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Massachusetts has become a hotbed of Ninja talent.

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Reached on a recent sunny afternoon, frequent “American Ninja Warrior” contestant Taylor “Teej” Johnson is home in Bridgewater giving her a mini golden-doodle, Harley, a haircut.

Later, the veteran ninja — and member of the Boston Celtics Dunk team — will head to Fall River for a training session at Vitality Obstacle Fitness: a hotbed of the world’s top ninja talent.

“Harley doesn’t know how to rest — the gym is his favorite place,” the Mass General financial analyst tells me with a laugh.

You could say the same of Harley’s human.

As an “American Ninja Warrior” super-fan who has covered the NBC reality competition show for some five seasons now, I follow top ninjas the way avid Patriot fans follow players, trades, and injuries. 

In recent years, ninja has emerged as a true sport — complete with its own gear and soon, representation in the 2028 Summer Olympics in LA. 

And New England has emerged as a powerhouse.

Now, it’s go time. 

Season 18 of NBC’s “ANW” premiered June 8 with a new regional-qualifying format. The first three episodes, which air Mondays, saw Western ninjas run. 

The Eastern Regional qualifiers kick off June 29 at 9 p.m., and in the coming weeks, we’ll see some 18 resident New Englanders  — 12 from Massachusetts alone, according to a show rep —  tackle the course and run a new three-lane race. The Eastern Regional Final airs July 13. 

Then 20 ninjas from each region — New England natives peppered throughout — converge in the next round, per a show rep. The last man standing — it’s historically men who win the show, which sees men and women compete against each other on the same course — gets the $250,000 grand prize.

The show airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on NBC.

For the uninitiated, the NBC sports-reality-competition series — co-hosted by Matt Iseman, Akbar Gbajabiamila and Zuri Hall —  started in 2009, based on the Japanese show “Sasuke.” Courses change with the seasons, although many obstacles reappear. (Example here.) While the show has a fun, loose vibe, it’s no “Double Dare.” 

Ninja is a signature blend of rock climbing, parkour, gymnastics, a dash of track with an X-Games vibe — and no other sport translates. We’ve seen former pro athletes — including former NFL players, track stars, Olympic gymnasts and UFC fighters — fail miserably.  

Last year, we saw the addition of head-to-head live-or-die racing — fall or lose the race and your season is over. 

As a viewer, racing is a game-changer. Previous seasons were like holding the 400 meter hurdles by having each runner go one at a time. Suddenly, we had a drama.

This season, we’re seeing a supersized three-lane racecourse in “Tripleheader,” where ninjas go head-to-head-to-head. Top two move on. Tripleheader debuted June 22 and was a blast to watch. 

Get caught up

In Season 15, 17 New Englanders started out. Four made the national finals: 4-foot-11 Johnson set the record for the shortest athlete to ever qualify for nationals; then-high school students Addy Herman of Pembroke and her boyfriend Noah Meunier of Lakeville; and Jonathan Godbout of Sterling. Meunier was the last New Englander standing that season, finishing third overall.

In Season 16, 18 New Englanders started the season. Meunier placed third. Herman won the 2024 ANW Women’s Championship, which aired as a stand-alone special, taking the trophy and $50,000 home to Pembroke. 

Last year, six New Englanders made it to the finals. Once again, Meunier, now of Fairhaven, was the last New Englander standing. He placed second overall in the season finale, losing to one of the best to ever ninja, Kai Beckstrand of Utah. 

It was also his “Michael Jordan flu game” as Akbar put it — Meunier was sick.

I’m expecting Meunier and Herman — a power couple who set a Guinness World Record in 2025 for “the fastest time to complete a ‘mammoth’ obstacle course by a mixed pair — to have standout seasons. Both seem to be only getting better, despite the fact that Herman tells me she had to deal with a shoulder injury.

