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Publication Date: October 25, 2020
DOI:10.14738/assrj.710.9288.
Amar, I. B., Ghayaza, N., Cherif, A., & Elloumi, A. (2020). The Effect of Traditional Games on the Social health of Tunisian Pupils in Physical
Education. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 7(10) 495-517.
The Effect of Traditional Games on the Social health of Tunisian
Pupils in Physical Education
Imen Ben Amar
Research Unit Ecumus, University of Mannouba Tunisia
Nizar Ghayaza
Research Unit Ecumus, University of Sfax Tunisia
Aicha Cherif
Research Unit Ecumus, University of Sfax Tunisia
Ali Elloumi
Laboratory TEC, University Paris Descartes
Abstract
By positioning itself as clearly in the niche market of health, physical
education tries to make its contribution vis-à-vis a set of problems
representing significant social costs. Several experiments of promotion
of the physical activities with purpose hygienic were realized abroad.
The Scandinavian countries, Quebec and the USA became famous in this
particular approach. In Tunisia, in spite of an official report on this
published subject there was about fifteen years, no overall policy was
defined. The introduction, for the school physical education, of an
objective of preparation for the adult's physical life evoking explicitly
the problem of the management of the health, allows to fill partially, at
least from the point of view of the principles, this deficiency. In this
study, we shall try review of the effects of the traditional sports games
on the health of the pupil. It will be a question of arguing in a most
objective possible way the links positive which we can weave between
game and social health.
Key words: social health, traditional games, physical education, motor
conduct, Tunisian pupils
INTRODUCTION
The main contribution of children's physical education is in the area of motor skills acquisition.
Fundamental movement skills include manipulative, locomotion, stability and physical health skills.
These skills are generally considered to be the building blocks of specific motor conduct of children
(See, Joncheray & Richard, 2016; Legrand & al. 2017 ; Dugas, 2019 )
Fundamental movement skills help children to control their bodies, manipulate their environment,
and socialize through other recreational activities (Dugas, 2019). The current physical education
curriculum in Tunisia does not develop and refine fundamental movement skills during the crucial
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years of preschool and elementary school, but it often leads children to frustration and inability to
cope. to social life during adulthood (See, CMHCC, 2018; ParticipACTION, 2018).
Fundamental movement skills do not develop simply as a result of age (See, CMHCC, 2018;
ParticipACTION, 2018); that is, children cannot rely solely on maturation to reach the stage of
maturity of their fundamental motor skills. Environmental conditions which include opportunities
for practice, encouragement and instruction are crucial for a child's social development (See,
CMHCC, 2018; ParticipACTION, 2018). Therefore, they must be educated and practiced.
Although the literature suggests different teaching programs, traditional play can be offered as an
approach for teaching motor skills; it is the main way in which children learn their bodies and their
movement skills.
It also serves as an important facilitator of cognitive and emotional growth in young children as well
as an important means of developing social health.
Traditional games are games that historically were current in the vast country of Tunisia; these
games were adapted to the particularities and cultures of the regions. Traditional games have
human and cultural values, beliefs are reflected in these from one lineage to another. These games
have been forgotten as a result of industrialization in recent years.
Traditional sports games are witnesses and agents of a rich cultural heritage. Unfortunately, the
games have often been perceived as derisory, for many of us, they provide no legitimate identity
worthy of its name, much less give them is there an educational relevance. It “seems legitimate in a
historical perspective, formulate the hypothesis that the development of gymnastics and sports is
symmetrical with the decline of games and other traditional practices", (See During, 1990, Joncheray
& Richard, 2016; Legrand ; Meziani & Collard, 2017 ; Dugas, 2019 ). Indeed, the Tunisian official
instructions from the early twentieth century, until today, are clearly thorough lied on the primacy
of pedagogy in sport, especially since independence in 1956. They "have made a choice which is to
base the teaching of technical equipment at the school sports games", (See During, 1990). Further
guidance may be considered.
The physical education always had purposes of health. We observe however, since the end of the
XIXth century a double sliding. The first one is the responsibility of health envisaged in the social
standing in an empowerment of the individual. The second is the one of the unique references to
the medical sciences (biology, epidemiology) in the reference to the human sciences. If the ultimate
purpose of the physical education is to incite the future adults to practise, throughout their life,
activities of sports leisure, the teacher, the sports trainer, will note that if " the pupil feels in physical
education of the positive emotions during a sport game, there is strong probability that he pursues
this orientation in his adult's life, with positive consequences on the maintenance of his health ",
(see Délignières & Garsault, 2004, Joncheray & Richard, 2016).
