Arm problems

It's ok if you use the bar, but abusing of its use may be the reason your arms hurt. Try to use it only in parts that are more difficult and don't grab it with all your strength.

It's fairly well known that the bar is there to prevent players falling backwards onto spectators, and players queuing up to play. They revised the bar design for Pop'n Stage, so that it completely barricades players inside the machine, and makes them step onto or off the machine at the side. It was mentioned in the interview / staff comments bit where they discussed the development of the original DDR game, and talked about machine design and bringing in choreographers to chart the steps, before realizing that the choreographed dances had to correlation to how players actually played the song.

Even if it is designed to be held onto, it's designed for people under 5"2' to hold onto.


If you want to be balanced, your neck, shoulders, buttocks and heels should be in alignment, whether you use the bar or not. As I said earlier, it's easier for shorter players to do this while using the bar, because they have to bend their knees less, so using the bar ultimately puts more strain on the posture of taller players.

I've only had my arms hurt when working on single mode songs for a while because I honestly find Single play very cramped. I don't have this problem on double but then I am generally more worn out after a long double session anyway:

I guess you could still argue the 10+ year old argument over bar use but even Konami staff admit Konami has the bar in mind when making charts. TAG says that is what Konami intends players to do on the harder charts

http://mp.i-revo.jp/user.php/ddr/entry/310.html

"> TAG「じゃ、次。Healing Vision(Angelic mix)」
>
> TAG「ずっと縦連打譜面なのですが、頑張れば片足で捌けなくもないギリギリのテンポということでこの曲にしました。
> あと↓が全体的に多いのはバーを持ってプレイするのを想定したためです、百パーバランスくずれるので・・・」 "

Of course, using it all the time will eventually wear on your arms.

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It's not a fitness issue, it's a position/mechanics issue. When you have your arms behind your back close together, elbows bent, and you're leaning on them, you're doing the equivalent of tying your hands behind your back and having someone lift you up by the elbows. This torques your shoulder the wrong way, so obviously it hurts. The way to have your arms not hurt is to spread them out and straighten them, which also eases up on your upper arm since it's not flexing so much all the time.

This is also why I don't really understand when people say it's easier for shorter people to use the bar. I'm reasonably short (5'6"), and I feel the bar is too high up on me, forcing me to bend my elbows if I actually want to lean on the bar to step lighter. If I was taller, I could lean on the bar with straighter arms so my shoulders aren't pulled so high up.

(I pulled a shoulder my first time playing bar doubles, but I didn't notice it until after the fact when it was sore for a whole week afterwards and I had trouble raising my arm. Then I learned to slide my hands along the bars while crossing pads so that I'm not trying to pull my arms out of my shoulder from behind my back.)