C’mon, what was it. Every red blooded American child had some sort of secret ninja training that they would intermittently perform. Mine was that I would try to complete chores around the house with my eyes shut. Relying completely on my spatial abilities, visual memories and awesome ninja skills!!! I would wash the dishes or brush my teeth (and walk between the two!) with my eyes solidly shut (excepting, of course, the occasional monster check). Because when terror strikes, you may no longer have your eyes to rely on. Besides, your eyes often deceives you AND A NINJA RELIES ON NOTHING! Nothing, but his awesome skills and training.
I just caught myself doing it again, and I pray that no one ever caught me doing it before.
My house has two floors, and the stairway made one switchback, creating a small landing. In my youth I would climb over the railing on the landing and jump off, avoiding the bottom half of the stairs and ending in the dining room instead of the living room. It worked better when there was a couch below - now there’s a filing cabinet. I could climb up from the dining room as well, leading to much verbal gymnastics: “I told you to take the laundry with you when you went up the stairs.” “I didn’t go up those stairs.” “Get the damn laundry.”
I’m not American and I wasn’t much of a red-blooded kid either, but I did have a rather nasty thing about running along the 3-foot (just under a metre) wide parapet on the roof of my apartment building, 7 storeys above the ground.
Not such a big deal, I hear you say? Well, this parapet had no railing, ledge or step, between me and mother earth… the little ninja in me had no fear then.
I used to pride myself on my ability to move round the house completely silently. I knew every single creaky floorboard and stair and had perfected the art of silent foot fall.
Unfortunately this skill resulted in me, aged 12, walking in on my elder sister getting jiggy with her boyfriend in our kitchen one night. :eek:
I stopped doing it after that.
My ninja training, however, continues to this day since we still have an occasional mouse problem in my new place requiring ninja proficiency in a number of elite weapon styles.
About two weeks ago, for example, i killed a mouse whilst armed only with a roll of toilet tissue.
I made grappling hooks out of paperclips and string and tried to hook them over the tops of doorways and windows and things, figuring it was only a matter of scale to get the real thing to work, and my parents wouldn’t buy me real grappling hooks anyway. Or a crossbow to shoot them with.
My girls (8 and 4) do this in the doorway to the kitchen. The 4yo ends up a good 5 feet off the ground, making for some unhappy landings. I told her she has to figure out how to get back down on her own without breaking any bones. Whe’s working on it.
Mine was: I tried to see how close I could get to a bird or squirrel on the ground by just moving as slowly and stealthily as I could. I never did catch one, but I did get good enough to get within arm’s length more often than not.
It’s a totally sweet ninja trick. We had 6 different doors that led into the hallway (2 were closets, though), so you could perch over one of the doors and drop down behind someone, totally like a real ninja.
Cor, I did a lot of this stuff when I was a youngster. Basic training would be holding breath for as long as possible. Jumping down the last half flight of stairs, and walking arround in the dark with eyes shut. For more advanced training missions I would move arround the house without touching the floor (clmbing from chair to chair etc). Weapon training usually consisted of throwing darts at the dart board whilst palming the dart using an under arm throw (blind dart throwing was attempted and measured as ‘not a good idea’, knives wouldn’t stick into the dart board.). For outdoor training it was usually tree or fence climbing.
When I grew up I joined the Bujinkan to learn martial arts, and worked in British Intelligence, so the training wasn’t all in vane
I too have “climbed” walls by taking a sitting posture, with my back and feet keeping pressure on the walls. It took a few falls to learn how to “walk” up the walls without even using my hands. I could climb 5 or 6 feet in about 3 seconds. The greatest test, however was to see if I could do the same thing over the stairs, which were the enclosed kind. I didn’t even fall.
The whole walking around, doing things blind, I’ve also done. I planned on making a whole day of it, but my mother already worries about my state of mind.
I also, at the moment (I’m 18 BTW) take time do practice being able to fight with a small 3’ wooden rod. I must admit I could be quite proficient if the need arose. I can spin it around and everything.
Oh and I tried to self-teach how to pick a mortice lock using only a coat hanger, I managed to do it once or twice, but that’s really more MacGiver than ninja.
We had a maple tree in our back yard, when the seeds were ready to fall, I’d kick the tree and try to hit the helicopters as they whirled down with a whiffle ball bat/light saber. Some times I’d do this with eyes closed as only a true Jedi-Ninja warrior can.
Remembering which fork was which, both to eat with and use to kill unexpectedly…
Oh wait, childhood stuff.
I always made sure that I could walk around every room in the house in total darkness. I forgot about this and in college, I left a note on a roommate’s door, turned to go and walked straight into a wall, nearly breaking my nose.
The greatest test, however was to see if I could do the same thing over the stairs, which were the enclosed kind. I didn’t even fall.
