Exercise and electronics can mix

by Alan Wechsler, staff writer
timesunion.com

(The Times Union is running a special report on efforts in the Capital Region to encourage fitness and good nutrition to kids at a time of rising obesity rates. In this story, we look at how electronic games — thought to be one of the leading factors to kid inactivity — can actually be used to encourage exercise.)

Gym teacher Jon McClement saw the future of physical education a year ago at a conference at the Desmond Hotel.

He put on a belt and became a character in a virtual reality game.
“You’d have a belt that senses your movement and a screen right in front of you,” says McClement, who teaches at Albany High School. “Balls are dropping out of the ceiling, and you have to keep the balls from going into floor holes. It’s exhausting.”

The technology that brought you the Wii — an interactive video game with a hand control that recognizes movement — has opened up a whole universe of new games that encourage kids to move around. Now, companies are making heavy-duty versions of those games meant to survive daily use by multiple gym classes in an educational setting.

The idea of linking physical activity and video games dates back more than a decade — notably through the arcade game Dance Dance Revolution, where players earn points by following a lighted dance pattern. Schools are only beginning to embrace such games for gym classes, but there already are some local converts.

Red Mill Elementary School in East Greenbush recently paid $15,000 for three Sportwalls, a large electronic panel that kids hit with beanbags or balls to get points. The games speak, light up and keep score. Kids wait in line to play.

“You need something that will trick them into becoming physically active,” says John Murray, co-owner of Advantage Sport and Fitness of Ithaca, which sold the machine to the school.

The purchase came out of a three-year, $750,000 federal grant the district received last year in order to improve its physical education programs.

YMCAs also have gotten involved in the electronic age. A number of local YMCAs have launched a new program that combines exercise bikes and virtual reality. Called Espresso Bike, the program lets kids spin side-by-side while watching a digital version of themselves racing on computer screens.

“We’ve got to appeal to these kids,” says Nancy Gildersleeve, senior program director at Glenville Y. “What do they like to do — they like to play video games.”