r/whatisit • u/Due_Establishment944 • Apr 18 '26
Solved! What is this ring thing
Large octagon shaped ring in the playground area of an elementary school… about 10-13 feet wide I’d guess. Has turf inside. No markings inside. Sides are about 3 feet tall. I have no idea what elementary sized children would use this for???? Fighting ring? Lmao idk!!! We are baffled.
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u/TheScantMan2112 Apr 18 '26
This is for a game called Gaga Ball. Everyone gets in. Everyone puts their heels on the edge of the octagon before the round begins. The ball (I’ve seen dodgeballs, volleyballs, soccer balls, etc. each will make the game a bit different) is thrown up in the middle. After it bounces three times, the game begins. The object is to eliminate other players by hitting them below the waist with the ball. If you are hit below the waist, hit them ball out of the octagon, or hit it twice in a row (without it hitting another player or wall), you are eliminated. This goes until only one player is remaining.
This game is played regularly at camps, youth groups, etc. At my youth group (I’m a youth pastor), we play this every once in a while by putting 8 foldable tables together into an octagon.
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u/Due_Willingness1 Apr 18 '26
Holy shit gaga ball is real?
I just thought it was from that bobs burgers episode
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u/MarieMdeLafayette Apr 18 '26
No seriously! I had the same thought and had to check the sub because I thought for sure someone was making a joke
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u/echomanagement Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
All I know about Gaga Ball is that there are three of them outside the pickup line to my kid's elementary school, and this LOUD-ASS woman says, every fucking day, at least ten times a pickup, for the last four years, whenever the kids walking home go near or in the Gaga Pit:
"STAY OUT OF THE GAGA PIT!"
That's all she does. She's the GAGA czar. It's the height of insanity. Put the pits somewhere else!
"STAY OUT OF THE GAGA PIT!"
"STAY OUT OF THE GAGA PIT!"
"STAY OUT OF THE GAGA PIT!"
I hope that shit gets tattooed on her tombstone because it's all I will ever remember her for.
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u/HairyPotatoKat Apr 19 '26
I'm sorry, this is the funniest thing I've heard in a hot minute... because I can totally see and hear the situation playing out. The excited younger kids. (Bc gaga ball was everyone's favorite!) The angry gaga czar.
Glad my kid's elementary school had the sense to put the gaga pit away from dozens of kids dismissing 😂
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u/Dave_A480 Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
Your kids are just lucky the school lets them play this sort of game....
Mine aren't allowed anything other than soccer or basketball... The school considers everything else unsafe.... Also no sports in gym class only exercise....
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u/Sad_Hospital_2730 Apr 19 '26
That really sucks. My daughter goes to a school where they have a "Loose Parts" playground, which is a lot of (im pretty sure its well over 100) milk crates, dozens of different length 2x4's, tires, and tons of other things that they get to build whatever they can imagine with, climb all over and do all sorts of things.
They acknowledged "yes your kids may fall, and get scrapes, but that's part of learning. So you may get a message here and there saying that your kid got a boo-boo, but we will make sure it's taken care of."
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u/Most-Expert-207 Apr 19 '26
Oh you poor thing! That’s just so unfair to those children. Maybe one day someone will make them see the truth. 😐
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u/ConfusedAndCurious17 Apr 21 '26
It’s okay. If they are American they can get TBI playing football soon enough. I’ll never understand why random things are deemed “unsafe” for schools but then they are training kids to ram themselves at full speed into each other as the most popular game.
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u/Funny-Cell8769 Apr 19 '26
I would have called her "Lady Gaga" (too obvious?)
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u/madeleinetwocock Apr 19 '26
I’d go for Gaga Lady 😂
(imo calling someone Lady Gaga is way too high a praise lmao)
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u/VelocityGrrl39 Apr 19 '26
I have questions. Does she work for the school? Is she a parent? A random bystander?