Shortly after I spoke with Johnson — who performs on the Celtics Dunk Team with other ninjas past and present — she flew to North Carolina to compete in the World Ninja League Championships. She won the adult female division of head-to-head racing, and finished second for World’s Strongest Ninja-Adult Female.

Herman placed second in Elite Female Head-to-Head, third in World Champion, and third for World’s Strongest Ninja -Elite Division, Johnson reports. 

She estimates some 50 ninjas from Vitality competed. 

Ninja Nation

What makes us so good here in New England?

It might be the sheer amount of ninja gyms.

If you watch the show, you know many in other parts of the country train on hand-made wooden obstacles, home gyms. Some out west train with hay bails on their farms. Drive hours for a special ninja gym.

We have at least 10 ninja gyms in Massachusetts alone, according to NinjaGuide.com. A Google map shows even more.

“That’s the benefit of the New England area: We have so many gyms,” Johnson says. “I live 40 minutes from Vitality and 35 minutes from Ascend [in Kingston.] I can go to different gyms, face different obstacles, get different input from coaches and athletes.”

“Out West, they have recreational gyms — but just a few for high-level training,” she says. “Plus New Englanders have that grit. We have some of the best sports teams in the world— it continues to ninja as well.”

“There’s so many gyms in New England. We’re really lucky,” Herman, the former Women’s Champ, tells me in a recent call from her Pembroke home.

One of the best parts of the season was seeing the lil’ ninjas cheering from Ascend Obstacle Training in Kingston as they watched their coaches Lucas Reale and Matt D’Amico compete — NBC had a live camera feed in Kingston.  Both compete again this year.

Fall River Strong

Many ninjas have trained at Vitality Obstacle Fitness, and they all sing the praises of Coach Jordan Thurston, who travels with them to the NBC competition in Vegas.

“Jordan is the best,” Meunier told Boston.com after he came in second in the nation last year. “He’s leading us every step of the way.”

“He’s amazing,” Herman says. “He doesn’t compete himself, but he’s a really good ninja, too.”

“Honestly, I think it’s Jordan Thurston,” Johnson said of the New England magic. “It’s the way he runs classes.” He’s attracted “a lot of people passionate about the sport” to the gym.

“Iron sharpens iron,” ninja vet James “The Beast” McGrath, 39, of New Bedford told us previously. He and his fiancé Allyssa Beird, who train at Vitality, are both back this season. “I don’t think there’s a better gym in the world.”

Fresh blood, fresh obstacles

We’re also seeing the first generation of kids raised on ninja. So when “Ninja Warrior”  lowered the age to 15 from 21 a few seasons back, it was a game-changer.

These teenage ninjas are no turtles. They fly.

Add head-to-head racing into the mix, and ninja is a different sport than it was 18 seasons ago.  It’s been like watching basketball go from street clothes and peach baskets  to the Chuck Taylor-era to today’s Knicks.

“Compared to when I first started, it’s gotten way harder,” says Johnson. “And now we have competitors who have been doing ninja since they were 6. They learn technique early. That’s why they’ve become so powerful.”

Herman, 20, says, “It’s funny. This year is the first year I realized: I’m not one of the young ones.”

While she’ll compete in her sixth season, she’s “so excited” for the world to meet her Vitality training mate, 15-year-old Akshara “Aka” Pappu, of Newton.

“It’s been amazing to train with Aka,” Herman says. “She pushes me so much.”

Pappu is part of a generation of kids who grew up with the sport. According to her school newspaper, Pappu started ninja in kindergarten at Action Athletics, before finding Vitality. 

“Ninja used to be an older person’s sport — the thing you did after your sport,” says Johnson, a former gymnast and cheerleader. “Once Ninja started growing outside of the show [with ninja gyms and leagues] we started seeing this build-up of kids. I’m just trying to keep up.”

Along with her regular training, Johnson trains with the Vitality teams classes for ages 6-14.

The parents jokingly call her Billy Madison, she says. “But the kids are ruthless! They don’t need rest.”

