Think of a game you played as a child that nobody taught you from a book. Someone older showed you, you copied, you argued about the rules, and one day you were the one teaching it to someone younger. That chain of people – not a rulebook – is what makes a game “traditional”. In this lesson we look at what that word really means, who decides, and why it matters for the way you introduce games to your group.

01Living cultural artefacts

The I-PLAY Training Curriculum describes traditional sports and games (TSG) as living cultural artefacts: practices that carry the memory of communities, mark the rhythm of seasons and celebrations, and pass values from one generation to the next. They are not museum objects. They change as they travel, they adapt to new places and new players, and they stay alive only as long as people keep playing them.

Three features help us recognise them:

• Transmission: they are passed on mainly by playing together and by word of mouth, rather than by written rules or official coaching.
• Roots in community life: many grew out of work, festivals, seasons or everyday spaces – the farmyard, the village square, the courtyard, the street.
• Flexibility: rules vary from village to village and are negotiated by the players. There is rarely one “correct” version.

02Traditional games and mainstream sport

Traditional games and mainstream competitive sports can look similar on the surface – both involve rules, skill and often a winner. The differences lie in values, structure and accessibility:

This is why the curriculum sees traditional games as especially suited to groups that organised sport has often left out: they require no specialist equipment, no prior training and no institutional affiliation.

03An example: herri kirolak in the Basque Country

In the Basque Country, rural sports and popular games are known as herri kirolak. They were born from the work and festivities of the Basque farmstead (baserri), turning everyday tasks and seasonal activities into friendly competitions that brought communities together. Today they are formally regulated: Basque Government Decree 137/2016 recognises 18 disciplines.

One of them is Lokotxak, a relay race in which players gather corncobs. It is one of the four Spanish games in I-PLAY, and it shows something important: a game can be deeply local and officially recognised, and still be easy to bring into a youth club or a school yard. Its values – skill, endurance and collective participation – are just as relevant to a mixed group of teenagers today as they were in a rural village.

The other I-PLAY games tell similar stories. La Rana (the frog toss) is played under different names in Spain, France and Latin America – a concrete example of how games travel across cultures. Aşık çıkarma (knucklebones) from Türkiye belongs to one of the oldest families of games in human history. Gra w klasy (hopscotch) and Skakanka (skipping rope) from Poland exist in some form in almost every culture.

04Who decides what is “traditional”?

This is one of the guiding questions of Module 1, and there is no single answer. Sometimes institutions decide, as with the Basque decree. More often, communities decide simply by continuing to play. As an educator, the useful question is not “Is this game traditional enough?” but “Whose game is this, and how do I introduce it with respect?” Avoid turning a game into a spectacle or a costume show: explain where it comes from, who plays it and what it means to them – and invite participants to bring their own games into the conversation.

05KNOW – DO – APPLY

The curriculum organises every module around three levels of learning. For Module 1 they look like this:

• KNOW: the cultural background, historical roots and social impact of the game you are introducing.
• DO: take part in icebreakers, cultural mapping exercises and short presentations showing how heritage games have evolved.
• APPLY: explain the cultural value of traditional games to diverse local audiences in a way that creates interest and curiosity.