The concept of health refers to a complex phenomenon, characterised by subjective and objective
aspects. Besides the absence of disease, these aspects correspond to the well-being, mental and
social individual. They are more related to the place that everyone holds in life according to its
cultural context, values and expectations. When the student participates in a traditional sport game,
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Amar, I. B., Ghayaza, N., Cherif, A., & Elloumi, A. (2020). The Effect of Traditional Games on the Social health of Tunisian Pupils in Physical Education. Advances
in Social Sciences Research Journal, 7(10) 495-517.
he adopts certain “motor conduct”. The concept of “motor conduct” is multidimensional. These
various dimensions are responsible for motor significance in the social and cultural context where
everyone lives. Opportunities offered by educational or pedagogical use the traditional sports
games seem to be more important than the idea that they're usually done. Its characteristic of being
associated with an external meaning (what we observe) and an internal meaning (lived body,
mental images, emotions ...), that activates as a different personality dimension - biological,
cognitive, emotional and social. (CMHCC, 2018 ; Joncheray & Richard, 2016).
It is not against the games and sport; it should simply be argued that some educational policy
decisions have too often put sport at the expense of highlight games. So that, some traditional sports
games have disappeared from daily activities. In passing a game that carries with him disappears a
rich cultural heritage and ancestral. Luc Collard (1998), explained that some authors consider the
traditional game" are complex, the techniques which he refers are antiquated; Learn to play well
known can be considered "new activities" in a programming but perhaps they deserve, despite their
antiquated, to be rehabilitated because the motor and strategic plans, they are just as rich as other
more current activities.
From these considerations, our goal is to expose the contribution of traditional sports games to each
dimension of health. Thus, for the biological dimension, he stressed the importance of being active
to improve the various systems- muscular, cardiovascular, immunological, and hormonal ...By
insisting that the tradition playful spread primarily via traditional sport game, where the child acts
by expressing motor Behaviors associated with exercise.
In terms of the emotional, Parlebas, (1969), ParticipACTION (2018), argued that affective
dimension is the key to “motor conduct” and personality development. The emotional involvement
is a constituent part of motor Behaviors. The study conducted by Elloumi (2000), on the Tunisian
traditional sports games confirmed their extraordinary contributions to the education of emotions
Traditional sports games also play a vital role in social and cultural dimensions of health:
Interpersonal relations, social dialogue and socialisation occurring from different motor
interactions within the cultural context in which we live are among the most notable contributions
in this regard.
Finally, we will consider the hypothesis of a social health education as part of physical education
and in particular, the contribution that the traditional game can be improved. For this reason, we
will demonstrate the educational and social richness that the games bring to the twenty-first
century. In this perspective, the traditional sport game is a prominent tool that can contribute to
develop social health of student.
WHAT IS A TRADITIONAL GAME?
Norbert Elias's idea (1994) asserts that "" that we cannot study the sport without studying the society
" is applicable to the assumption that, firstly, there is a strong link between games and traditional
culture under the linguistic field, secondly, traditional games have a fundamental role in the
integration and socialisation of new members of our society. For Etxebeste Joseba (2001) and
Quintana,J.G. & Etxebeste J. (2019) , " the idea is double, the traditional games are the mirror of the
society, but at the same time they act as transformers of the individuals by modulating the society. The
game is not thus a passive cultural fact, but an active element in interaction with the culture of origin
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". In a utilitarian meaning of physical educational teachers, the traditional game can so have a
relevant function in the learning, by students, of their original culture. Games are “the mirror of the
society in which the individuals live; they are the reflection of this society “, (See Parlebas 1998).
The notion of «traditional game " made the object of studies since various domains of knowledge.
However, it often happens that the used concept is not rather precise so that it is possible to apply
it to the scientific domain. In the present text, the theoretical reference frame leans on the
foundations of the “Motor action science”, “the motor praxeology”.