A new course toward the Olympics

The new three-lane racing format, Tripleheader, debuted June 22 and, as Herman put it, is “captivating” for viewers.

For ninjas, though, the difference between head-to-head racing and head-to-head-to-head is, well, a head game.

“It doesn’t change your training — it’s just mentally more intense,” says Johnson.  “Mentally, that course is way tougher than I think people imagine.”

Herman agreed: “Side-by-side racing was already a ton of pressure —adding a third person amplifies that.”

Ninja will be part of the 2028 Summer Olympics in LA, replacing equestrian as one of the events in Modern Pentathlon — with swimming, fencing, running and laser shooting. “So I don’t think you’ll see any ninjas,” said Herman. 

But she’s hoping by 2032, it’ll be his own discipline.

Johnson theorized racing may help ninja become a full-fledged Olympic event: “We’re hoping ninja will end up as a solo sport in the Olympics. If so, it’ll be the racing format. That’s like I think the cleanest way to do that.”

Johnson and other New Englanders are headed to the Obstacle Course Race World Championships, in Ireland next month.

Herman agrees that ninja landing in the ’28 Olympics is a major step toward proving to the world that it’s a sport.

“I remember in sixth grade, kids in my class being like, ‘Ninja’s not a real sport,’” Herman recalls. “Being able to say, ‘Actually, it’s in the Olympics’ is such a cool step for this whole community.”

If the shoe fits

Another leap forward: athletes are finally getting sneakers made for the game. Ollo has a line of Ninja shoes.

When I tell Johnson I remember watching people run in jeans and Vans, she laughs.

“Right. We’ve seen it become a sport. Now you have people who train for this. So we’ve been needing something like this” shoe.

“It’s taken way too long to get to this point,” Herman adds. “Actually, I’ve created a ninja shoe with Ollo — out in the fall. I think it’s so important —  as a real sport now — for athletes to have a specific shoe.”

The woman’s champ

When I first started covering the sport, Meunier and Herman were high school sweethearts. Still a couple, Meunier is now an electrician, as well as a ninja coach, and Herman is a ninja coach, motivational speaker who travels the world for competitions.  

“I went to Croatia for a 100-meter obstacle race, then I got invited to be on ‘Sasuke’ in Japan— that was the original TV show that sparked ‘American Ninja Warrior.’ That was an amazing opportunity,” Hermans says.

Ninja comps have taken her from Paris to Barbados. “I’m going to Germany  and  Sweden soon. It’s definitely opened up so many doors for me that I didn’t see coming, but I’m so grateful for.”

When she’s home, she’s often coaching at Vitality, or her own gym, run out of her Pembroke home. More than 70 kids, ages 5-12, are enrolled, she says. 

Last season, coming off an ankle injury, Herman didn’t have the season she wanted. 

“Going into this season,” she says, “I want to be the last woman standing.”  

The 4’11” Celtics dunker

A ninja vet, this is Johnson’s eighth season competing. 

And she’s got some fellow ninjas on the Celtics Dunk Team. D’Amico also competes on the show this season, while Liv Keyes, True Becker, Tate Becker, and Kit “Lucky the Leprechaun” Ackermann, have previously competed.

Any ninja can fall on any obstacle, no matter how talented the athlete or simple the obstacle. We’ve seen some shockers. Last season, Johnson fell on the second obstacle. 

“Going into this season, I realized I have something some others don’t: experience,” she said. “I just tried to trust myself a little more.”

It helps to have so much New England love on the sidelines. 

“We had a big group out there this year, so I knew whether I fell or hit a buzzer, I had people in my corner.”

In the meantime, it’s time to head to the gym. A mini goldendoodle is getting antsy.

“Harley knows the word ‘Vitality,’” Johnson says with a laugh.

Lauren Daley can be reached at [email protected]. She tweets @laurendaley1, and Instagram at @laurendaley1. Read more stories on Facebook here.