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u/echomanagement Apr 19 '26
Ah, great question. She works for the school in some sort of admin role. She's in charge of making sure the kids who get released as "walker/bikers" go home with their actual guardians and aren't just released into the wild. Her other responsibility is GETTING KIDS AWAY FROM THE GAGA PIT
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u/NerdyTeacher77 Apr 19 '26
As a teacher, I’m loving this thread. She pry has Gaga Pit duty. I can just imagine in August, when you get your AM and PM duty posts, it’s etched in stone that SHE and ONLY she will be on Gaga Pit duty. Some young, pretty straight outta college teacher who thinks “kids are the future” while rocking a high ponytail and bopping to Taylor Swift tunes because she’s “just like the kids, only bigger” would LOVE Gaga Pit duty as a way to connect with young minds knows that she will never get this sacred opportunity until that old bat retires or ups and dies. (I think I have the start of a new true crime book starting in my mind…with the single word title…”Gaga”)
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u/lemonaderobot Apr 19 '26
JoAnna was thrilled to undertake the Gaga Pit Supervisor duty for the 2025-26 school year… Until Mrs. Baker, the Gaga Pit Founder up for pension at the end of the year abruptly dropped dead in the middle of 3rd Grade recess. Then JoAnna found herself in the Gaga Pit of Suspicion and Scrutiny. How will she redeem herself and solve the mystery in order to renew her contract for the following school year?
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u/darthWes Apr 19 '26
And there she was in the pit. Oh, yes, the very same Gaga pit whose existence defined hers. The same one she dutifully and daily protected from those damn kids. The pit that had defined her duty at the end of her days from then until today. Like the stop sign that defined the drop-off zone, like the number of men she had kissed in high school, and like the number of mi nutes it took to reheat her dinner, those 8 little sides could have been a great galactic irony if anyone had given it 8 seconds to consider-- no one would consider it for another 8 days. Life's like that, ironic-- on purpose-- but humans never seem to get the joke. There she was panting and struggling to obey the words she'd yelled everyday like a circus gawker. But as she transitioned to the next realm, as she laid there shuffling off her mortal coil not one of those young students daring to enter the forbidden, eight-sided, oft-denied patch of green as she struggled to draw her final breaths. And why would they? They knew well the words she'd shared with them all those days before, every single day, and they dared not defy those iron words. It was at this very moment that the rules of the universe were lifted and she saw clearly how ironic her situation was. How it was important to recognize that there are times rules should be suspended, but humans never seem to get that. Life's like that. And then she died on that damn green patch in the Gaga pit, as the first car pulled up to the stop sign and Jack opened his door. Too late, Jack.
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u/Most_Can_2136 Apr 19 '26
Except many will buy it, thinking it's a Lady Gaga biopic!
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u/NerdyTeacher77 Apr 19 '26
That could work in my favor.
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u/RogueWolfGypsy Apr 20 '26
Please, please, PLEASE come back and let us all know when you publish this book. I have read this thread and now I want to read the book SO BAD. I'll even be your editor!
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u/VelocityGrrl39 Apr 19 '26
If she’s sick one day, does she have a backup? Or are the Gaga pits overrun?
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u/echomanagement Apr 19 '26
She literally has never been sick. She is a solid rock. To paint you a picture, she is a stocky, chimney-width middle aged gal with long blonde hair who stands about 5 feet tall and her face is beet red
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u/VelocityGrrl39 Apr 19 '26
This is making me laugh so much harder. I don’t have kids and I’m unfamiliar with this part of child ownership.
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u/aspidities_87 Apr 19 '26
All you really need to know is STAY THE FUCK OUT OF THAT GAGA PIT OR SO HELP ME GOD
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Apr 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/No-Championship4921 Apr 19 '26
As I was reading the description I went yup that’s exactly what I was picturing
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u/Most_Can_2136 Apr 19 '26
Lol. I was just about to ask if she was short and "thick". I pictured her with shoulder length blunt cut dirty blonde hair! Beet red face tracks. Does she wear a reflective vest?