The study which we conducted (See Elloumi, 2000; Joncheray & Richard, 2016; Legrand ; Meziani
& Collard, 2017 ; Dugas, 2019 ) shows it. Indeed, we distributed 120 traditional games, identified in
the entire linguistic Tunisian space and proceeded to a simple dichotomy between socio-motor
games and psycho-motor games. The first ones are characterised by the presence of direct or
indirect motor interactions when the mediation is made by an object. In the first case, the players
are authorised in the physical contact when the rule allows it.
As regards, the second class of games, the psycho-motor games, there are no motor interactions,
they are games of precision that require a particular motor skill, “that of the fine movement”. It is
necessary to act directly on the psyche of the opponent because to beat sound toward, it is a
question of aiming better. The Pressure playful requires concentration and strength of character to
achieve a perfect movement of precision.
Traditional sport game and institutionalised sport game
By sport game
we understand “a motor situation of confrontation codified, called game or sport by the social
authorities. A sport game is defined by its system of rules which determines the internal logic”, (See
Parlebas, 2001).
Only, the criterion of institution, invites us to distinguish two big categories of games socially
separated well: the institutional sports games and the traditional sports games.
The institutional sport game
a sport game governed by an officially recognized authority (international federations, Olympic
committees), and so dedicated by the sport institutions; an institutional sport game, it is a sport ".
They are governed by precise codes, registered and recognized regulations. The development of
sport is united to the spectacular.
They are inextricably linked to socio-economic processes of production and consumption. The
reference to the concept of institution refers to the intervention of powerful authorities that have
material large-scale instruments: executive committees, regulations, calendars, referees,
administrators, personnel, mechanisms of financing, penalties, etc. At its peak, the institutional
recognition tends to the globalisation of sport game adopted (See Parlebas, 2001; Lavrysen, A, & al.,
2017 ; Legrand ; Meziani & Collard, 2017). Football, basketball, handball and athletics are
examples.
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Amar, I. B., Ghayaza, N., Cherif, A., & Elloumi, A. (2020). The Effect of Traditional Games on the Social health of Tunisian Pupils in Physical Education. Advances
in Social Sciences Research Journal, 7(10) 495-517.
The traditional sport game
"is a game which often rooted in cultural tradition, but has not been spent by traditional
authorities." It is often linked to an ancient tradition, and its rule system admits many variations,
depending on the participants; it does not depend on official authorities and is generally ignored by
social and economic processes. The traditional game left to local tradition the task of transmitting
its codes and rituals. The system of rules is established by the groups that put them into game
according to local customs and characteristics. “The same game can give birth to the other forms,
which could become new games” (See Parlebas, 2001). There are numerous examples of “ball
games” of “sticks”, games for children or adults who have their own local rules are applied without
strict calendar or who, often, are part of festive celebrations (bowling, racing games ...).
It is interesting to note that eternal division, pejorative, between work - considered a noble activity
- and the game - accused of being a childish distraction - is found between the institutional game
faithfully proclaimed serious and noble, and the traditional game, labelled of childish and of
subordinate
However, before establishing hierarchies misleading serving an underlying ideology that dare not
come out openly, it is probably better to explore the full scope of playful practises, where sport is a
rich subset and deepen the various elements.
Cultural diversity seems more rewarding than dogmatic alignment on a single model. These
statements make necessary to affect a critical reflection around a theory of the sport game, as well
as asserts it and makes (Parlebas, 2001; Joncheray & Richard, 2016; Legrand ;Meziani & Collard,
2017 ; Dugas, 2019). In the continuity of its experimental function, the traditional sport game
requires a virtue of integration at two levels: the first one allows the mixing of ethnic differences In
fact, throughout the world, playing tradition reveals a distinct culture that can be shared by the
playful practises. We can easily imagine a young Tunisian to present one of their traditional games
for young French during school exchange, and vice versa. Toward the current difficulties connected
to social problems in the perceptible said districts, the traditional game seems to be an educational
(pedagogical) tool that could be better exploited. The second level envisages a possibility of an
educational work for the integration of the disabled persons.
This kind of experiment was led in the children's center activity of leisure of Arras in July, 2006 in
France, the children had between 5 and 7ans, traditional games were arranged everywhere in the
space during holiday. These games had been conceived by disabled persons stemming from a
vocational rehabilitation school (CAT). The idea appeared as evident when the educators decided
that the games would be presented to the children by the different persons who had conceived them
of the hands. The result is stunning, the acceptance of some by others is done naturally without
restraint and without any ambiguity.
