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Regionals feedback

Writer's picture: UNAA AustraliaUNAA Australia

UNAA Comps Australia's second Regionals was held 10-12 November at K Ranch in NSW, a venue which has since been demolished. 180 athletes registered and 174 actually competed. We strive to make each Regionals better than the last, so we invited all athletes and parents who attended to provide feedback and received 30 responses.


Before we get into the feedback results, we just want to clarify a few things as after reading some of the comments, it seems many people don't understand how we operate. UNAA Comps Australia is run by three ninjas/ninja mums who are not paid to do so and do not receive any sort of monetary compensation. The league does not pay for us to travel to competitions, does not pay for any hotel accommodation (or in the case of this Regionals, caravan hire), etc. In fact, it is quite the opposite - if there are any shortfalls we put our own money into the league, which we have had to do both seasons of operation. We do get free entry into Regionals, and sometimes gyms let us run for free at Local and/or Area Qualifiers. Every cent the league earns from sanctioning fees at Local and Area Qualifiers goes towards medals, prizes (if none were donated) and shipping medals and prizes to host gyms. We only receive the sanctioning fee for Local and Area Qualifiers (which is $5 for Local and $10 for Area), the rest goes straight to the host gym. Every cent the league earns from Regionals pays for Regionals. If there is any money leftover, it is used to pay for this website and domain name, Ninja Master (there is a yearly league fee), banners, signage, and other operating costs.


Feedback results

The majority of respondents (83%, 25) enjoyed their overall Regionals experience. 20% (6) said it was the best national ninja event they've ever been to. One person (3%) said it was a terrible event, two (6.6%) said they didn't really like it, and two (6.6%) said it was ok as shown below.

Reasons given for liking Regionals included:

  • straight line courses

  • event vibe

  • activitites and entertainment

  • venue and country theme

  • well organised & ran smoothly

  • communication and time management

  • Saturday night dinner

  • location

  • camraderie / friendly communal atmosphere

  • obstacles

  • grandstands


Reasons given for not liking Regionals included:

  • unfair that event was in rural NSW again

  • prize money was not for all divisions (note from us: only Amateurs did not receive prize money, but they received physical prizes of similar value instead)

  • event felt too casual for a national event

  • safety concerns

  • no variety of obstacles

  • dust

  • needs better MC/announcements


This year we deliberately made our courses similar for all ages, with adjustments for age appropriateness. This significantly cuts down on course changing time between divisions, our cost of buying obstacles out of our own pockets (the league does not buy new obstacles used for Regionals, we buy them ourselves), hauling obstacles to the venue, etc., and we felt it would be exciting for everyone to be able to talk about courses together and have similar experiences. Once the bones of the course were decided (i.e. where each bar would go, where big obstacles would go, etc.), courses were designed by either Sheri (and Hannah), Sabrina, or Gil - UNAA CA's three directors. Gil designed the Masters course as Sheri and Sabrina compete in Masters and Sheri and Hannah designed the Amateur course as Gil competes in Amateur. Sheri and Hannah designed the Pro course as Sabrina's son Saxon and Gil's husband Ricky compete in Pro. Sabrina designed the Intermediate course as Sheri's daughter Hannah competes in Intermediate. None of us competed on a course we designed.


Most respondents (76.7%) liked the courses as they were challenging but fun. On the feedback form, we allowed people to input their own options for "what did you think of the courses at Regionals" as sometimes having limited preset options does not capture what people actually think. One person (3%) thought the courses were too hard; one (3%) thought there wasn't enough variety; one (3%) thought there were too many "gimme" obstacles, not enough new stuff and every age had the same thing; one (3%) felt the courses were fun, but easier than expected; one (3%) thought there were too many rules in place; one (3%) thought they weren't designed in the right order because 15U was harder than intermediate; one (3%) person thought some obstacles were way too easy (sheep, rope/tramp), but most were fun and challenging.


For clarification, we only have one stage so everyone gets the same opportunity to try obstacles rather than only the top in each division getting to try the second half of the obstacles because they make it to stage two. Our courses had the same or similar number of obstacles a two stage competition would have but in one stage instead of two.

Overwhelmingly, respondents thought course time limits were just right (24, 80%), though two people (6.6%) thought they didn't have enough time and four (13%) thought some divisions had the right amount of time, but others did not.

Favourite obstacles varied widely but the most loved obstacle was the sheep, followed by the APAC cowboy hats. The full list is provided below:

  • sheep (7, 23%)

  • APAC cowboy hats (4, 13%)

  • all/ a lot of them (4, 13%)

  • corkscrew (3, 10%)

  • lightning bolts (3, 10%)

  • bear trap (2, 6.6%)

  • laches (2, 6.6%)

  • balance (1, 3%)

  • grips on unstable bridges (1, 3%)

  • bird boxes (1, 3%)

  • none (1, 3%)

  • not the sheep for adults (1, 3%)


Suggestions for courses next year include:

  • more swinging/lache type obstacles

  • have 2 stages like UNAA World Series Finals

  • actually have it at a ninja gym

  • have decent obstacles

  • a little more height on the obstacles

  • more new obstacles

  • courses released with rules beforehand

  • if people have to travel interstate, they should do a minimum of 2 courses

  • more USA style obstacles

  • obstacles should be more difficult, not based on time (note from us, there always has to be a time limit or we would be going all night. With 180 athletes, time limits are non-negiotiable)


Respondents would like to keep the following the same next year regarding obstacles:

  • straight line layout (many people said this)

  • having to use every obstacle

  • the variety of obstacles

  • the sheep or other fun obstacles

  • level of difficulty, length, time limits

  • new obstacles that felt fresh

  • variety of obstacles that are challenging but fair

  • balance between new and old obstacles

One respondent (3%) also noted in the obstacle section that we should keep the atmosphere and staff the same.

