Dance Game Ergonomics

Being super comfy when playing dance games (or working out) is super important!

Not only is it good for our health, but by increasing our comfort we also increase our performance. 

Comfort is subjective because our bodies come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, with various different quirks and features. 

I recently went on my own adventure in exploring my body's ergonomics when it comes to dance games recently. It's been an ongoing thing for a while. But recently, I started playing Pump It Up Phoenix very frequently-- I'm blessed to live near some of the best pads in New England for a fair rate at the local arcade.

I noticed that playing Pump, my hamstrings would get worked a lot harder playing the game and I got a lot better at drilling and footspeed. Not only that, but also the stock bars (38") felt incredibly comfortable compared to the stock bars on SMX (38") and the stock bars on DDR (36") and even my adjustable bars for SMX (set to 36" to match DDR) at home!

So I set out to figure out why that was the case. Normally, when I play with the 38" stock bars on SMX I find that they hurt my forearms a lot when playing particularly intense double charts that require a lot of twisting motions on the edges of the pads that I don't encounter as often in Pump-- the twisting is usually in the center 6 panels in Pump doubles, not the outer 5 panels on each side. The twisting patterns in SMX on the stock 38" bars leave my forearm bones aching after I play. It's not like a muscle soreness burn during workout or soreness after workout as I am used to from the lower 36" stock bars on DDR. So I got the adjustable bars for my SMX home setup to alleviate this when playing doubles, and I haven't had any issues with this qualm since.

But after a while, I noticed I was kind-of tearing my hands up playing SMX at home on the 36" bars compared to DDR at the arcade since the DDR bars are shorter in horizontal length, with big cushions that alleviate pressure. Because the home position for my hands tends to be the inner-elbows of the length of the DDR bars when playing double, I'm not putting as much pressure on my arms to take load off of my hamstrings and move side-to-side quickly and whip myself all over the pads. It's very comfortable and doesn't seem to tear up my hands. 

But because the SMX bars (stock or adjustable) are a longer length horizontally, I can't grip the inner elbows like that on the SMX bar to alleviate pressure and keep a home position for my hands easily. Both the DDR and Pump bars are shorter in length horizontally on the inside and it helps a lot for doubles for keeping a home position for your hands and not putting too much pressure on them vertically.

I eventually realized for maximum comfort with the adjustable SMX bar set to 36" at home, I need to figure out a setup that emulates having the cushions that sit on top of the DDR bars. The DDR bar cushions on the white k-cab at my local arcade add a bit of extra height that make the bars way more comfortable to grip and not tear up my hands when just gripping them straight, and prevent me from wrapping my fingers around the bar and death gripping them. Another thing I can do is also decrease the amount of material my shoes have in the heels to reduce my height slightly (wearing something like Vibram FiveFingers), but I really like the shock absorbency of my running sneakers for timing.

With the right adjustments to my setup cushioning wise, I think I'll be able to emulate the bar being like 36.5/37 inch which feels perfect for my height for both twisting on my toes without tearing up my hands by taking too much weight off of my hamstrings, and getting the hamstring workout/flat footspeed buff without hurting my forearms.