In a case as in the other, we observe that the traditional game contains the power to eradicate all
forms of difference, social, ethnic or physical. Sometimes feel difficulties organising educational
session’s physical appearance, we are convinced that with the game would remain more accessible
and more crystal-clear learning. The educational use of the game seems more accessible to the
teacher and also more open to situations of formal action of a social health concept for the child that
the sport which is governed by strict standards and not negotiable.
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SOCIAL HEALTH CONCEPTS
We will consider, first, the problem of the definition of health, various designs relating concept. We
will build at this level on a set of epistemological approaches, socio-historical show that it is difficult
to give a universal definition of health and eternal.
Whose health is too often limited the meaning to the absence of disease is defined by WHO as "a
state of complete physical, mental and social" (WHO, 1948). This statement, though idealistic and
ultimately not very functional, makes two basic ideas: The first is that health can be considered only
in the somatic dimension. The second is that one can not define health as the only non-health: health
is beyond, and closes, the concept of personality development, (See Engelen, L., & al. 2013 ;
Joncheray & Richard, 2016; ParticipACTION, 2018, Legrand ; Meziani& Collard, 2017 ; Dugas,
2019).
The knowledge to develop students should allow the management of physical life to adulthood. With
focusing on a long-term outcome, reasoning with adult values, the risk is to forget that we want to
educate. Values are preparing for the future values of adults who are opposed to those children. It
was to the group games that students get their count. The initial concept of health has been enriched
by the incorporation of the concept of quality of life.
WHO established in 1991, a multicultural group of experts, who advance to the definition of quality
of life, understood as the "perception that an individual's place in existence, in the context of culture
and value system in which he lives in relation to its objectives, expectations, standards and values
are preparing for the future values of adults who are opposed to those children. It was to the group
games that students get their money. The initial concept of health has been enriched by the
incorporation of the concept of quality of life and his concerns. ".
The concept of quality of life is broader than health because it includes the possibility of personal
fulfilment in all aspects of life, health is an essential condition since its absence prevents or reduces
the quality of life.
The project of a World Organisation for Quality of Life was launched in 1991. It aimed to develop an
instrument to measure quality of life in any population of the planet. This instrument of
intercultural vision takes into account the perceptions of the individual in the context of its culture
and its system of values, as well as personal goals. It includes 26 items that assess the areas of
physical health, psychological health and social health and the environment.
Again, this approach requires moving beyond the biomedical model (biological) concept of health
or quality of life to go to a full model or system that supports whole different dimensions - biological,
psychological, social and cultural - of the individual. By practising traditional sports games, students
are expected to be aware of the importance of preserving their health.
HEALTHY PRACTICES AND BEHAVIORS: WHAT RELATIONSHIP?
Because the theoretical framework for social health or physical well-being is constructed from a
systems approach, we will have, again, establish its relationship with the traditional sport game
from a systemic view. Therefore the “motor praxeolgy” or the “motor action science”, created by P.
Parlebas is the scientific discipline to which the present work is based. Indeed, it goes beyond
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Amar, I. B., Ghayaza, N., Cherif, A., & Elloumi, A. (2020). The Effect of Traditional Games on the Social health of Tunisian Pupils in Physical Education. Advances
in Social Sciences Research Journal, 7(10) 495-517.
outdated models to analyse sports games which are, however, strangely, still in force in the field of
physical education. The mechanistic model based on disciplines such as bio-mechanics is still in
force. This model is based on the Cartesian approach, which tends to reduce the principles of
physiology to those of physics and where the rules of mechanics are considered sufficient to account
for the acting person. The explanation of sports games has made from the bio-mechanics,
apprehension motor behaviour of any player as a simple machine that turns an ordered set of bone
joints and muscle groups that function as a sum of gears successive.
