True Grit
My nine-year-old has been attending classes at an American Ninja Warrior gym for the past three months. His class focuses on safety, strength, and skill as they work through parkour moves, flips, core exercises, dead hangs, rock wall climbing, jumps, etc. It is the perfect environment for my constantly-moving, constantly-risking child. He has a ninja belt made of sturdy white rope to indicate that he is a beginner. As he accomplishes different skills taught in the class, he earns colored stripes to put on his belt. Naturally athletic and a quick learner, Mikey earned his first two stripes without much difficulty. It must be noted that the coaches do not readily hand out these stripes. They must be earned through a lot of hard work and discipline. A month or so ago, he began trying to obtain his climbing stripe. It was a struggle from the beginning. When following the colored strips of tape all the way up to the top of ...