re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

If you are not watching ANW on DVR and FFWD through all the bios, you are doing it wrong. I watched this weeks ep in like 45 mins

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

I just assumed everyone did this. Occasionally I may watch a bio or two in an episode, but very rare. Usually the onlt stuff I dont fast forward through are the initial explanation of each obstacle, and each run.

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

I'll watch a few of the bios. Some of them seem like a big stretch regarding the human interest angle.

I think the commentators have gotten better of late. They used to add nothing but they've learned when to sit back and let the action unfold.

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

Glad the Kacy hype is dead. She did great last year but was a one hit wonder

They could have showed Drew Dreshel's run if they didn't spend 3 mins going on about the dude and his dead mum, stupid bitch

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

I watched the episode on Monday just to see Kacy fail...but fell asleep before it came on. I tried finding it on Youtube, but no luck. I heard she fell on the propeller. I am not surprised. She is small and was NEVER going to make it through this course. Too many obstacles that are designed for taller people.

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

Dustin McKinney made it through Stage 1 with no problem and he's 5'2", only two inches taller.

Her real problem seems to be her weight. She's only 100 lbs, while McKinney is 140. At both the propeller this year and the jumping spider last year, she failed thanks to terrible jumps off mini tramps. If you look at her successful city finals run last year, the only mini tramp was the one before the Salmon Ladder... which was a straight vertical bounce. But anything required a horizontal bounce, she just doesn't seem to have enough mass to propel herself forward and upward from those tramps.

Here's her stage 1 run this year.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TJtfp67-hDs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

This time she botched the jump completely, but it looks like she was trying to get as close to the edge of that tramp as possible (presumably to compensate for her size) and just overshot it, missing the tramp altogether. And maybe she would have made that bounce had she pulled back just 2 inches, who knows. Either way, I'm guessing the other heavier contestants don't need to focus quite as much on doing weird tricks just to get a good bounce.

Even her cargo crossing failure on this year's qualifier... while it wasn't a mini tramp, it was still an obstacle that required contestants to use their weight to rock that swinging structure forward in able to get close enough to make the jump. She was swinging with all her might, but she was barely moving that thing.

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

I would agree with that analysis. The women have a couple of problems with getting good jumps off the mini-trampolines. They have far less mass than the men and women aren't anatomically built to have much of a vertical leap. Their lack of innate jumping ability is killing them in a couple of obstacles.

For those that didn't see it, Kacy started crying while she was being interviewed. The pressure of being the show's star attraction was obviously on her mind. I don't think any less of her after her contest performance this season. She actually looked in better shape, but her size requires absolutely incredible technique to beat some of the obstacles. That is why I think the woman with the best chance going forward is Jessie, that acrobatic stunt woman.

Lost in everything was the return of Brent Steffeson to top form. Or as he is likely known now, Kacy's boyfriend.

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

No he is still know as Brent Steffensen. I knew about him lonnnnnnnnnng before her. He is got a better than average chance to finish this also.

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

There were a lot of finishers of stage 1 this year. But the finale is next week. I don't know if that bodes well for getting a finisher of all 4 stages. Surely they will air all the runs on the finale, right?

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

The one thing to note is that it is a 3 hour episode instead of the usual 2. But they will still not air all the stage 2 runs for sure.... even the year there was only 1 guy who advanced to stage 3 they still cut some of the stage 2 runs out.

I'd imagine all the stage 3 runs will be in there unless a LOT of people make it there. I think they said stage 2 is all new this year, so we should lose a lot of people early since it was hard enough last year when people were prepared for it.

I figure the first 2 hours will be stage 2, and the last hour will be stage 3. If someone actually gets to stage 4 that will be the last 15 minutes.

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

5 minutes of which will be Kacy Cantanzaro reaction shots and another 9 minutes of which will be commercials.

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

Stage 3 runs take forever because there is no clock on it. I've always been surprised someone hasn't taken more advantage of that fact. What beats you in stage 3 is the constant upper body strength obstacles pumping your arms out. I'd take a couple of minutes at a minimum between each obstacle in stage 3.

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

Brutal to see Kacy knocked out, and pressure to perform can really get to you. I have no problem with her being featured so much, because like it or not she is a star on the show. Her run last year, got my fiancee to watch the show this season for the first time.

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

i think kacy was really upset because it was one of those "i can't believe that same shit happened again!" feelings.

2013
http://i.imgur.com/SORdPDb.gif

2015
http://i.imgur.com/fTTGLQI.gif

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

I did not realize the finale would be 3 hours. I really hate that they cut runs out. This late in the competition, we have seen all these folks several times and are starting to get to know them. They have made it to stage 2, whcih the show wants us to believe is extremely difficult. They deserve to at least have their runs shown on the show. I understand that their are restrictions from teh network and such, but that is my opinion. Curious to see what the revamped stage 2 looks like. I may be misremembering, but didn't the majority of people that attempted it last year, get through?

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

No, stage 2 at Vegas was nearly impossible last year. Most people fell pretty early on or couldn't make it past the iron chain rotating swing.

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

Don't know what I was thinking of, then. Stage two is the stage that traditionally had the weighted walls at the end, correct?

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

Yep, they have those weighted walls. I am just waiting for someone to get horribly injured on those weighted walls, they look quite dangerous.

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

Did the 2nd Stage 1 episode air on Monday? My DVR didn't pick it up.

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

Yes. My DirecTv guide didn't have it as a new episode either, but I caught it.

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

At long last a winner! Really glad to see Isaac take it.
I wonder how much recovery time they get between stages. Maybe Geoff was too spent considering he went later on stage 3.

Surprised the Weatherman went out. I bet he's regretting the choice not to turn around first.

Aside from changes to the climbing wall I thought stage 3 looked easier this year. Poles instead of ropes, the inverted wall climb looked shorter to me, no jump from ledge to ledge, those useless round things where everyone just used their legs & rested. I'm betting next year those will be gone.

Fun finale though. I hope we get a USA vs the world special this year.

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

Total victory!!!

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

As someone that has been watching Ninja Warrior before it hit American shores and has followed all seven seasons of American Ninja Warrior, it was electrifying to see Isaac as the first American to beat Stage 3 in competition and then beat the incredibly strong Geoff Britten in a head-to-head rope climb.

Isaac is the guy I always thought had the best chance to first beat stage 3 and stage 4 since he first appeared on the show. I would never have guessed we would have two people do it in one year, but both are incredibly strong challengers. I am pretty sure Brian Arnold would have beat it as well if he hadn't fallen on Stage 2.

I don't think they can design a stage 3 that can beat Isaac. He made it look easy when other athletes that have spent the last year training had failed repeatedly. I think the course designers made a mistake with that disc climb before the final hopping bar obstacle on stage 3. They never anticipated people using their legs to support themselves on it, which made it a fairly easy pass for the athletes that made it that far.

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

I tuned in last night just in time to see Geoff Britten get to the hanging wall. It was exhilarating seeing him finish and just collapse at the end. I kinda wanted him to win but Isaac was just a freaking monster on that rope climb. It'll be interesting to see how next year goes now that there's 2 people who have gone up the mountain.

All the other ninjas cheering the 2 on at the end--and Captain NBC actually in tears--was great to see.

re: American Ninja Warrior -- Discussion Thread
 

Geoff has freakishly strong arms. The only guys I've ever seen with that kind of muscular development are pro arm wrestlers in the lower weight classes. But Isaac is obviously a top rock climber with an incredible strength-to-weight ratio.

What makes the accomplishment harder is that the courses were tougher than ever from the first stages to the end. These guys would have destroyed the courses seen three or four years ago.