Meet the SC man who trains ‘ninjas’ and is headed to the ‘American Ninja Warrior’ finals ... again
It all started with a back flip.
That’s how Bob Reese became interested in parkour, a sport that involves running, jumping, climbing through obstacles.
Now 26, the Greenville resident is a finalist on the NBC reality show “American Ninja Warrior” for the second year in a row and, with three other competitors from the show, owns Motive School of Movement in Greenville.
It is one of a handful of gyms in South Carolina that specialize in Ninja and parkour movement.
Reese said his father was in the Air Force, taking the family to Delaware, a few places in Japan and Hawaii, before moving to Greenville 12 years ago when his dad retired.
He noticed the kid across the street knew parkour and taught Reese to back flip.
He met his now business partner Brett Sims, who has been on 11 seasons of the 14 that the TV show has been on the air, when he began to train at Greenville Gymnastics. The two later worked at an Atlanta Ninja gym as Sims began to appear on the show.
Sims said the show is not about beating the other competitors; it’s about beating the four stages of the course.
“It’s insanely hard,” he said.
In fact, only two people have beat it. Typically, the season ends with the last ninja standing, who wins $100,000.
Sims has been to the national championship four times, but this year he didn’t make it through the semi-finals.
He met the other gym owners through competitions as well, Grace, now his wife and seven-time competitor, and Bootie Cothran, eight times.
The gym was to open two years ago to much fanfare, but was scuttled by COVID restrictions. Reese said, though, the delay helped them flesh out the obstacles and gave them unfettered time to train in an empty 16,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility near Haywood Road in Greenville..
At 36, Sims said he’s no longer training for the show, but is more focused on teaching. Several of the people who train at the gym, including Reese’s sister, competed during this season.
Sims also is an obstacle maker. Two of his creations have been incorporated into the show — the Iron Maiden and Pistons.
“He could easily be an engineer,” Reese said. “He sees inspiration in everything.”
Reese has a huge social media presence, including 4 million followers on TikTok, where he shows people how to do various stunts.
The finals for “American Ninja Warrior” season 14 have already been filmed. Reese can’t say how it comes out, of course, but the show will air in about a month.