Half (50%) of the respondents don't care if there is a course theme or not. 10% (3) believe having a theme takes away from it being a national event. The remaining 40% (12) enjoy having themed courses of some sort.

If we have a theme next year, theme ideas from respondents include:

  • colours

  • occupations/jobs

  • samurai vs. ninja

  • Australian states (each state comes up with obstacles)

  • Halloween

  • Christmas

  • video game

  • movie

  • super heroes

  • American Ninja Warrior


Regarding the venue, most respondents liked it (apart from the dust) due to the size, seating, good spectating, and the ability to have entertainment, food and camping right there; however, a few absolutely hated it, generally due to location and not being a ninja facility. One respondent noted it was weird using a different sport's facility and doing so seemed unprofessional.


Over half of the respondents (60%, 18) would like next year's event to include accommodation of some sort on site, while 30% (9) do not want to stay on site. We allowed people to write in their own answers here as well, which resulted in a few one person answers (3%) as shown below.

34.5% (10) of respondents (n=29 for this question) liked having on site camping while 51.7% (15) did not stay on site and 6.6% (2) did not like having on site camping. One (3%) person felt camping separated people because they could just go outside to their campsites rather than watch other ninjas compete, and one (3%) person said there was horse poo in their assigned stable (we are so sorry about that!! K Ranch staff was supposed have them all clean and ready for you).


As we had so many athletes register for Regionals, we decided to tag team referee the youth divsions, where one set of officials refereed the females in an age group, another set refereed the males, and females and males took turns running. The idea was to keep consistency across a division (i.e. 7U females) while keeping to schedule as the next person to run and the set of referees would be at the start, ready to go by the time the athlete on course got near the end of the course.


The vast majority of respondents felt this worked really well, was a great idea, made things flow and keep to schedule, was fair, and could be carried through to all divisions. Two respondents (6.6%) felt it would be better to have one set of officials for an entire age group and one (3%) said it would have been good to have the run order posted as female/male beforehand rather than separating posted run orders into female and male (we agree and will do in addition to posting division lists if we tag team next time).


70% (21) of respondents enjoyed having the mechanical bull and other activities on site to keep people entertained. 13% (4) feel our extras were unnecessary, and five people wrote their own answers, which can be seen below (well, the gist anyway).

Suggestions for activities on site next year include:

  • signage to help people find activities as it was hard to find the petting zoo

  • other activities related to ninja i.e. mini courses or a celebrity ninja showing kids how to do tricks they can line up for and try

  • lawn games

  • fun obstacle course team event

  • body building pose contest for elite males (whoever wins runs last)

  • just keep most of your attention on the competition


Other suggestions for the event that were not related to activities were also mentioned in the activities section including:

  • give other states a chance to host or at least make it close to public transportation

  • better warm up area


53% of respondents (16) loved having food onsite but 23% (7) felt there wasn't enough variety. We allowed people to input their own answers, which resulted in one (3%) person suggesting there should be more allergy, gluten free and vegetarian options, one (3%) gluten free person brought their own food due to lack of options, one (3%) person said pizza would have been good, one (3%) said the food was expensive and not worth it, one (3%) didn't try any of the food, one (3%) said the food was fine, and one (3%) said the burrito bowls were deliciouls (we think so too, and they were really big!).

Only 13.6% (3) of respondents (n= 22 for this question) didn't enjoy the ninja dinner. The remaining 86.4% (19) thought it was ok, or enjoyed it.


65% (13) of respondents (n=20) who attended the ninja dinner games said their children enjoyed the games but 10% (2) did not.

60% (18) of respondents would like us to have another ninja dinner at our next Regionals, while one person (3.3%) would not and 36.7% (11) don't care one way or the other.


76.6% of respondents (23) thought our podium presentation timing was great/good/spot on/ok while 13% (4) didn't like the Saturday podiums during the ninja dinner. 6.6% (2) feel each podium should be presented straight after a division finishes. 3% (1) said there was too big of a gap between when the division finished and when their podium took place (we are unsure which age group this is talking about).


46.7% (14) of respondents prefer pre-paid cards as prizes over physical prizes. 10% (3) preferred physical prizes (like what was given at Regionals in Boggabri) and 10% (3) felt a medal or trophy is sufficient. One (3%) parent felt it was much easier having a pre-paid card, but thought their child preferred getting physical prizes. Two (6.6%) people mentioned they like physical prizes, but they are hard to take home on the plane. One (3%) person preferred getting a jacket like last year, and a couple of people added responses about not being there for podiums or their child not getting on a podium.