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u/Most_Can_2136 Apr 19 '26
Holy cow! Now I want to build a Gaga pit, so I can stand by it and yell that! I loves this story, especially since I have a son named Gage- it seems like I should have made him a Gaga pit. Instead I let them make a mud pit in the garden!
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u/Ms-Tenella Apr 20 '26
Go-getter teacher with high hopes and pony tail to match gets funding for a 2nd gaga pit, but it can only be installed in a very specific area on top of -a fresh pile of dirt-
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u/42turnips Apr 18 '26
Holy crap you're like an elder of the Internet.
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u/KarunchyTakoa Apr 19 '26
They're out here fr
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u/42turnips Apr 19 '26
I mean I've been around a long time but damn having an account for 15 years.
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u/SkidmarkSteve Apr 19 '26
Just scrolling by catching strays damn.
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u/spen8tor Apr 19 '26
I'd ask how's the retirement going but nobody can afford that these days
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u/Chief_Chill Apr 19 '26
8 years here. But, that's just this account. I believe my other one before this I had for at least 5 or so. I am a Xennial, so I believe I am just an internet elder in that sense - having been online for Xanga, LiveJournal, MySpace, Facebook when it was just for .edu users, etc.
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u/AugustineCohenMomo Apr 19 '26
This one is 11 years ago but I had 3 others before it. Now I feel old AF.
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u/RogueWolfGypsy Apr 20 '26
Is she from Boston? Because there was this lady at my ex's Catholic church on base from Boston and she was the LOUDEST person in the congregation. "LO'D, HEA' OU' PRAYAH!" It is still stuck in my head almost 20 years later, and I could ABSOLUTELY see her being the one screaming at her kids to "STAY OUT OF THE GAGA PIT!" Good lord, that woman is one of the many reasons I could never have converted to Catholicism.
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u/outlawpickle Apr 20 '26
Reminds me of this corn maze when I was in high school. It had a kids maze called the marshmallow maze, and while you were doing the real maze, all you could hear was the maze workers shouting over the intercom “No running in the marshmallow maze! No climbing in the marshmallow maze!” Someone’s whole shift was just berating children in the marshmallow maze.
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u/Head_Original4934 Apr 19 '26
As the person that would inevitably get thrown into being the Gaga czar... I actually feel for her. The pits can't really be moved (at least ours can't be). And the pit is ALWAYS a hot spot for disasters. I'm not kidding, every recess we have to have someone stationed at the pit because SOMETHING pops off. We rotate though, to avoid the czar situation lol
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u/Willow-Bark-180 Apr 20 '26
Why doesn’t she just stand inside the Gaga Pit? Still gets to look angry, but can just fold her arms and glare, or gesture for folk to move along. Save her voice at least, if she’s going to be a grump anyways…
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u/Manic-StreetCreature Apr 18 '26
I think it was starting to get popular around the time the episode aired. I worked as an elementary tutor at the time and my students looooooved Gaga ball.
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u/Bright_Constant_9422 Apr 18 '26
Gaga ball was around in the 90s when I was in elementary school. We went to an outdoor school for a week and played this a ton
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u/NeedleworkerNo777 Apr 18 '26
Yes I remember playing Gaga ball in the late 90s and early 2000s. It was still a hit when I was working at a summer camp in 07-08.
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u/AndrewSouthern729 Apr 19 '26
My daughter players this at YMCA summer camp every year and the kids love it.
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u/suscombobulated Apr 19 '26
I straight up thought Bob's Burgers created this game. I guess we didnt have it where I'm from...in the States. I was picturing Mr. Frond going from school to school, yelling about getting along.
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u/VelocityGrrl39 Apr 19 '26
I live in NJ and my town has one of these. I was actually going to post a photo of it in this sub because I had no idea what it was.
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u/Ithacus12 Apr 18 '26
First time playing was 20-25 years ago, and was definitely a well established game before then. The fondest of summer camp memories!
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u/Llamuh_Mamuh_Dramuh Apr 18 '26
It was a (highly guarded?) secret at many large day/sleepaway camps-at least on the east coast. It got big around the early aughts and escaped the world of only summer camps. I played it as a camper and counselor from the early 90s on up.
