By Mikayla van Loon
One of Lilydale’s own has taken to the small screen to compete for the title of ultimate ninja warrior in this year’s season of Australian Ninja Warrior.
Having trained for a year and a half, Martin Jones, 20, made it through his first heat to reach the first semi final airing on Tuesday 29 June.
“Me getting into the semi finals is like the greatest thing ever, coming out of heats I was like ‘I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep going on’ but when I heard my name for the semi finals, I was like ‘alright this is awesome, what an experience and I’m going to go out onto the semi finals course and I’m going to really enjoy it’,” Mr Jones said.
Not coming from a gymnastics or parkour background but instead having played basketball and been a runner, Mr Jones said the fitness level for ninja courses was completely different to anything else he’d tried before.
“It’s just a completely different type of fitness and you just challenge yourself every time you go in and you just want to do better,” he said.
“It’s not the mundane, boring ‘I’m just going to lift one weight and do another thing’ it’s ‘I’m going to lache, do a 360 and then try and land on the ground perfectly.
“So it helps you realise like you were a kid on the playground and it brings you back to that state of just having fun when you are doing fitness.”
Mr Jones said he approached each day of training just wanting to improve on the previous day, even if that meant going from doing one pull up to two.
During his Year 12 exams a few years ago, Mr Jones went to the Australian Ninja Warrior tryouts with his good friend as a support.
Unfortunately, his friend wasn’t successful but producers of the show suggested Mr Jones should try out.
“Since that moment of my mate trying for it, unfortunately not getting shown, that just motivated me to give myself a year to get sorted out, get my body right.
“That was the catalyst, just watching the tryouts and just being like, if I can see my best friend do it, I can do it with him or I can just try it out, why not.”
Although daunting seeing other ninjas do tricks and flips that are still out of reach for Mr Jones, he said it continues to inspire him to do more and everyone has been so welcoming and supportive.
“It doesn’t matter where you get, if you fall on the first obstacle or hit the buzzer at the end, everyone is still rooting for you and there is not a dull moment when doing ninja,” Mr Jones said.
“Everyone challenges you to become the best version of yourself and that’s what really attracts me, there’s no competition between each other, it’s between you and the course.”
The positivity of the show and all its ninja’s has been Mr Jones’ favourite part, as well as the love and support he has received from family and friends.
“The love and support from everyone who has been like ‘you can do this’ has been absolutely awesome, it has uplifted me to try and go out on the course and do my best.”
Never expecting to do something like this, Mr Jones said it has been a crazy experience.
“It’s been a surreal experience getting up on that stage and then having all the crowd there cheering you on, it’s just like a dream basically. I almost have to wake myself up and go ‘you’re actually doing this now, you have to get focused.’”
“I feel like the pressure of actually going on the show is so much more than I expected. With training, you expect the obstacles but the pressure of actually completing them is just a whole other ball game.”
Australian Ninja Warrior continues on Sunday at 7.00pm and on Monday and Tuesday at 7.30pm on Channel 9.
