David “The Godfather” Campbell is back to compete in his 17th season of American Ninja Warrior. He’s the only athlete to compete in every single season of the series, and this time, he does is at a new father.
We chatted with David about his time on the series, including how this sport is one of support and encouragement, something that the veteran athletes will need to keep instilling in the newer ones. We also talked about what it’s like for him to have his son watching him this time.
David Campbell gets another buzzer in American Ninja Warrior
GeekSided: Congratulations on another buzzer.
David Campbell: Thank you! I haven’t got a qualifying buzzer every time. Actually, it’s been a couple of years since I got one, but it’s always a good feeling.
GS: You’re the only person to have competed in every single season so far, so how does it feel knowing you’ve done it with that milestone in mind?
DC: It feels great. I still have lots of friends that are so involved in the sport that I’ve been competing alongside since the very beginning. But I’m the only one to consistently do it every single year. I’m not sure what I attribute that to. Stubbornness and just the fact that I enjoy doing it so much, I guess.
It’s one of the main highlights of my year. Most of my friends are my training partners, and it’s be hard to imagine being anything else.
GS: This is the first time competing with your son watching, and while he won’t remember it, you will. What was that like having him there on the screen to support?
DC: That was an interesting experience. He was definitely on my mind a whole lot before my run, and then I tried to clear everything out of my head when I hit the course. I guess it was really late at night and he was getting a little bit upset, so I’m glad I didn’t notice. He was crying on the sideline there. That might have taken me out of the zone.
He’s more important than anything else in my life. I just want to make him proud. And while he won’t remember it, it’s on video. He’s going to be able to watch the video and my whole career for the last 17 years. That’s really interesting to think about. I don’t know how old he’s gonna be before he actually cares about that stuff or old enough to start training alongside me. I’m looking forward to that a lot.
GS: So, we’ll have another Amernica Ninja Warrior in the ranks?
DC: Yeah, I think so. He’s already really strong and showing signs of being athletic. He’s probably got the Ninja gene.
GS: I remember the sleepless nights and having little time to myself when my kids were younger. When do you find time to train now?
DC: I’ve always focused on training smarter not harder. I guess now I’m training smarter and harder; just trying to be very efficient with my time. I do high intensity stuff when I have just a few minutes.
When my wife has a day off, I can go for a few hours to my course and have a legitimate training session. It’s hard to be competitive with these kids who spend hours after school training. They basically live their lives at their gyms.
GS: You did it a lot faster than some of them, and not all of them made it through. Is there anyone you feel is more of your competition compared to others this year?
DC: Kaden Lebsack, he was Last Man Standing a few years in a row. Vance Walker, who won American Ninja Warrior last year. He’s incredible! Daniel Gil, he’s one of the older people who’s still competitive. A friend of mine, RJ Roman. He’s really fast.
They’re all really strong, fast people. They’re the people I really watch and try to pick up some tips from them, seeing if I can come close to matching their performances.
GS: I’ve always got that sense that American Ninja Warrior is full of supportive athletes.
DC: Yeah, it’s pretty recent that the sport has become more about trying to beat the person next to you. Traditionally, Ninja Warrior has always been like a single competition. It’s you versus the course, and it didn’t matter that much how other people did, so we were always very supportive of each other, sharing hints and helping each other train.
It was always about doing your personal best, and seeing if you could beat all four stages and get to the top. That positive, supportive mentality is in ingrained in us, and I think that’s a healthy thing. I hope it stays that way going forward, so the negative side of competition doesn’t infect the sport. There are so many of us that have been positive, so I think it’s going to stay that way for the perceivable future.
I think us veterans are really going to instill that on the incoming generations.
GS: It’s so important to be there and show them how it’s done. So, I know you train at night. Why do you do that?
DC: Yeah, I have this big elaborate training setup in the woods. It’s like a replica of the final course in Las Vegas. I have red and blue colored lighting and spotlights, because sometimes, when you’re competing at night, the lights will shine right on the other side of an obstacle in your face, blinding you. I just try to get the feel of what’s going on.
With my son, Luke, it’s a little bit harder, because I have to get up early in the morning with him. I save that for my last weeks before the big final competition, where I start switching my schedule around, because we’d compete all night. It airs at 8 p.m., but we could be running at 5 a.m. after being up at 10 a.m. in the [previous] morning. So, I start staying up late right before the competition, so I’m not falling asleep during my runs.
GS: You don’t know which obstacles you’ll face before getting into the arena. How do you mentally prepare for that?
DC: Yeah, there’s always different obstacles, and we never know what we’re gonna be up against. There are themes to the obstacles, like endurance type, where we’re just hanging and doing a lot of hand movements, or balance obstacles.
Usually, when there’s a brand new obstacle, I can relate it to something that I’ve done before. We’re always trying to think of new, interesting challenges for ourselves, and we just practice every conceivable way of movement that there can be. I try to be as prepared as I can and not get mentally psyched out when I see something weird and just try to imagine how it’s like something similar that I’ve done.
GS: One obstacle that stands out from tonight [American Ninja Warrior season 17, episode 2] was the one that’s like a clock. You hung between 11 and 12 and tried to get the clock to move, but then you realized that wasn’t working and switched to just 12. What was going through your mind when you did that, as you’re realizing the initial plan isn’t working?
DC: Usually, I have two or three scenarios that I see happening. I have a best case, but if I haven’t done it before, I don’t know exactly how it’s going to feel, so I imagine what else I can do if that doesn’t work. I try to have all these contingency plans in my head already, so that I don’t go into panic mode.
The instance you’re talking about, I’d watched someone else do it. I think they were a little bit heavier, and they could just reach across them and get things moving. I tried that and it just started to go and then it went back. I needed to get a big swing going and use my bodyweight. I didn’t really phase me. It took a couple of seconds mentally, but I stayed calm the whole time.
American Ninja Warrior airs on Mondays at 8/7c on NBC.