The experts have their say on the Wii Fit Yoga as The Desert Sun, of Palm Springs, put local yogis to the test. Seasoned teachers Kristin Olson and Chuck Burks from Urban Yoga in Palm Springs were given the Wii Fit and were asked what they thought of Wii Yoga.
The Pros
This is a great way to introduce people to the world of yoga.
The game isn’t intimidating.
In most of the poses, there is a yellow circle on the screen. Players distribute their weight and maintain proper balance by keeping a red dot inside this circle. This is a nice way to focus on the core muscles.
It will help people feel comfortable doing yoga in their own homes.
The interactive nature of the Wii Fit makes it more interesting than a yoga DVD or video.
Even though yoga is not a competitive sport and is not about racking up points, the Wii scoring system can motivate players to keep practicing and continue working on their poses.
Even people who have no interest in yoga will benefit from slowing down and stretching.
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The experts noted a few cons: that the practise lacked the heart of yoga in exploring the connection between mind, body, and spirit. The meditative quality of yoga practise is lost as there are stops between postures, clicking through to the next, without consideration to sequencing, and holding the wiimote is annoying. The teachers also noted that some postures could be advanced for newcomers, and risk of injury is present if the pose is held incorrectly.
I agree with them and these are all points I have made of this blog before and the obvious conclusion is the wii fit is not a replacement for a regular yoga pratice, and thus should not be compared to yoga as a whole. The Wii fit is only a very very small sample of yoga but the percentage of people crossing over from the Wii yoga to a local yoga class to daily pratice should be noted as positive movement for the yoga community.
CVG is reporting a Wii Yoga game (?!) being developed by JoWood currently planned for released in the second quarter of 2009.
The publisher says young at heart gamers will be able to experience the “favoured doctrine for mind, body and soul” with Wii Yoga, and promises a truly “unique” gaming experience unlike anything else. Apart from Wii Fit.
The JoWood website has no official information at their website so for now you might want to consider this information a rumor but one must have to assume that the gaming development sector is racing to come out with a Wii Yoga type of game on the heals of the Wii Fit success. If a gaming company out there could release a halfway decent exclusively yoga program for the Wii Fit by this 2008 Holiday season, the masses would buy.
I would like to add: calling yoga a game just doesn’t sound right. “Practice” makes better sense but may sound too boring for marketing. Second, as CVG reported, Nintendo already has said no to developers using “wii” in their game titles so JoWoods may have to use the name “We Yoga” just like the “We Ski” game. I’d place my bet on “iYoga” but yogis don’t gamble.
Please add you ideas for a “Wii Yoga game title” in the comments section below:
The Wii fit yoga poses offer a good variety of postures to ensure a well-rounded practice. It is important to ensure that your yoga practice includes twists, forward bending and spinal extension to bring the body into balance. Once you’ve unlocked the 15 wii fit yoga poses be sure to design your practice with a range from these categories. The Nintendo wii fit demo is good to watch prior to trying the poses, as your ability to look at the screen is compromised in certain positions, eg, to be bent over in sun salutation. The Wii fit demo video illustrates how to go through the exercises, basic information is given and reference to the breath is made, but remember that there are differences between traditional yoga and the wii fit yoga poses. The final 4 poses are more advanced, and care should be exercised moving into these postures.
