Getting fit with play - Designing games so everyone can play their best!
Games are a really important part of our fitness and movement practice here at Ideanthro Movement, and in this blog post we’re going to tell you a couple of important things that you can do to make sure that everyone gets the most out of games when playing them for fitness.
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We not only use games in our fitness programs because they're fun, but for two other really important reasons.
#1 : Games are great at adding variety of movement into our practice. Think about the variety of ways you might move while plying tag as opposed to just going for a run. Both activities are fundamentally running, but one is far more diverse than the other.
#2 : Games allow us to apply movement skills in a way that mimics real life. It's all well and good to lift something when you have all the time in the world to pick it up like you do in the gym, but a game might force you to do it quickly like to would when plucking your toddler up off the ground as they run by. Both are realistic scenarios, but that’s the point. The both need to be practised, and the game is a good way to do the later.
Having said all of that, it’s really important to get the design of the game right if we want everyone to get the most out of it. This is important for kids and adults alike.
We find that movement games work best when they allow everyone to simultaneously:
have a similar chance of success in the game; and
work at a similar level of difficulty to each other.
It might help to understand this if we look at a few examples.
Consider a game with two people where both play hard but one person is far more skilful than the other (i.e. this scenario complies with point 2, but not point 1). This doesn't work particularly well because the more skilful person wins time and time again and the other person gets crushed and demoralised.
Now consider a game where one person takes it easy so the other person has a chance of winning (i..e this scenario complies with point 1, but not point 2). This is the typical coach to student relationship, particuarly when the student is a child. Unfortunately it doesn’t work optimally because the person everyone taking it easy doesn’t improve (not such a problem if that person is the coach in the scenario) and because the other player eventually sees that the first person isn’t full engaged and switches off themselves (kids often hate it when they feel like you’re letting them win!) This option sometimes works for a little while but ultimately it stops.
So what do we do? How do we design games to abide by both of the above principles (everyone plays to the best of their ability and has the same chance of winning) when not everyone playing is of the same ability?
It all comes down to handicapping the game.
We find ways to adjust games to handicap the stronger players so that everyone gets to play to the best of their ability under their given circumstances and at the same time everyone has a similar chance of winning.
There are many ways to do this and it varies from game to game but in a nutshell you want to find simple ways to make the game harder for the stronger players. For example, when playing a game of “Board Game Racing” (think of a game of naughts and crosses where you run to earn the right to play a piece) we will often introduce a rule such that whoever came last in the previous game gets to pick a challenge for the winner to perform in the next game. For example, in the next game the winner might have to walk/run along a balance beam instead of the floor, thus being slowed down. This not only keeps things even, but adds a lot of variety of movement into the game, and it has the advantage of allowing the handicap to be fine tuned after each game (e.g. if the challenge is very hard, the other person will win and the handicap switches back and so on)
And that’s it really. Making games accessible and fun for everyone in a fitness context is all about getting the handicapping right. Avoid the temptation to ‘just go easy’ on someone, and instead create a way to dynamically handicap the game that allows everyone to play their best and have the same chance of winning and the game will work best.
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