The majority of respondents (66.6%, 20) thought the pre-paid card amounts were ok/good/great or generous, while some felt only Pros and Intermediates should get monetary prizes. One (3%) respondent stated that if different divisions have different prize money, that should be reflected in the cost to register.


53% (16) prefer trophies, while 43% (13) prefer medals. One (3%) person says a certificate would be sufficient.

We strive to provide accurate, up to date information to all our athletes. 96.6% (29) of respondents said they felt adequetly informed about Regionals in the lead up to the event (with three responses added to that effect by respondents, as shown below. Thanks for your comments!). One person (3%) felt some of the emails were confusing for a newbie.

86.6% (26) of respondents like the timing of Regionals. Specific comments include:

13.3% (4) of respondents did not like the timing because it clashes with exams, they have to take extra time off to travel rurally, don't like that it was held over three days instead of two, and/or it went too late for 13U since it was during a school term.


We received 13 responses to our write in response question "is there anything you felt unsure or anxious about?" Answers are shown below:


Regarding rules videos, if we were to film rules videos, we would need to hire the venue for an extra day, which would require thousands of extra dollars in hiring fees, plus each of us would have to take an additional day off work (unpaid or using holidays, and again, we do not get paid to run the league or Regionals).


Do you get informed if you qualified for worlds? Yes, we sent out an email to every athlete who qualified. You can also check the international leaderboard here (then click on your division). If your name has a tick next to it, you are qualified. The points you see are based what place you came at Regionals and/or one off international qualifiers and how many people were in your division. Points are automatically calculated by Ninja Master, according to rules set by UNAA USA.


Regarding conflicting information from OA and ANG, their competitions are no longer a pathway to UNAA World Series Finals (WSF) and they are not the authority on UNAA events. As of this season, there was only one league that qualifies athletes to the UNAA WSF, and that is UNAA Comps Australia. We double check information with Bob before we put it out to our athletes and we work really hard to bring you accurate, up to date information and let you know asap if something changes. We try not to change things mid-season but we also have to follow UNAA rules, which sometimes results in mid-season changes since our season differs to the US season to allow athletes time to sort out travel, time off and airfares for worlds.


Regarding athletes qualifying for worlds at one off qualifiers, we agree that it is not fair for some athletes to qualify in one event. We fought very hard to keep the three step qualifying process of UNAA CA and to not have one off qualifying events in some states. Others who are not part of our league and have not participated in our league fought to have the one off qualifiers, saying that athletes have to travel too much to qualify for worlds and that is unfair. Ultimately, UNAA (not UNAA CA) brought in the one off qualifiers despite our protests. As we know this is incredibly unfair for athletes in NSW, QLD, and Victoria, we decided not to continue with a qualifying series next year. At this stage, each state will have a one off worlds qualifier (directly through UNAA, these have nothing to do with UNAA CA), and we are negotiating with UNAA to have a championship which would be an extra qualifier and our one event of the year. We will keep you posted.


There were 16 short answer responses to the Regionals experience, as shown below:




In the "what could we do better next time" section, answers varied but were largely covered in the other sections. A few people mentioned the spelling mistake on the shirts. Yes, that was not good and we apologise. None of us picked it up, and neither did any of the printers we got quotes from. We will do better. Sorry. We all feel very silly about that one. There was a safety mention in this section in addition to a previous section, specifically mentioning mats. Just to clarify, our mats are proper safety mats purchased (by one of us individually, not by the league) from Ninja Playground and Fitness when they went out of business.

We received 20 responses in the "what did we do well" section, largely around organisation, efficiency, vibe, information and communication. Thanks everyone, we try really hard to do all of those things well.


In the "what can we do better next year" section, we received 16 responses. Most of them suggest holding Regionals in a different state, but one, which was not from NSW, said it should be kept in NSW because NSW is central to Victoria and Queensland and having it near the capital of Australia and having to travel to get there makes it seem more serious and more like a national competition. A couple respondents suggested other rodeo grounds.


We received 9 responses in the "do you have any suggestions for future national events" section, as shown below:


Thank you so much for your feedback. We endeavour to continuously improve and make each Regionals/nationals better than the last. We will seriously consider all of your feedback and implement appropriate feedback where possible. Even though the addition of one off qualifiers is out of our control and things will look very different next year, we hope to bring you an epic nationals/finals/championships (name to be determined), hopefully in an easy to get to location (of course location largely depends on venue availability, venue space, price, etc.).


We will continue to provide you with information relating to all things UNAA, even if they are events directly under UNAA (USA) including WNAG and one off qualifiers. We will also provide you with information about FINA since FINA finals will be held at the worlds expo along with the UNAA WSF.


If you qualified for worlds at our Regionals, any of the one off qualifiers, or in the future, at a WNAG please contact us so we can add you to our worlds Facebook group. Everyone who qualifies for the UNAA WSF and/or FINA finals can be in our worlds group and part of the Australian Ninja Team.

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