This model is not improved by the physiological approach, which reduces the interpretation of the
“motor conduct” of a player to the analysis of effort, energy it spends. It is not satisfactory to attempt
to interpret the intervention of a player in a game from a cybernetic model or informational
involving motor behaviour to a computer that processes information it receives and provides
response, often expressed in reductionism terms of stimulus / response, as if the individual was a
totally self-regulating automaton whose decisions are all programmed. Faced with these
reductionism models Parlebas, proposes to adopt a systemic perspective, which breaks with other
approaches. In this approach, the most important role is vested in the meaning of those symbolic
and “meta communication” and “semiotic movement”, where the mechanical data, energy and
information are subject to the allocation of service by the acting subject, meaning materialises by
the motor decision (See Parlebas, 2001; Lavrysen, A, & al., 2017 ; Legrand ; Meziani & Collard, 2017,
ParticipACTION, 2018 ; Dugas, 2019).
A ball carrier who decides to return the ball against the wall not only makes certain movements, but
notes available to different players, anticipates placing himself where the ball will go and pat the
ball with different intentions every time. It's not just gestures, movements or techniques, but the
overall action of someone who improvises a motor conduct according to the rules of the game and
the dynamics of each motor situation in which he must submit (player’s position, speed of
movement, and position by kicking the ball ...). That's the whole personality of the player is at stake
is its cognitive skills that allow him to decide and pre-action. They are also emotional resources
which are embodied in the emotional reactions in risk-taking as well as the availability for the clash
relational, for communication engine can be realized by the body contact. Ball ...). That's the whole
personality of the player is at stake is its cognitive skills that allow him to decide and pre-action.
Therefore, the different personality dimensions - biological, emotional, cognitive and relational - are
activated as a unit in the motor control participants.
The systemic concept of “motor conduct” urges to consider the entire acting person, and gives
meaning to each of its motor responses. Parlebas (2001) defines the concept of motor conduct as
follows: "Organization of meaningful motor behaviour." The “motor conduct is the motor behaviour
as it carries meaning”. It is therefore the organization of meaningful actions and reactions of a
person acting with the relevance of the expression is then likely motive.
“Motor conduct” can be observed indirectly. It manifests itself in motor behaviour with observable
feature of meaning and is experienced consciously or unconsciously by the acting person. For
example, when you film a football player, it saves its immobility, its stock displacement, reaction
speed and hits the ball, in fact, his motor behaviour. We speak about motor act when we try to get,
beside these objective appearances, the meaning of the lived with which they are directly associated
(intention, perception, mental image, project, motivation, desire, frustration, etc.).
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In fact, the “motor conduct” can be reduced either to a sequence of observable events or pure
consciousness dissociated from reality. It meets the entire acting person, the synthesis of
meaningful action or, if preferred, meaning acted. This dual perspective, which combines the
perspective of external observation (observable behaviour) and the point of view of the inner
meaning (the body experience: perception, mental imagery, anticipation, emotion ...) allows “the
notion of motor conduct to play a crucial role in the physical education ". (See Parlebas 2001;
Joncheray & Richard, 2016 ; Dugas, 2019 )
Although in recent years, physical education and science graduates in physical activity and sport
are mounted in social esteem, academic formation is always based on knowledge dispersed and
separated, without organization of a coherent theoretical and a homogeneous applicability
underlain by concepts little updated with regard to the current paradigms. The technological
modernization and the social progress did not give rise to a revitalization of the scientific knowledge
and the procedures remain archaic: “It is vital that physical education definitely embraces the
principles of quantum physics, biology, embryonic, human sciences and systemic understanding of the
human being as an intelligent system, which reacts as a whole, even if only some parts are stimulated
and, above all, she decides to apply so-limited and pragmatic principles of life now universally
accepted. (See Lagarde & Lavega, 2005)
Moreover, the physiological effects of the game or exercise on the biological aspects of the individual
are generally well known by PE teachers. Although these data are interesting, it is not enough to
stick to this dimension the concept of physical well-being of the child.
DIMENSIONS OF HEALTH AND TRADITIONAL SPORT GAME BENEFITS
Biological dimension of Health
Physical exercise is a factor in disease prevention and, regular physical exercise improves the
functioning of different organ systems and, in sum, bringing the body homeostatic balance. It was
similarly found that lack of exercise leads to coronary heart disease, musculoskeletal,
hyperlipidemia, reduced muscle mass and bone and reduces the functional capacity of the
individual (See Renault, 1990, Legrand ; Meziani & Collard, 2017 ; Shaw, B & al., 2018; Dugas,
2019). A regular exercise of aerobic activity allows this level of dietary supplement measures
generally undertaken (reducing overweight and obesity, lower consumption of alcohol and
tobacco). At this level, the effect of exercise remains, however, modest. (See Renault, 1990; Stromme
et al. 1984, Shaw, B & al., 2018). The exercise also causes a decrease in blood viscosity.
