control over their bodies and begin to exercise that control.

Camaraderie Not Competition

Kids are motivated by their peers. While we joined NinjaZone with mostly athletics in mind for our children, we’ve also found a safe space where our children can learn from and connect with others kids who share their same passion–Ninja sports. Students will often stop to cheer on other Ninjas working on a particularly difficult skill. The reason is simple–at NinjaZone, kids compete against themselves, not their each other. So they truly want each other to succeed.

And, when you see the same kids week after week, you begin to build a rapport. It’s not long before seeing your friends is another great reason to go to Ninja class!

NinjaZone is Fun

It’s hard to pry your kids away from the 21st century distractions, even harder during the pandemic. But pure and simple, NinjaZone is just fun. It’s not an activity that I have to force my children to do. It’s an activity the want to do. We try to stay active in the Winter as a family. We take walks and hikes and play snow games all season. But that’s forced fun from the parents, and it’s cold.

NinjaZone is an escape from the everyday. There are trampolines and bars, dummies to kick and places to jump and spin. The variety of equipment and curriculum make each class it’s own experience.

Thank you to NinjaZone Academy for your support of Indy with Kids. While all of the above thoughts, opinions, and stories are my own, I received a complimentary lesson for this sponsored post.