Every year, a new crop of Ninjas arises. They are people who’ve decided they want to share their stories, people who’ve trained long and hard and are ready to prove it, people who’ve waited years for this opportunity. They’re the future rookies.

The news recently broke that casting is open for season 14 of American Ninja Warrior. Every year, we think about this new group of could-be competitors and we want to help as much as we can.

So, you’ve decided you’re ready to be on American Ninja Warrior. What do you do next?

From our years of experience with the show, we’ve put together our five tips for making it on to the big stage.

But first, one caveat, we have nothing to do with the actual casting process. We do not review submission tapes or select anyone for the show. So please, don’t DM us about giving you a chance. It just makes us sad.

1.) Train with others and in different environments if you can.

Hopefully, you’ve been doing some kind of training if you feel course-ready. But if you’ve mostly trained on your own, try to get in a few sessions with friends or training partners. Mix up the locations. Push each other. Distract each other while on obstacles. Get used to needing to perform when it’s not just you and your workout tunes. This is also a great way to talk about the application process and support one another through it.

2.) Take the time to be thorough on the written portion of the application.

The official application process includes both an online form you need to fill out and a submission video. There’s a lot of focus on the video (rightfully so), but we’ve heard the written portion is quite lengthy. Make sure you’re in the right headspace and you’ve allotted enough time to really sit with it and think out your answers.

3.) Plan out the time it will take to create your submission video.

Become your own project manager. Walk through the process step by step. There’s filming the video and there’s creating the video. You need to brainstorm, film, edit, maybe re-shoot, edit again, get feedback, more edits. Get the picture? It’s going to take longer than you may think.

4.) Ask your friends and family what they would tell someone about you.

There is no way around it, you need to share your story with the casting team. But luckily, we all have a story. We just can’t see it sometimes. So ask your loved ones what they would tell someone else about you. Their perspective will be eye-opening.

5.) Understand this is a huge process with a lot of moving parts.

The casting team gets thousands of applications every year and the applications move through multiple rounds of review. You might hear back. You might not. They might call and ask for more detail and then never call again. Be prepared to avoid taking things personally. If it’s not your year, it doesn’t diminish any of the work you did to feel prepared.

We have a few additional tips that we always share from the casting team below. Good luck to all the potential season 14 rookies!

Tips for a great American Ninja Warrior application

Joe Robbins/NBC

From Angelou Deign, Casting Director

• Send in your application as soon as you can.
• Your personal story is incredibly important.
• Don’t just tell, always SHOW.
• Show off your energy level within the first 30 seconds.
• Treat your video like the ultimate first date.
• Include at least a minute of athletics.
• Know why you are unique.
• Fancy video editing skills are not important

Read the full interview with Deign here.