Recommendations for Kinect Sports Exergaming

Recommendations for Kinect® Sports Exergaming

General

When first using Kinect® Sports, choose “one player” or “against computer” as the playing option. This is intended to help the participants become more comfortable with exergaming since only one participant will become an on-screen avatar. However, once the participants have become comfortable with how to play Kinect® Sports, then it’s certainly acceptable to have multiple participants become avatars (i.e., choose “two player,” “three player,” or “four player” if desired).
Participants can select from Main Events (where they choose one of the specific sports to play), Party Play (a random variety of games in which participants are divided into two teams and take turns competing) or Mini Games (brief snippets of sport-centered activities). The workouts described here are primarily Main Events, while the warm-ups are Mini Games.
Remind participants to work at their own pace. The goal is to have fun while exercising – that’s why it’s called exergaming!
The difficulty levels provided here are recommendations and can be changed as needed. Listen to the participants. If the game is too challenging, then choose an easier skill option (beginner vs. amateur vs. professional, etc.), or ask them to play the game less vigorously (slow down or don’t play as intensively). When they think they are ready for a greater challenge, then advance them to a higher skill option.

The workouts described here are designed to take about 30 minutes, including the time needed to hear the game instructions. The time spent in each game is determined by you, not the computer. So please pay attention to the duration of each activity. A specific game can be played longer if the participants really like it—just continue playing it. A workout can also be longer than 30 minutes, if desired. However, there’s not a compelling need for the duration to be increased simply for the participants to get a “better workout.” That will be accomplished by increasing the aforementioned skill option when the participants are ready for it.
Once participants are familiar with the specific sports games, then the Introduction and How to Play tutorials (i.e., the sport-specific instructions on how to actually complete the activity) can be skipped. These can be turned off in the menu found in My Options on the screen.

Daily Warm-up Recommendations

Ideally, the warm-up should be less strenuous than the workouts and work both the upper and lower body. To be successful, a warm-up should prepare the participants for the more vigorous exergaming workouts described on the next few pages.

To save some time, select “one player” or “against computer.” One participant becomes the on-screen avatar and every other participant follows the movements of that avatar.

An alternative is to select “four players” and let multiple participants take turns leading the warm-up activities.

Mini Games will be used as the warm-up because of their shorter duration and greater variety.
There are 13 Mini Games displayed on three screens or “pages.” To enable a continuous warm-up, choose games that are displayed on the same page but work different body parts. Alternatively, play the two games from the same sport.

Suggested combinations are:

Soccer Target Kick followed by Bowling Pin Rush
Beach Volleyball Body Ball followed by Table Tennis Paddle Panic
Beach Volleyball Body Ball followed by Table Tennis Rally Tally
Track and Field: Sprint (walking but lifting knees to hip level) followed by Hurdle (small “hops,” instead of jumping over the hurdles) followed by Discus (alternating hands)

Remind the participants that the warm-up is NOT competitive, so these activities should NOT be performed as fast as possible.

Some of the Mini Games are success based, in that participants need to succeed at kicking/hitting/moving/etc., a certain number or the game ends. These are not the best choices for a warm-up, because they are competitive and also because the game may end before a participant is warmed up. Thus, these Mini Games should not be first-choice activities for the warm-up: Soccer Super Saver, Bowling One Bowl Roll, and Beach Volleyball Bump Bash.

Consider using Party Play mode as a warm-up, especially if the participants are getting bored and want to try something different. This choice is best after the participants have become comfortable with how to play all the Main Events and Mini Games. With Party Play, the Kinect® computer randomly decides what the participants do, and two teams of participants can “compete” against each other. Party Play could also be used as a workout alternative for a fun, whole body workout. Again, wait until the participants are comfortable with all the exergaming activities.