Gaga (game)

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.

[2] 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.

[4] 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.

[4] 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).

[6] In 2016 and 2017, Tablet magazine reporter Stephen Silver wrote a two-part investigation of gaga's origins,[4][7] sifting through the various theories and rumors that had circulated over the preceding 60 years.

"[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.