TAMPA, Fla. — There’s a spot at University Mall that has made a successful business out of playing games like tag or the floor is lava. It’s called the Shinobi School.
Shinobi means ninja in Japanese, and every day, there’s a team of ninjas training.
From running up walls, to swinging on bars, to leaping through the air, and so much more, it may seem like a class for superheroes, but at the Shinobi School, they just call it parkour.
“Parkour is really about functional body movement,” said owner and trainer Shinobi Poli. “It’s almost like a video game. I’m learning how to help people unlock the skills that they want or the goals that they want, and I try to tailor the needs for every single person.”
Shinobi Poli is one of only 200 certified parkour trainers in the U.S. He started the school in his own backyard in 2014.
“The real reason I started it was for my daughter; I had a young little girl, and I wanted to put food on the table, and I found out that parkour seminars really helped it a lot,” said Poli.
In the past decade, not only has his daughter grown, but so has the business. It now takes up residence in University Mall.
“It’s a roller coaster with the progress of this place. I mean, we’ve had a lot of people who have changed their life just by coming here, and it means a lot just to be a part of this,” said daughter Kisara Poli.
“People will walk by and watch like they are watching a movie, I mean who wouldn’t want to, they’ll sit there and they’ll be like, ‘what is this place?’ said Poli. “So having the foot traffic and having the option where, like, parents can drop off their kids and go shopping.”
“I think it is exciting, it’s a way for your kids to experience something new, to have fun and not to be scared, to be able to take that chance,” said one parent.
Students, who range in age from six to 60, say it’s a great form of exercise because it doesn’t feel like a workout when you’re playing games like tag and the floor is lava.
“You know I’m of the generation where we were told to be home when the streetlights came on and so we were climbing through canyons and hills and rocks, I mean this is what we did and this is sort of a harking back to that time,” said student Michael Severe.
“Shinobi School helped teach me discipline and motivation it’s helped me look at challenges in a new way and look at my anxieties as just anxieties and not things that control me,” said another student.
Shinobi Poli has even gained national attention.
“I’ve done three seasons of America Ninja Warrior, I’ve done Netflex’s Ultimate Beast Master, I’ve been the official alternate for World Chase Tag on ESPN,” said Poli.
Despite his own success, Shinobi Poli says sharing his knowledge and experience with his students makes every jump, hurdle, and slide worth it.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am to see my students excel and improve, like when people come in here, they come in like a blank slate, or even if they have some concept of what they want to do, three months later they are a different person,” said Poli.
"I’ve gotten exhausted from FEMA. We’re 62 and 72 years old, and we’re on Social Security/Disability. What the hell does this country want from us?”
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