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The other insanely cool things the company that makes the American Ninja Warrior course are doing

Because JUST making the course would be lame, right?

By Nikki Lee

The ATS Team is the group responsible for designing and managing the brutal American Ninja Warrior course.

That’s already a pretty cool gig if you ask us. We’ve got tons of information for you on how The ATS Team goes about helping to create the show we all love.

But what many people don’t know are the downright awesome things they’re doing out of the spot light as well.

Working with the military

From Travis McDaniel, COO: We have our military training side. We work with specialized military groups. Places that don't exist on the map, where we get to go.

We have a number of patents for military inventions to help military teams do things safer and more efficient. So that's been good fun.

Supporting our veterans

Darren Jeffrey, CVO: Currently, I’m an active member of the Zion National Park Search & Rescue team and a board member of a new exciting non profit aimed at strengthening our military's families. www.RHFnow.org.

RHF Now address the stressors of combat deployment by using known therapeutic activities such as gardening or horseback riding. We’re founded from a special forces community and address the need for soldiers who routinely deploy to grow and connect with their families.

We have created a program that doesn’t stigmatize or label these soldiers "wounded" or "broken" for attending our facilities with their family. This is how they can advance in their careers and take their family to the next level.

RHF treats the silent majority and keeps them from becoming traumatized. ATS heavily supports RHF.

Helping young women grow their confidence

Travis McDaniel, COO: We offer Girl Scout destination programs.

Those are for girls ages 15-18. We helped pioneer those programs about 9 years ago because there was such a huge drop out rate for Girl Scouts for high school girls.

We offer these 10-14 day long programs around the world. We've designed this whole thing where they have to apply to these programs as if they're applying to college, so it's a great intro to that process. They fill out applications, essays, peer reviews and if they get admitted to the program, and they decide to accept it or not, then they actually go out and fundraise or get scholarships.

They actually learn about that process. It's a great way to introduce them to that college application phase. We offer about 20-30 of them every summer.

Keep the bigger picture in mind

Travis McDaniel, COO: We still maintain the Girl Scout destination programs as a segment of our company because it helps everyone here maintain perspective.

I think that's one of the most important things in this industry. I say that word a lot. Perspective. As soon as I hear one of our guys starting to complain about the catering, because we do catered meals here every day, I know that it's time for them to go on one of the Girl Scout trips.

These programs are great because they're all service based programs. We'll take them to the middle of the Chengdu Province in China where they'll work with pandas for a week. Or we'll take them to the Mongolian Steppe where they'll help out in the villages while riding horses. They're really wonderful programs.

I'm a super big hippie. After college I bought a VW bus, I traveled around for 3 years. I just learned how people interacted with the world. Because that was really important to me.

I realized that I can't go to a 50 year old or a 60 year old and change their mind about something, but I can much more easily go to a 10 year old or 15 year old and change their way of thinking, or help mold their way of thinking towards a more sustainable future. That's always been super important to me.

When I worked in the film industry, I worked on NCIS the first season as an Assistant Director. I started a whole recycling program at the studio, it's still going on. It's getting people to think outside their box. Multigenerational.

In conclusion, when The ATS Team isn’t setting up new American Ninja Warrior obstacles, they’re doing what they can to make the world a better place. Little did we know that the team behind the Warped Wall is also working to change the future.

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