Gaga (game)

Gaga (Hebrew: גע גע; lit. 'touch touch') (also: ga-ga, gaga ball, or ga-ga ball) is a variant of dodgeball that is played in a gaga "pit". The game combines dodging, striking, running, and jumping, with the objective of being the last person standing. Players hit the ball at each other with their hands, and are eliminated if the ball strikes them on or below the knee. The game can be played by a group of individual players or with teams, as well as in one-on-one matches. Rules, ball types, pit surfaces, and pit sizes can vary widely at different venues.
Gaga is played in a large fenced-in area (usually an octagon or hexagon) called a gaga pit. The gaga pit generally consists of flat walls atop a smooth dirt, turf, sand, or rubberized surface. The gaga ball can vary in size and form, generally ranging from a foam dodgeball to a rubber kickball. In some games, the ball may not actually take the shape of a sphere if the proper equipment is not available. The game begins when one player or a referee throws the gaga ball into the air; while the players' backs or hands are set against the wall, they shout "Ga" on each of the first three bounces. After three bounces, the ball is in play, and the players may leave the wall and hit the ball at each other in the pit. A player who is hit by the ball or breaks a rule is eliminated and must leave the game. Players may not hit the ball twice in a row, and a player who causes the ball to leave the pit is out. When the ball is caught in the air on a fly, the last person to hit the ball is out.
Other rules may be added as necessary, and some may choose to play without all of the above rules. Additional rules that vary in frequency of implementation include the prohibition of blocking (using one's hands as a barrier between the ball and one's feet, rather than jumping), crouching, playing on the ground, and rolling. In other variations, an additional ball may enter play towards the end of the game if the two or three remaining players are making slow progress. Commonly, there will be a 20-second count down when play is too slow and only 2 or 3 players remain. At the end of the countdown, a new game is started.
The origins of gaga have remained largely a mystery since its first appearance in the mid-20th century, though the predominant theory is that it was invented in Israel and exported to other countries around the world, usually as a game played by children at summer camps.
Competitive gaga was reportedly popular in the Australian Jewish communities of Perth, Western Australia, in the 1980s, primarily through the exchange of Israeli madrikhim (counselors) to Australia, or Australian madrikhim returning from Israel. Although those claims remain largely anecdotal, fans of the game often cite Australia as a country in which the gaga community was especially active.
Gaga is most frequently said to have been brought to the United States by Israeli counselors working at Jewish summer camps, arriving in the northeastern region as early as the 1950s, then spreading nationwide over the ensuing decades.
Gaga in the modern day is frequently played at summer camps and on school playgrounds, as the means for a pit's construction are typically less expensive than other games requiring structures (i.e., steel soccer goals).
In July 2012, The New York Times wrote that, "to the surprise of parents who recall the game from their youths, gaga is solidly mainstream." Among the things that contributed to gaga's expansion, the article credits children's love of the game. "They are teaching it to their parents and not vice versa. It's not like baseball or football or tennis, where they have to emulate someone else. Kids own it."
Gaga continued its U.S. expansion to Manhattan with the 2011 opening of The Gaga Center, New York's first facility dedicated to the sport.
In 2016 and 2017, Tablet magazine reporter Stephen Silver wrote a two-part investigation of gaga's origins, sifting through the various theories and rumors that had circulated over the preceding 60 years. In the second of the two articles, titled "Is the Mystery of Ga-Ga, Everyone's Favorite Summer-Camp Game, Finally Solved?" Silver interviewed a 61-year-old native of Baltimore, Maryland, Steve Steinberg, who claimed to have invented gaga ball in 1975 as a teenage camp counselor to six-year-old boys at Camp Milldale, a Jewish Community Center camp in the Baltimore area. "[Steinberg] says he started the game for the same reason it’s still played today at countless summer camps," Silver wrote, "to keep campers busy on rainy days." Contrary to the theory that the game's name derives from the Hebrew word meaning "touch-touch," Steinberg explained to Silver that during a moment of frustration with his campers, he'd told them that they "all look like a bunch of babies," and that the children responded by chanting "goo-goo, ga-ga." Steinberg said that the game became very popular with his campers, and that he eventually shortened the name to "ga-ga" so that it would fit on the printed activity schedule. The Steinberg story has been repeated in many other magazines, journals and blogs across the country.