[Infowarrior] - DDR hits the high school gym class

[Richard Forno]

Dance Dance Revolution hits the high school gym class

By John Timmer | Published: April 30, 2007 - 11:15PM CT

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070430-dance-dance-revolution-coming-
to-a-gym-class-near-you.html

Childhood obesity is an increasing problem in the developed world, fed by a
one-two punch of poor dietary options and a sedentary lifestyle. Video games
are sometimes blamed for the appeal of sedentary living, but an article in
the New York Times takes a look at one game that may provide a solution:
Dance Dance Revolution, which has appeared as part of regular gym classes in
at least 10 states.

Gym class would seem like an obvious place to intervene when attempting to
combat childhood lethargy, but the challenge has been to get students,
especially the obese, involved in gym in the first place. Many fitness
activities simply aren't appealing to a wired generation, and others (such
as basketball) require students have an existing athletic skill set before
they can fully participate. DDR appears to bridge these gaps, as it uses a
format‹video gaming‹that appeals to students, and doesn't require skills
beyond basic coordination.

The use of DDR is also backed up a growing body of scientific literature.
One study suggested that, even at beginner's settings, a little over an hour
of DDR would be sufficient to help children lose weight, and the activity
fell within recommended guidelines for cardiac fitness. A second revealed
that DDR raised the energy use of children more than forcing them to walk on
a treadmill while watching TV.

Putting DDR in high school PE class is being pioneered in West Virginia,
which has some of the highest rates of obesity and related disorders in the
nation. The state plans to install DDR equipment in every school in the
state by sometime next year. The effort is being coordinated with West
Virginia University's School of Physical Education, which has produced a
study (as yet unpublished) examining the benefits of DDR at home. Although
not all of the overweight children in that study lost weight, the majority
did not gain weight and managed to increase aerobic capacity and general
fitness. Surveys of the children suggested that time spent playing DDR also
improved self-image and produced better attitudes towards exercise.

Improved fitness does not seem to be DDR-specific: one of the studies
mentioned above also tracked smaller but significant gains from a game which
used a USB camera to insert players into the action. It's also worth noting
that all of these studies have been performed prior to the appearance of
active gaming's new 800-pound gorilla: the Nintendo Wii, which has many
games that require its players to get physically involved.

Last fall, a fitness center opened in Southern California that caters
exclusively to teenagers. Called Overtime Fitness, the gym uses a number of
video games to get kids exercising. But you don't need a gym membership to
get in shape by playing video games. Last year, Ben managed to drop almost
20 pounds by following a fitness regimen that included heavy doses of
gaming.

Although games will probably never substitute for a full slate of physical
activities, immersive games like DDR can act as an important bridge,
catching students' interest and getting them up to a basic level of fitness
that may enable them to take part in more challenging exercise. Given the
results of these studies, the next logical step seems to be to get one of
the college-level physical education programs involved in game design. One
of these studies suggested DDR had room for improvement when it came to
exercising the lung capacity of participants, a weakness that some careful
work might address.