Third year may participate, as a complement, control and reduction of overweight. It is assumed
that the increase in metabolic rate resulting from the regular training is the basis of this effect
facilitator (See Hamborg, 1982; Brussoni, M., & al.2015, Dugas, 2019).
Finally, beyond any therapeutic practice regular physical activity is often accompanied by the
abandonment of lifestyle factors deemed to represent significant risk (smoking and alcohol use,
unhealthy diet). We can say without fear of contradiction that childhood and adolescence are critical
steps in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and other diseases associated with
sedentary.
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Amar, I. B., Ghayaza, N., Cherif, A., & Elloumi, A. (2020). The Effect of Traditional Games on the Social health of Tunisian Pupils in Physical Education. Advances
in Social Sciences Research Journal, 7(10) 495-517.
Beyond contention effects are well known and publicized; there are in literature other tracks: For
example, the regular practice can reduce age-related degradation of psychomotor skills such as
postural balance, motor coordination, reaction time or speed of movement (See Waerhaug, 1982;
Joos, 1991; Shaw, B & al., 2018) physical activity stimulates the immune system.
Finally, the exercise may have protective effects against cancer. At this level, the data are far from
definitive. It was demonstrated that the exercise provided significant protection against colon
cancer, and in women, against cancers of the breast and reproductive system. In addition to direct
effects whose nature remains to be determined; we can assume that the adoption of healthier
lifestyle habits on the commitment in practice is a physical factor.
Very recent study (See Moscoso & Moyano, 2009; Lavrysen, A, & al., 2017), indicates that the
Spanish population is highly sedentary. Less than half of the population practice physical exercise
and only two out of ten people are in the usual manner. Walking is the main motor action performed
during free time, the practice of sports games lying in fifth position. Six out of ten Spaniards say they
spend most of their working day sitting or standing, without making great efforts. The problems
derived from lack of exercise affect especially the young and the elderly. Today, young people are
much more passive than those of past generations. According to the OSE (Spanish Observatory for
Sustainability), the rate of obesity among Spaniards under 24 years is the largest in Europe (four in
ten children are obese or overweight) resulting in a premature increase of diseases.
During 2004-2006, Martínez Vizcaíno Sánchez & López, 2008; Herrington, S & al. 2015; Dugas,
2019, their collaborators have conducted a survey in Cuenca (Castile-La Mancha) to do a scientific
test on the prevention of overweight among schoolchildren.
This study included over 1000 primary school children aged 9 to 11 years, from 20 public schools,
who attended a school program based on traditional sports games and other recreational physical
practices, account having been held because at this age, the children want to play and to have fun.
The sessions, held three times a week, lasted half past one. To encourage regular attendance in the
program, investigators had the idea of a quarterly membership plan where children who exceeded
the 70% support win a prize (a T-shirt, a hat or a notebook). Pupils were divided into two groups:
a control group who did not follow the program, and an intervention group. The same variables
were measured in all: Rates of overweight and obesity, triceps skin fold thickness (triceps area is a
good indicator of subcutaneous fat), body fat, and energy expenditure analysis. They also performed
a breath test. The results showed a decrease in obesity in the intervention group (from 33.16% to
27.08%), triceps skin fold (from 17.41 to 16.83 mm) and body fat (from 24.29% to 23.99%).
Furthermore, APO B, a protein linked to bad cholesterol, decreased, while the APO A, a protein
linked to good cholesterol has increased.
The skin fold of children grew thinner, while the largest decreases. The relative results for body fat
decreased slightly in larger but increasing among the thinnest. It is advisable to remind the
contribution of traditional sports games to the biological dimension, because they require the
person's physiological response. Several European studies confirm the presence of extraordinary
nature of motor games in traditional culture. The playful tradition is transmitted mainly through
the “fun-motor” activities. For example, we show that until the 1950s, the traditional games with
motor-character took it widely on the society games (in Catalonia, they reached 87% (See Lavega,
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2004), the Basque Country, 81.3% (See Etxebeste, 2001). These results are also still much higher at
other times in history, as lived at the time the painter Brueghel (sixteenth century), studied by
Parlebas (1999), where the motor’s games occupy 100% of entertainment by the Flemish artist
painted.
