RHYTHM TABLES AS A MEANS OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Professor Martín Velázquez Ugalde

martvel@prodigy.net.mx
Queretaro, Mexico

Some time ago in Querétaro, the Indigenous primary teachers of a particular area
asked me for a Rhythmic Tables course because a date was approaching when the
schools had to parade, I don't know if it was November 20, the fact is that they wanted
support on my part to develop your activity.

I immediately set about the task of designing the course, lasting a couple of
sessions where they could appropriate the essential elements to make their rhythmic
table. The first problem arose when it was necessary to define what a rhythmic table
was, if it was rhythmic or gymnastic and above all how to ensure that this activity had a
true relationship with physical education and was not just a mere act of complying with
the parade.

From the first problem it follows that what we call a rhythmic table must contain
rhythmic elements, that is, the movements made must be synchronized with the music,
instruments or percussions that accompany the table, while the table that contains
gymnastic elements can carry music. or not, in my opinion here the emphasis on one
element or another is what differentiates one table from another. And rhythmic
gymnastics? They are gymnastic movements accompanied musically or with
instruments that give a rhythm, so can there be a gymnastic rhythm table? Of course if
gymnastic elements and accompaniment are included.

Once this point has been clarified, we must approach the core issue of the
question: is a rhythmic table a motor educational means? To face the problem we can
start from the motor possibilities of the activity, from the experiences that we can gather
around the issue, from the theory that we have available about physical education and
even from the current norm, which is none other than the plan and Physical Education
program. I choose to start with the last: The physical education program in Mexico is a
document that is already 14 years old and that integrates in its five thematic axes
everything that the student must know with his body at the end of basic education, his
axes, elements, components and indicators give us the guide for daily work and in fact I
can find the following general purposes of PE in basic education:

Improve coordination capacity

Stimulate, develop and maintain physical condition
Promote the manifestation of motor skills
Promote confidence and security in the student
Promote training and stimulate the acquisition of habits
Encourage the manifestation of positive attitudes
Increase social attitudes
Strengthen national identity
From there I remove the second one, which talks about physical condition, and then I
am left with 7 purposes that I can directly or indirectly work on on a rhythmic table, and
from there the activity comes in handy. So I approach the different theories of physical
education to smooth out another aspect of the situation, from here I project towards
Spain, and the cooperative Physical Education movement, since it seduces me with its
non-competitive position, with its posture of physical education for peace. Can rhythm
boards be considered a cooperative activity? I think that analyzing that in the rhythmic
table groups are handled that can be up to the entire school (have you ever seen
something like this?) and they need to coordinate, associate, group together and direct
their efforts towards a specific goal, a common goal, The rhythm table can be
considered a cooperative activity, as long as certain conditions are met:

1) That the group has determined goals or objectives and desires to achieve them.
2) That the activity represents a common challenge and that the solutions can be
given through the members and not imposed by the Class Coordinator(s).
3) Make the process pleasant, responding to the interests and needs of the
participants.

Hoping that this rather meager reductionism does not distort the ideas of Carlos
Velázquez Callado and the La Peonza group, to whom I ask for an early waiver for the
license, I then move, like a melliferous erratic, to the type of experience that we can
gather around the topic of rhythmic tables, to recover some light on the matter.

For this article I asked my 100 high school students to carry out a survey of 500
basic education students, which in Mexico includes students from 6 to 15 years old,
with three questions.

1) Have you participated in any rhythmic or gymnastic table?

2) Do you like to participate in rhythm boards?
3) Describe an experience you have had on a rhythmic or gymnastic board

The results were the following:

41% of the students had participated in some rhythmic or gymnastic table

73% of those who had participated liked it

The experiences were very varied, some positive, such as the student who hurt his ankle
in a parade while demonstrating the board and a classmate from school who was not
participating took his place, to those who liked to be watched if they did. good although
they felt bad if they made a mistake, even those who did not like to participate because
they spent many hours rehearsing in the sun.

Which brings us to the first consideration; what I have called motor possibilities,
this is what could be in this activity. The origin of my teachers' problem was to seek
support to carry out in a different way an activity that they had been doing for years:
participation in events such as parades and festivals where they "mandatory"ly have to
comply. Wanting to do it differently implies a desire for change, for improvement, a
perception that what has been done is not enough, and in fact although rhythmic tables
can meet the characteristics of an activity that serves as a medium for physical
education, it is not necessarily This is going to happen, the pedagogical intention is
needed, to fulfill it, to achieve those didactic achievements, through the activity and one
thing is the appropriate technique or the group of techniques that the teacher can apply
to teach the rhythmic table and Another thing is the quality of the process.
There I stop and begin to review the contents of the workshop:

The teacher must know the body, its parts and movements, the possibilities of moving
and operating it without implements, then the possibilities of using them will be
explained: hoops, ropes, rattles, balls, clubs, ribbons, mechudos and all possible
materials, choose the appropriate music, and then learn to count, to count the beats of
music, two, three and four beats, and adapt the movements to those beats, which is what
no one likes. do, count one, two three, one two three, so that everyone does the right
lunge at the same time and looks coordinated, teach them the possible formations, the
entrances, the exits, these are the minimum essential elements, but it is not enough .

The motor possibilities; What's the point of settling in one place, and following
the one opposite to the rhythm of the music, 1,2,3, 4, I raise my hand, 1,2,3,4, I raise the
other? We cannot have a rhythmic tabal where students run everywhere like bees,
moving their arms armed with white balloons and in a moment they arrange themselves
in a perfect square, in a hexagon or perform a musical operetta that, in addition to
achieving these integration objectives, socialization, self-confidence, coordination and
so on, give information, a message to whoever looks at them? How can I ensure that the
objective, the purpose of socialization, is truly fulfilled? They are together, but they
really communicate, is there a common goal or is it just the obedience of whoever
coordinates the glue that unites them? Is there a change in attitude before and after the
table? And is this change positive or negative?

It is necessary to explain in the workshop the need for this pedagogical intention,
not to lose sight of every opportunity to achieve learning, not only motors, not only
skills, self-confidence (look, teacher, I get it!) and integration ( Don't miss out because
if you're not there it won't look good) of self-management (why don't we do this or that
movement instead? It would look better...) and be a Master-Hunter, hunter of
opportunities to get the best out of the activity itself, but how to interest them in
rhythmic tables, many do not like it because it is not a "sport" for children

A pause, I approach the television and see how he has taken the lead, he has
stolen the medium from us without us realizing it: a choreography contest: 30 school
children dressed in matrix style costumes perform performances to the rhythm of the
most recent drum music electronics. Isn't this trendy contest a form of rhythm tabla?
And to my surprise, at the final chord, everyone throws themselves on the floor and
does the “split.”

Table contest, in the 80's, choreography contest in the 21st century, the same
educational potential, the same attitude of neglect, let's hold a contest, present it and
deliver a diploma: And the changes sought in the students as we ensure them, or better
How do we promote them in the best possible way? It is undoubtedly a change of
attitude, an attitude of learning something, of promoting learning and of being on the
hunt for potential situations for the development of purposes. The course is almost
ready, the problem now is to apply it with the hope that the teachers do not remain at the
parade level, but that will depend on them and how clear the point is: teaching
techniques and pedagogical intention, pillars of each action without one the other cannot
support the roof of the educational process alone.