The aim of this present study is to investigate the influence of three learning contexts on the development of motor creativity of young footballers (8–9 years old). In team sport, creativity is a fundamental issue because it allows players to adapt in an environment of high social uncertainty. To carry out this work, we suggest a method for assessing motor creativity into ecological situations based on the analysis of praxical communications. Creativity originates from an interaction between divergence and convergence. In our case, the number of communications (fluidity) and the diversity of updated communications (flexibility) are our divergence indicators. Convergence, understood as the ability to make good decisions, is assessed by two expert judges (R > 0.90). Sixty boys’ football players (M = 8.67; SD = 0.3) coming from three football clubs participated in this research. The study lasted 2 years. Each year, a team of 10 players from each club participated in the research twice a week for 32 weeks (8 months), these groups attended different training sessions: (a) the control group (n = 20) followed a classical learning; (b) the decoding group (n = 20) attended training focused on learning the praxemes of football; (c) the traditional sporting games group (n = 20) followed a training session that was jointly focused on praxemes and the practice of traditional sporting games. The motor creativity of players and groups was assessed both at the beginning and at the end of the year during football matches. Compared to the control group, in the post-test, the group with the highest fluidity is the decoding group (p < 0.001) and the one with the highest fluidity is the traditional sporting games group. The latter group is also the one with the best convergence (p < 0.001). The results showed that traditional games can help develop players’ creative abilities. This research invites us to investigate the complementarity between the different offered training.

Résumé Dans les situations sociomotrices, l’engagement des participants n’est pas seulement réductible aux communications directes (impliquant un rapport à l’objet ou un corps-à-corps). Il est surtout lié à l’émergence de systèmes de signes assurant la dynamique globale du jeu. Nous proposons d’appréhender la communication comme un système d’interaction global constitué de plusieurs canaux. On y retrouve les communications directes mais aussi quatre systèmes de signes : celui des praxèmes, des gestèmes, des gestes et des communications verbales. Ce travail interroge la place de chaque canal communicationnel dans deux sports (football, handball) et deux jeux traditionnels (Balle assise et Trois camps). Nous recrutons trois groupes de 20 étudiants pour participer aux jeux mentionnés. Les communications sont filmées, décryptées, triées et catégorisées. On constate une forte prévalence des praxèmes dans les sports collectifs, tandis que la répartition des communications est plus équilibrée dans les jeux traditionnels (p < 0.01). La quantité, la variabilité et l’organisation des signes sont sensibles à la logique interne. Globalement, cette recherche tend à montrer que les jeux sont un formidable laboratoire in vivo pour comprendre l’organisation des systèmes de signes. Spécifiquement, elle apporte des informations sur le pouvoir socialisant de la sémiotricité de chaque jeu et sur le renouvellement des pédagogies qu’elle peut engendrer.

Impact of the Awareness of the Secret Code “of the Game” to Develop Motor Creativity. An Illustration in Football for Children Aged 8-9. Anybody can know how to play a team sport, but players in those games use to find themselves on the pitch unable to make real those inspiring principles and foundations. In this sense, there is a code, intimately related to the laws of the game, that drives covertly how players communicate in situ (“Call for the ball”, “Crossing run”, “Supporting run”, etc.). This code is frequently acquired unconsciously by the players as they learn to play, experienced without realization, “without being immediately available to conscience nor to verbal explanation” (Petitmengin, 2010). It is our hypothesis that becoming aware of this code can improve motor performance and creativity. In order to test it, two control groups and two experimental groups were defined (8-9 year old) and asked to take part. For a whole year, twice a week, control groups were coached accordingly to a traditional technical-tactical approach. At the same time, the practice for the experimental groups was focused on learning to play without the ball, on learning the motor signs of the code. All matches were thoroughly analyzed in order to report possible evolutions. Our results showed significative progressions in the experimental groups (p<. 01) in the use of signs, clear evidences of the impact that new coaching strategies can have on the decoding competence and the motor creativity of youth soccer players.

Dans la pratique des arts du cirque, il apparaît que les émotions jouent un rôle important dans le processus d’apprentissage moteur. Les états émotionnels, variables au cours de cet apprentissage, semblent globalement inconscients (Damasio, 1999). Nous postulons que la prise de conscience des émotions vécues pourrait se révéler utile à l’artiste pour mieux comprendre les ressorts de son apprentissage. Une recherche auprès de cinq circassiens du Centre National des Arts du Cirque (CNAC) est menée. Nous nous attardons sur deux composantes principales des émotions : la dimension expressivo-comportementale et le sentiment subjectif (Carton, 2007). Pour les appréhender, nous nous appuyons sur un travail d’observation des expressions corporelles à l’aide d’une caméra ainsi que sur des entretiens d’auto-confrontation. La verbalisation des circassiens permise par ces entretiens nous informe sur leur expérience subjective émotionnelle et peut permettre un travail de « conscientisation » des émotions et des gestes automatiques et incontrôlés. L’analyse des verbatim témoigne notamment de l’intérêt des entretiens d’autoconfrontation pour permettre aux artistes de réguler leurs émotions et leurs comportements à des fins d’apprentissage.