Unlike society games, the nature praxis of traditional sports games requires players to make some
physical effort in all motor situations, whether in “psycho-motor” games where we participate
without interaction with other players ( short runs, jumps, throws ...) or in “socio-motor” games,
where it is necessary to interact with other players (danced games, fight games, ball games, ...),
object to the opponents (confrontations of fights, ...) or by opposing teams and cooperate with other
groups (games ball, hide and seek ...).
However, energy expenditure is very different in track racing games where all participants make a
physical effort and similar games in which the internal logic gives rise to situations that are changing
constantly, due to uncertainty or unexpected from opponents or from the relationship with the
physical environment. In these cases, each player will make an effort according to its different
decisions associated with roles, strategy and the risks taken during the game.
In contrast, it should probably qualify that paradise by the fact that institutional sport games carry
their own institutional pathology. Beyond the sports injury, visible and often in the business logic,
some aspects are more pernicious traumatic. We can cite for example osteoarthritis early, due to
the intense and repeated solicitation of certain joints in the road runners or gymnasts. Mention may
also be cardiac events in patients with hypertension associated with intense isometric muscle work
(See Legrand; Meziani & Collard. 2017; CMHCC, 2018; ParticipACTION 2018 ; Dugas, 2019).
Commitment to regular “fun-motor” games accompanied by a modified self-image and a more
careful attitude toward the lifestyle (See CMHCC, 2018; Dugas, 2019). For Parlebas, “emotion is the
key to motor behaviour”. These affective and emotional aspects will be extensively explained below.
Emotional dimension of Health
Many authors have also highlighted that the practice of sports games had real psychological impact.
For some authors, the physiological adaptation to stress which is responsible for improving the
psychological well-being (See Lavega, March, & Filella,. 2013; CMHCC, 2018). These proposals have
been overturned by more recent studies that show the opposite physiological adaptation that has
no direct influence on psychological functioning: we do not usually show significant correlation
between the objective improvement in physical function and reducing anxiety. Besides, the
reduction of anxiety seems to be related significantly to the increase in perceived physical condition
(See Lavega, March, & Filella,. 2013 ParticipACTION 2018, Legrand ; Meziani & Collard. 2017,
ParticipACTION 2018, Dugas, 2019).
These correlational studies do not clearly identify a causal relationship, but it can be assumed that
high self-esteem leads to an overestimation of physical condition, and in return a positive estimate
of fitness leads to a strengthening of self esteem. Given the close relationship that the self has with
anxiety, we can easily explain the observed effect on psychological well-being of the feeling of
having progressed physically. This type of assumption can have important consequences on the
design of programs of sports games. We can consider focusing particularly of motor control on the
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URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.710.9288 505
Amar, I. B., Ghayaza, N., Cherif, A., & Elloumi, A. (2020). The Effect of Traditional Games on the Social health of Tunisian Pupils in Physical Education. Advances
in Social Sciences Research Journal, 7(10) 495-517.
dimensions most relevant to the personality traits o maximize the emotional benefits of game. If the
researcher’s interest has mainly focused especially focused these last years on the relationship
between aerobic activity, anxiety and self-esteem, psychological effects of sport games can not be
reduced to this level. Beyond its physical dimension, the sports game is for the child also a meeting
place, a means of inclusion within a group, a team of friendly relations, assertiveness. Psychological
benefits that flow from behind the massive use of socio-cultural practices in programs to fight
against alcoholism, drug abuse and rehabilitation programs (See ParticipACTION 2018, Lavega,
March, & Filella,. 2013).
In 1969, forty years ago, Parlebas, already asserted that, to understand the contribution of the motor
education to the development of the personality, it was necessary to understand at first that the
emotion is the key of the motor behaviour. In other words, when somebody participates in a
traditional sport game, his decision-making and his motor answers are shaped by emotion, so that
we cannot separate the emotional level of cognitive, and therefore, the emotional of “motor
conduct”.
