The Universals of Games and Sports

Abstract

The so-called traditional motor games are group situations that function like smallscale societies, full of emotionally rich vicissitudes and proper objectives, alliances, and antagonisms. Traditional games have certainly been the object of many dispersed, really interesting studies, but no general conception of them, based on a scientifically supported methodological approach, has been developed so far. How do these games work? Does their development depend on sheer chance? Does it respond to any underlying structures? Is this development anyhow related to the socio-emotional dynamics of the group of players? As a whole, do these games, so different from each other, have any common characteristics that generate similar effects on the personality of the players? In the end, is what we know about a given game comparable and generalisable to any other one?

Playing Ludomotor Activities in Lleida During the Spanish Civil War: An Ethnomotor Approach

“…Thus, these activities were QTSG, i.e., activities without rules, open to constant changes in game actions, at the will of the participants. They were mostly psychomotor ( Figure 2 , Cluster 1), which is in line with previous research ( Alonso et al, 2010 ) but against the findings in the Olympic Games ( Parlebas, 1988 ; Pic, 2018 ; Parlebas, 2020 ), and absent of any motor interaction with others, that is, they allowed testing the self-sufficiency of each person in risky situations. Exploration, creativity, fantasy, and overcoming of fear were constant in the motor behaviors associated with the process of subjectification of the material culture of this moment.…”

“…Motor praxeology establishes that each LA (TSG or QTSG) has an internal logic that determines a particular way of relating to other participants, to space, to time, and to material ( Parlebas, 2020 ). Each one of these internal relationships originates from singular features, for example, relationship with others [motor interaction type: without interaction between participants (psychomotor)]; with motor interaction between players (sociomotor); domains of motor action (cooperation, opposition, or cooperation-opposition); relationship with space (stable or unstable space implying contingencies; space as q goal to be reached, fixed or in-motion, human or artificial); relationship with the material (with or without objects); and relationship with time (with or without a final outcome).…”

Variability of the Motor Behavior during Continued Practice of the Same Motor Game: A Preliminary Study

“…The structure of the games conditions the motor consequences, and consequently, the learning effects on the different dimensions of the motor behavior [12]. The value of traditional games as pedagogical tools, that foster emotional facets or affectivity [14,15], create new relationships, develop social adaptability or boost initiative and decision, has been highlighted [16]. However, to our knowledge, the consequences of traditional motor games on other dimensions such as physical-physiological or behavioral ones have not been assessed.…”

“…Among other games, tag games are usually employed during physical education lessons or training sessions [17,18]. Compared with sports and other traditional games, these games offer different networks of motor interaction [19] in which the protagonism of each player is more than just being a member of a team [16]; for instance, one against all (e.g., classic tag game), convergent games (e.g., chain tag game), or games with permutation network (e.g., the "What's the time, Mr. Wolf?"…”

“…For example, it seems that the continuous practice of a specific skill such as free-throws in basketball resulted in better technical execution [23]. But the consequences of the repetition of games consisting in more complex motor interaction networks [16,24] have not been assessed yet. Thus, the assessment of the motor behavior during the continued practice of the same tag game would help teachers and coaches to adequately use these types of motor games for a time.…”