Kickstarter campaign aims to get kids moving with magic and martial arts

A new virtual training solution designed to get kids moving through a range of on-demand and on-screen entertainment, fitness and dance activities has launched a Kickstarter campaign to turbocharge its growth.

iDEA, which offers classes available for streaming both at home and in schools, gyms, leisure clubs and hotels, is bidding to raise £25,000 on the crowdfunding website to develop its next range of activities. Current offerings – such as street magic, breakdancing and martial arts – are hosted by experts in their field and aim to get people more physically, mentally and socially active.

“Not all children are attracted to physical activity under a ‘fitness’ banner, so we’ve created concepts that will get them up but also make them more socially active, for example they learn magic tricks that they can then practice on their friends,” Jane Maguire, MD and co-founder of iDEA, told Health Club Management.

“We’ve taken to Kickstarter as we want to bring more activities to market – such as a skills and thrills range of football and basketball tricks. We look to incorporate some fitness elements, but they aren’t necessarily fitness classes as we find that sometimes that’s where you lose the engagement.”

Maguire says the activities will engage children as they’ve been developed on the back of in-school research asking children what it is they’d to do. iDEA, which launched this week at LIW, is offered to leisure properties for a subscription of £48 per month, while home users pay just £5.99 a month.

“Whether it’s for a school, gym, hotel or the home, we plan to deliver the latest entertainment, fitness and dance activities directly to consumers on demand - with absolutely no need for special equipment,” added Maguire.

“Today’s world wants today’s technology, so we’ll be using the latest in on-demand streaming to deliver the latest trends across multiple devices.”

For more on the Kickstarter click here.