When we intervene in a traditional sports game, perception is in itself emotional, as affective is itself
perception. Perception is not passive reception of the player, but an active development strongly
imbued with emotional elements. Certainly, the traditional sport game can contribute to health
development, but we should integrate interpersonal and affective components, not only as factors
that facilitate the temporary intervention of motor actions, but also as essential ingredients of own
motor action.
Affective data become constituent parts of the motor action and, consequently, the whole process
of learning any traditional sport game. There are many examples of situations that lead to an
inhibition among the protagonists. This will happen the bowler or the launcher bar that tries to
make again a difficult action which once earned a shoulder injury, or that the wrestler who is faced
with an adversary that the defeated and wounded after a brutal contact. In all these cases, we can
not analyse or evaluate the response of one participant from bio-mechanical view point, which, even
if it brings some interesting information, must be placed in the context of a specific motor action
marked by a strong emotional involvement.
Incorporating the concept of “motor conduct”, “motor praxeology” shows that, emotional, cognitive
and social ways are inseparable, because every motor engagement deploys a set of emotional
implications and meanings. The emotion must be understood as a reaction arose against life to an
external or internal stimulus. In other words, that's life makes an appearance through the emotion,
whatever the trigger. Meanwhile, the traditional sport game involves an active process generator
motor actions, hence the need to identify the emotional processes that occur as sport games put into
action.
The contribution of traditional sport games to education to improving the emotional aspect of
health is indisputable. The variety of situations that offer these games can affect the different
dimensions of emotion. So, the “psycho-motor” traditional sport games taking place in a stable
environment tend to reproduce motor stereotypes, in other words, the automated answers. This is
the case of “psycho-motor” game, the launch of a top on the ground, bowling game, The internal logic
of each of these situations, leading the person to know in detail his physical limits, his defects and
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his qualities, to become aware of his emotions and to regulate them in situations that require the
concentration of each muscle group and body joints.
Other games, themselves, are to defeat the challenges and unexpected from the playground (this is
the case with most of those occurring in nature): whether it is the games of sea or river, the games
of forest, the games of mountain and the Saharan games, they each require to adjust for the
unexpected from the perpetual uncertainty environment. The risk controlled by high doses of
emotional involvement, which translates into a kind of game challenge the laws of nature.
Traditional sport games are a mosaic of extraordinary situations that require interacting with
others, partners or adversaries. In these socio-motor games, affective is inseparable from the ability
to interpret emotions; contingencies and risks generated by other participants and learn how to
react to it. This is the case of the Greek struggle game, where the acting person must decipher,
interpret and respond to unpredictable motor actions of his opponent. It's the same example with
the team games, as are many ball games, where you have to adapt to the actions and emotional
reactions that the intervention of other causes.
There is no hierarchy among different kinds of traditional sport games we do not distinguish
between best and worst games, between games of first or second category, but between games that
activate different processes and therefore have different impacts. There are normally no aseptic
games, any situation of game triggering active processes associated with the expression of different
types of emotions (positive, negative or ambiguous).
Any environment on which take place traditional sport games (street, square, waste ground or
sport’s hall) is a laboratory which produce emotional experiences, learning, motor reporting and
socialising benefits which deserve to be studied.
The above considerations have led different research groups from universities in Spain, Portugal
and Brazil to undertake a study on the relationship between different types of emotions and the
various families of traditional sport games.
The first phase, which concerned the consciousness of feelings, focused on the emotions felt by 284
students after participating in traditional sport games are representative of four areas of motor
action, according to the criterion of motor interaction (domains, psychomotor, of cooperation,
opposition and cooperation-opposition). Besides, half of those games determined the winners and
losers among participants, the other half games without victory. Data analysis confirms that the
various domains of family’s games do not act in the same way. Positive emotions were expressed
more intensely in cooperative games without victory, while negative emotions were triggered
mostly in games where we could win, lose or be eliminated (See Lavega, Filella, Lagarde, Mateu &
Soldevila, 2009, Legrand; Meziani & Collard. 2017, ParticipACTION 2018, Dugas, 2019).
We will indicate on this matter that, in different studies of children's traditional games in the
Mediterranean regions, there is a predominance of games without victory over those who make
winners and losers. However, we observe that, in adults' games from different European regions,
leading to a win games outweigh the other games. That said, unlike traditional sports, most of these
sport games are held in a festive context or under local competitions where victory is shared by the