NEW YORK — After school, the kids formed a single-file line and waited their turn to wear the virtual reality headset. What they proceeded to see blew their minds.
Just moments earlier, elementary school students at Corpus Christi School had run through relay races and jumping jacks designed to get their heart rate going. Now they were watching a VR video of themselves in action.
“That was wicked!” one student exclaimed, his eyes still widened after having removed the headset.
“I can’t see my feet!” another said as he wiggled them while wearing the headset to watch himself in VR.
Kids in the Game program coordinator Jenn Ward and VP of business development Paul O’Connor beamed at the sight and kept repeating the reactions of the schoolchildren.
November was the first Sports Technology-themed month for Kids in the Game, a sports fitness-based youth development organization in New York that works with more than 30 schools and runs daily after-school programs with an emphasis on getting kids active. The goal was to show students how technology can be used to enhance physical activity rather than substitute it.
“They’re so used to technology, but they don’t realize that they can incorporate it in sports,” Ward said.
The idea for Sports Technology month came from an internal company steps-tracking challenge, according to O’Connor, who said the thought was, “Why can’t do we do this with our kids?”
So as part of its programming, Kids in the Game distributed wrist-worn pedometers to the schoolchildren that could monitor heart rate, and they encouraged them to reach a certain number during game play.
“They’re massive into the steps,” Ward said. “They bring the steps back to our coaches, and they’re like, Look!”
Besides data and fitness tracking, Kids in Game also focused on motion tracking and used the SprintTimer app to record a motion-activated photo finish to replay for the kids.
And on this afternoon in the Upper West Side, the company brought in XOS Digital director of basketball product marketing Joe Boyle to record video of the kids running through their activities and quickly produce a virtual reality experience. By the end of the activity session the kids could see themselves in VR getting fit.
“That’s the whole point of using tech is to get these kids more active,” Ward said.