Chances are, you know someone in the Ninja community who is currently pregnant or has been pregnant during their career.

My guest this week is Amy Harski, a pregnancy and postpartum coach. She works with athletes looking to stay fit during their pregnancy and helps them get back into their sport postpartum. Amy’s career as a Ninja didn’t start until she was postpartum herself, and that experience navigating Ninja after her own pregnancies helped inspire her to help other ninja athletes.

Pregnancy does not have to be the end of your athletic career. There is a lot you can safely do, both during pregnancy and postpartum. In this episode, we’re going to talk about how athletes can navigate their training throughout and after their pregnancy, common postpartum issues, and how we can unravel the stigma of pregnancy in sports.

Alex Katz is a Certified Personal Trainer with a Master’s Degree in Psychology and she’s super active in the ninja world as a competitor and coach, which gives her a unique, multidimensional insight and perspective in the Ninja world. Often in this sport, we want to go full steam ahead, 100% of the time and we tend to fall into some unhealthy habits.

In this episode, Alex and I are going to talk about the habits and warning signs of overtraining and how to step into a healthier training mindset, how to properly recover from injuries, and how we as a Ninja community should reevaluate what it means to have a supportive training environment.

Resources:

Life and Limb: Navigating Life After Sports Injury

Emerson’s first exposure to ninja was when she had her 11th birthday party at a ninja gym, and she was instantly hooked. Inspired by the likes of Jessie Labreck and Kacy Catanzaro, she’s been training consistently for the last two years and was selected for ANW junior this year. 

Her ninja name is Food is Fuel: which has been her motto since her struggle with anorexia. Emerson battled her eating disorder for a year. She felt alone. She felt that nobody understood. She had no energy, which made training increasingly difficult. She started her recovery process in January of 2021, and in February, ANW Junior announced another season, and she used that as motivation to get healthy so she could compete and share her story. Once she got the call, she was even more motivated. Without ANW, Emerson would not have felt the push to recover, and that, coupled with support from her coaches, has helped her through her recovery journey. 

Eating disorders are still taboo,...

Megan Budway shares her insights and practice for getting her mind ready for the ninja season! Megan describes what she has learned from “With Winning In Mind” by Lanny Bassham.  She journals and mentally prepares for each competition by following the Mental Management System; today Cara and Megan discuss how to follow this technique and how it has helped Megan compete at her best.  Cara and Megan also discuss the upcoming National Ninja League season. 

Read "With Winning In Mind" for yourself! Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/3gx6SDd

My guest this week is New Jersey’s Rachel DeGutz! Rachel discovered Ninja while she was in college studying to be a teacher. She followed a lot of ninjas on social media, listened to this podcast, decided to sign up for a class, and the rest is history! Now Rachel is a guest on the show she has always listened to- talk about full circle! 

In this episode, we’re going to talk about how Rachel prepared for ANW and what it was like competing on the course, the Jersey Girls origin story, whether or not obstacles should be different for males and females, NNL rule changes, and more!

Head over to Patreon for bonus content with Rachel! www.patreon.com/ninjababes

We have a full house in the Ninjababes Studio today! I’m pleased to welcome Michelle Warnky Buurma, Chris Wilczewski, and Mary Leighton on the show today to discuss the National Ninja League and the changes made for NNL season 7. We discuss what the changes are and the need for standards and parameters, making it a sport for both amateurs and professional athletes, how we can work to design courses that work for both men and women, and how we can grow our sport.  

Cara and Mary were honored to be presenters at the NNL World Championships to discuss a topic nearly two years in the making. Over the course of the competition, they presented the seminar 6 times. About 2 years ago, Cara and Mary started diving into the topic and concept of males and females in Ninja. Why do we compete on one course? Could we split into two courses? What are the implications on having two courses for men and women? Cara and Mary interviewed with professionals from both outside and inside of ninja and presented their findings during the seminars. In this episode, we’re going to talk about the responses and feedback we got from presenting this seminar.

View the seminar: https://youtu.be/JLBiYLeZCok

Support Ninjababes: http://www.patreon.com/ninjababes

15-year-old Addy Herman is a former ANW Junior competitor who was one of the teen competitors featured in the current season of ANW13. In this episode, Addy shares her experiences with NNL, competing as a teen against adults, grip gauntlets, and why she has really been focusing on honing her mental game. 

Become a Patron: Support Ninjababes on Patreon

Ninja moms, moms-to-be, or future moms: this episode is for you! Ever wondered how you can balance motherhood and family life with the demands of Ninja training? Lindsay Eskildsen did, and she’s here to talk with Cara about how she took a break from Ninja to focus on family and motherhood, her return to competition and ANW, her life as a new mom, and her advice to women and moms who still want to pursue their passions and dreams.

This presentation was given by Cara Mack and Mary Leighton at the National Ninja League World Finals in partnership with NinjaWorks. Our presentation discusses data that we have seen this past season in NNL season 6, as well as thoughts of how to progress the sport of ninja for females.

We encourage questions, comments, and feedback. Cara is actively discussing with NNL to express the opinion and concerns of the female community and to propose changes for next season.

Check out the presentation here:

If you want to support this work, please consider partnering with Cara Mack and Ninjababes on Patreon.