Everybody Plays!

Virtual Tennis

There are many virtual sports played on TVs. Playing virtual sports while actually moving your body is commonly called motion gaming. The game console has special sensors that read your body movement and then transmit it to the on-screen movement.

Regular tennis is played on a flat surface with a net in the middle. Using a racquet, tennis players hit a tennis ball back and forth within the boundaries and try to make each other miss the ball or hit it out of bounds or into the net for a point. Virtual tennis is a game where the ball is seen or heard on a TV screen. The player may use a short wand, racquet, or simply her own arm (depending on brand platform) to hit the ball. The arm swing sends the ball over the virtual court and to the opponent's side. Then the other player hits the virtual ball back, and the rally continues until someone misses or hits the ball into the net. Some tennis wands can be set to vibrate and the ball to make noise. These signals help people with visual impairment play the game. If you own Wii Tennis you can download (for free) from the Internet adaptations for persons who have visual impairment. Go to www.vifit.org.