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Ninjas 2 - Return of the Ninja Original Air Date October 15, 2008
Episode # 104
Ninjas 2 – Return of the Ninja
The Myth: Catching an Arrow
Adam explains, “The myth is that a ninja could pluck an arrow - he has no idea where it’s coming from – sense it coming and reach out and pluck an arrow out of the air.”
The Expert: Anthony Kelly – a black belt in many different martial arts disciplines, and holder of numerous world records.
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Jamie (while firing tennis balls at Adam): Pain is your friend! You don’t want pain – catch the freakin’ ball!
The Action/ Results:
Adam says that the fans want a revisit of this one, because they have two main complaints. First, they think that the mechanical arrow catching hand was too close to the mechanical bow – they think that having the hand farther away would slow the arrow down and make it easier to catch. Secondly, many people complained that they had seen footage of someone catching an arrow. They wanted to see a real ninja catch an arrow.
So, to settle the first issue, Jamie fired an arrow into a target several times, stepping back ten feet each time. The arrows were filmed with the high-speed camera just as they were going into the target. He went from ten feet to seventy feet away from the target, and the speed of the arrow varied from 171 to 179 miles per hour. This proved that it doesn’t matter how far away from the target an archer is – the arrow is still going to be going basically the same speed.
For the second issue, they found a real ninja, who has world records for catching arrows, and even calls himself “The Arrowcatcher”. Anthony Kelly appeared in M5, and Jamie and Adam put him right to work. First of all, to test his reflexes, they had him catch tennis balls that were being fired at 85 miles per hour. Anthony caught 22 tennis balls in about a minute, from 26 feet away. By contrast, Adam caught one.
Now it was time for the arrow catching to begin. Anthony requested that Jamie stand 26 feet away from him, that he aim in front of him, and that he not use a full draw of the bow. Jamie did that and, after a few went by, he finally caught one.
Then Adam had something important to say. “Look, our ninja caught the arrow – he totally did - but that’s not the myth we’re talking about. We’re talking about a ninja in battle – he hears an arrow being released from its string – whoosh – fsssh – he plucks it out of the air – that’s what we want to see, and that’s the kind of scenario we are setting up for Anthony now.”
So, they set up a battle zone, with three archers (Jamie and two ninjas) firing at the ninja’s body, instead of in front of him, and with full draws. The arrows were all rubber tipped, so that they couldn’t stab Anthony. In this scenario, Anthony was hit with a lot of the arrows, but he didn’t catch any of them.
Adam then had the archers all step back ten meters and try again. The result was the same – Anthony got hit with a lot of arrows, but didn’t catch any of them.
Finally, Adam had the archers keep their bows pointed down, except when they were about to fire. This time, Anthony managed to catch one of the arrows, after being hit by several of them.
Finally, Anthony suggested a scenario himself. Adam was to shoot an arrow at Anthony, and then try to shoot off another one before Anthony ran up to him. This time, Anthony had a sword, and he cut the first arrow in two, and then ran up to Adam before he could fire again.
The final word on this myth belongs to Adam. “The myth is that a ninja could pluck an arrow - he has no idea where it’s coming from – sense it coming and reach out and pluck an arrow out of the air. Our ninja is arguably the best in the world at catching arrows, and he couldn’t do that. If we had removed the rubber tips from our arrows, we’d have one dead ninja on our hands –I say BUSTED.”
One Inch Punch
The Myth:
Can a ninja actually punch someone by moving his fist only one inch? And is that punch strong enough to hurt someone?
The Expert: Anthony Kelly, who was actually trained in this technique by a student of the legendary Bruce Lee.
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Jamie socking Adam in the chest is a memorable moment!
The Action/Results:
First, Sanjay put leads on Adam, so that they could monitor his heart functions. Then Adam put on the Red Man suit, and then a load plate, and then some padding on top of the load plate. Jamie slugged Adam in the chest as hard as he can, and then the computer calculated how many pounds of force he used. Jamie’s punch was 325 pounds of force. Then it was Anthony’s turn. The one-inch punch carried 153 pounds of force, and was enough to make Adam stumble backwards a bit. Then Anthony said that the three-inch power punch was what he would use instead, and he hit Adam with that. Adam staggered backwards again, and the force reading was 210 pounds. That was impressive, but then Anthony proceeded to break only the last of three boards that were bound together with the same punch. Jamie tried it, but could not duplicate those results. The end result was that this myth is PLAUSIBLE.
Underwater Blow Dart
The Myth:
Could a ninja sneak up on a victim underwater, use his blow dart tube as a breathing tube and then, at the right moment, shoot his victim?
The Experts: Kari. Tory, and Grant
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Kari: I totally cheated – I’ve got a tube in there.
Grant: What? (looks at the end of Kari’s tube) Oh, you SO cheated!
Kari: Coming from the man with the laser sight!
The Action/Results:
The build team started this one by breaking it down into the component parts.
First, how long could a person stay underwater in a situation like this? Kari and Grant brought in a tank, and they filled it with 66 degree Fahrenheit water, which is the average temperature of a lake in Japan in the fall. Then Tory covered himself with animal fat, and then put on a leather suit, which is apparently what the ninjas did to stave off hypothermia. Then he completely submerged himself underwater, breathing through a snorkel. Kari and Grant made sure that he wasn’t getting hypothermic, and the paramedics were standing by, just in case. After an hour, Tory finally indicated that he had enough. The team determined that an hour was more than enough time to be able to wait for a potential victim to show up.
The next problem was to build a blow tube for the dart to go through. It needed to be made of natural materials. Grant added a laser sight to his, and Kari had a metal tube in hers. Tory’s darts missed the mark completely, Grant missed as well, and then almost blinded himself with the laser sight, but two of Kari’s three darts went right where they are supposed to go. This meant that she was the first one in the pool to test the next problem, which was refraction.
When Kari got in the pool, she had to adjust for refraction, which means that what she saw when she was underwater was not actually where the target was. However, she was able to adjust fairly quickly, and by her third try, she did hit the target. Then Grant and Tory joined her in the pool for the last problem – loading the dart while underwater. Kari solved this problem by suggesting that they hold the end of the dart in their teeth until they were ready to fire. They did this, and both Kari and Grant hit the target. This myth is deemed PLAUSIBLE.
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Episode Descriptions 
