Kids go gaga for ‘dodgeball light’
Children of all shapes and sizes can’t get enough of game grown-ups call ‘the great playground equalizer’
When the doors open for recess at Madison Elementary School in Wheaton, Illinois, kids and more kids charge straight to the school’s gaga pits and jump inside.
“Ga-ga, ga-ga,” they chant as the ball is dropped in the centre of the pit and the game of gaga begins. Other classmates quickly gather around to cheer and wait to join in.
The old-but-new-to-some game of gaga — what some call a kinder and gentler form of dodgeball — is being chosen over traditional games on some playgrounds these days.
Parents, teachers, camp counsellors and other grown-ups — and kids, too — say the spread of gaga fever is a good thing.
They call the game of gaga “the great playground equalizer.” It doesn’t require a strong throwing arm, fast legs or superb hand-eye co-ordination. Almost anybody can play.
“It puts everybody on an even playing field. Your jocks, your Lego kids, your readers — everybody’s even in gaga ball,” said Madison physical education teacher Joe Cortesi, who helped the school put two pits on the playground in spring this year.
The name “gaga” to some may initially conjure images of a female singer. But the gaga at playgrounds and camps is a decades-old game. Many believe it originated in Israel. Gaga means “touch, touch” in Hebrew. It was being played at Jewish summer camps in the U.S. by the early 1970s, but the game’s popularity is much greater nowadays, and growing.
In 2010, Cliff Silverman, of Libertyville, Illinois, played gaga at a daddy-daughter camp and saw how it appealed to both girls and dads. He began designing gaga hardware and items used to make a gaga pit and play the game. He sells his items at trade shows and through his website (gagaballpits.com).
“When I first started taking this to trade shows for summer camps, maybe 15 per cent knew what gaga was,” Silverman said. “I had to get people in the pit and teach them. Now I go to these same shows and only 15 per cent don’t know what it is.”
Gaga is played inside a hexagonal or octagonal pit about five to eight metres wide with walls generally 60 to 75 centimetres high and built on any surface: blacktop, grass, sand, wood chips or carpet. The number of players at the start of the game varies.
Players start with one hand touching a wall. A lightweight ball is dropped in the centre. Then someone slaps the ball underhand, attempting to hit the other players on or below the knee to eliminate them from the pit.
The last player in the pit wins, but the game is more complicated than that. Players cannot hold or throw the ball. If someone hits the ball out of the pit without it touching a person, they’re out. If someone outside the pit catches that ball, he or she is back in. So being outside the pit doesn’t completely exclude you from the game.
“It’s kind of like dodgeball. I like gaga ball a lot better,” said Madison fifth-grader Rian Klabunde. “I just feel like it’s not that competitive and it’s really just a fun way to hang out. Dodgeball is a little bit more competitive and I don’t really like that.”
The rules, the soft ball that’s used and the confined space help keep the action safe and less subjected to athletic prowess than other traditional games.
“Skill-level difference can make or break the fun in a game like soccer or basketball,” Silverman said. “But being athletic and quick doesn’t ensure you’re going to be a winner in this game.”
Cortesi applied for a parentteacher association grant to get Madison a pit after witnessing the popularity of the game at neighboring Bower Elementary in Warrenville. Parents and students helped him construct the first pit from wood and Silverman’s steel brackets during spring break.
“It was a mega-massive hit,” Cortesi recalled. “The lines were crazy during recess and so we decided to build a second one. It’s great for getting kids out and away from TV and video games. And it’s pretty cool when you see middle schoolers and high schoolers coming over to play together after school. All you need is a pit and a soft ball.”
Isaac Brubaker, day and overnight director at Camp Henry Horner, a Jewish Council for Youth Services camp in Ingleside, Illinois, said the camp had gaga in one of the spare cabins at summer camp and the pit was always full of kids.
“The gaga cabin always smelled like sweat. It’s a fast-pace game,” he said. “So we moved it outside. There are always kids playing a pickup game.”
The game isn’t flashy. Without kids in it, the pit looks like a pen.
“It doesn’t typically catch a kid’s eye,” said Jackie Keane, executive director at the High Ridge YMCA in Chicago.
“It wasn’t until we got a couple of kids to get inside. Then it drew more and more kids. All different ages can play and kids of all different skill sets.”
Although parents might find their child comes home with a scraped knee or hand, there are few complaints about the game other than that kids can get really dirty.
Dan Israelite, of Evanston, Illinois, said his gaga-obsessed sons have “gaga knuckles” that are roughed up from scraping the ground as they slap the ball. The boys — Isaac, nine, and Desi, seven — learned about gaga while spending time at McGaw YMCA’s Camp Echo in Fremont, Michigan.
“They can play for hours and hours,” Israelite said. “It’s amazing how popular it is and how it stays this way. It has not lost an ounce of popularity.
“This is the best part. All of the kids who aren’t in the pit stand around and then go flying over the railing to get back in the next game when one ends. It’s like ants over a piece of candy. We’ve watched our kids play a lot of organized sports. It’s not always the best sportsmanship being shown. But this is just fun. There is very little screaming and yelling that’s not positive.”
Isaac Israelite loves the game and wishes he could play more often.
“It’s really awesome how everyone can play,” said Isaac, a fourth-grader at Lincoln Elementary in Evanston, who also participates in football and basketball. “All you need is to be old enough to know what to do.
“Boys and girls play” he said. “I know girls who are better than me.”
Isaac’s school doesn’t have a gaga pit, but he said a friend of his who used to sit out of recess “the whole time” went to Camp Echo where Isaac invited him to play gaga ball.
“He started playing and he really liked it,” he said.