A special year 2020
A difficult and specific year has just ended. The world has been in a state of epidemic many times, but it has never had such global consequences due to the fact that people on our planet have never been so closely connected with each other, both in a physical as well as in a virtual sense.
It was also a difficult year for me. My plans, related to the development of my practical activities from traditional games, had to change.
On the other hand, I have found time, among others, to:
- WRITE a BOOK in English about European traditional games! (possible to be published in 2021) and
- create an English version of my blog www.inspirowanysportem.pl/en.
In the last months of 2020, I also took part in several events online.
1st World Congress of Alternative Games and Sports
I was invited by the President of the Codasports Organization and the Argentine Council of Alternative Sports Ricardo Acuna to give a lecture at the 1st World Congress of Alternative Games and Sports (30.09-09.10.2020).
During this speech, I presented two Polish traditional sports:
- Ringnetball and
Over 100 speakers from 21 countries took part in this Congress. We have received diplomas of grattitude in Spanish (see below).
I am going to continue my cooperation with Ricardo Acuna and his organization.
A conference: Traditional sports and games in the context of tourism
On December 9, 2020, I also took part as a speaker in the international conference, organized by a Croatian TSG expert Milivoj Pacenti and his team, with a presentation, entitled “Traditional sports and games as an attraction of cultural tourism – their role and potential. Case studies – Basque Country, Scotland and Poland“. Due to the pandemic, it took place online.
The 10-minute speeches did not allow us to present much, but I was still able to talk about, among others:
- Aste Nagusia festival in the Basque Country and the role of traditional sports during this event (on the example of the 2013 edition in which I took an active part),
- sports and cultural events: Highland Games in Scotland (in 2014 I visited two such events in St. Andrews and Bridge of Allan),
- festivals and other initiatives with traditional sports in Poland (I have actively participated in many of them).
There will be much more about the Basque Country and Scotland in my book in English soon.
We are now writing articles for the post-conference publication, and if the pandemic situation allows, we will continue our conference in October, 2021 in Croatia.
Book review
I have also written a professional review of a great book on European, traditional games and sports, edited by a Spanish researcher Pere Lavega, entitled Games and society in Europa.
My review was published in the prestigious journal Frontiers in Psychology.
You can read it, by clicking HERE
Project OPPORTUNITY
I have also taken part in several online meetings as parts of an interesting, international research project, called Opportunity: fostering social inclusion and gender equality in formal and nonformal educational contexts through applying traditional sports and games.
It is a promising project, supported by UNESCO and European Traditional Sports and Games Association (ETSGA/AEJeST), with the participation of partners from Spain, Portugal, Italy, Tunisia, Croatia, France and Poland, thanks to which many new people will have the Opportunity to play traditional games, integrate and get the best out of them!
We have three years of work on this initiative ahead of us.
MY OWN BOOK!
I have also completed my first book (in English) on European, traditional sports.
It is a fascinating story about these types of sports and games, full of:
- descriptions of my own experiences with these games,
- interesting and practical stories from the Basque Country, Scotland and Denmark,
- descriptions of over 50 practical games and sports to be played and used for various purposes,
- my own photos of traditional sports and games.
It will be a great position not only for scientists and researchers, but also, e.g.
- for physical education teachers,
- sports and recreation instructors,
- sports, leisure-time and all-round animators,
- workers and institutions in the sports, physical education, tourism and recreation sectors and
- everyone interested in original and valuable games that can be used in many practical situations.
It is possible that my book will be published in 2021.
New year – new plans
In the previous year, I had only few opportunities to organize my practical activities from traditional games.
However, I am not going to give up so easily – these games are so interesting and valuable that I want to offer them to everyone again.
For this year, I have also many other plans, but more about it will be in the next post … ?