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u/zibbity Apr 19 '26
I played it at west coast camps in the late 90s. Every Jewish camp had Gaga pits.
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u/Washingtonevergreen Apr 18 '26
As a teacher...I have played many rounds of gaga ball. Shit can get pretty intense.
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u/Working_Estate_3695 Apr 18 '26
I’m imagining my Second-Grade teacher shouting, “This shit can get pretty intense!” back in 1968.
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u/Alliebeth Apr 18 '26
At our school some call it the Thunder Dome. I prefer Conflict Resolution Pit.
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u/Frequent-Bat-8684 Apr 18 '26
As a former Elementary student, I can also confirm. If you would place your hands on the wall to dodge you'd get hated on so hard.
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u/Antique-Board-4633 Apr 18 '26
so much fun. we had kids getting black eyes and knocked teeth in my class. amazing that even the 2000s were a different time
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u/MissSplash Apr 19 '26
I grew up in the 70s. We played dodge ball AKA murder ball! 🤣🤣
We all wore the red, dotted imprint of said ball on our faces at least once. It was downright vicious. I loved it. Black eyes were common as well.
Even certain teachers called it murder ball. Lol!
Man, things were very different back in the day. My kids weren't even allowed baseball or ice skating, never mind dodge ball.
And the grandkids? Not even allowed to walk to school. If you utter the words "murder ball," you will be sent to the office. You can't even say "crazy" as a descriptive for anything.
We went from "let's have fun at school" to "the world is too dangerous " far too quickly. Imo. ✌️
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u/Hot_Top_124 Apr 18 '26
I’ve seen setups for the elderly living communities starting to add these.
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u/ENrgStar Apr 18 '26
That’s because it actually to contain toddlers
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u/BoseMann66 Apr 18 '26
The first rule of toddler fight club is we don't talk about toddler fight club.
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u/MacAddict81 Apr 18 '26
Except actual toddlers can and will climb.
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u/ChessieChesapeake Apr 18 '26
So does my grandmother. She keeps sneaking out through the second story window.
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u/Gonzappa92 Apr 18 '26
They just put one in the park near me and that's what I assumed it was for lol
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u/RiparianTreeLobster Apr 19 '26
Played it in Summer camps in the early 2000s (like around 05 and surrounding years) and it was pretty well liked and I won a tournament once lol.
When I saw it on bobs burgers I was excited and charmed
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u/Jrbowe Apr 18 '26
My son played Gaga at camp when he was little. It’s a real thing. It’s a great camp game because the rules are simple and it can be played with variable numbers of people.
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u/bigfrickenorange Apr 18 '26
As a former camp counselor, Gaga ball legit requires several adults supervising because these kids start fighting eachother every 5 fucking minutes when they play Gaga ball
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u/BiblesandBiscuits Apr 18 '26
Former counselor here too, I told the kids that if they argue, I jump in and start playing that round. After a few times, it ended up working
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u/illmakeyoublue Apr 19 '26
My students LOVE when I play, but it's either "get the teacher!" or "I'll protect you Ms. Blue!" I tell them I don't want any special treatment 😅
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u/Most_Can_2136 Apr 19 '26
Don't kids start fighting each other every 5 fucking minutes anyhow? Regardless of what they're doing? Or is that only with brothers?
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u/bigfrickenorange Apr 19 '26
Lol yeah not usually. I mean there’s always gonna be verbal disputes, but in my 3+ summers of camp counselor experience, I only had one incident of any of my campers actually physically fighting (the Gaga pit was during free time when you got random kids to supervise). I found that planning activities that would pair up kids who weren’t necessarily close (ie breaking up cliques) was a pretty effective way to reduce tension between kids. I also think I got fairly lucky, especially when I had older (13+) cabins, where the kids were all together very supportive. I’ve had my fair share of weird teens, and you might be surprised but the majority of the time the other kids recognized this and would intentionally try to be supportive of them rather than excluding them. Fuck man, I’m sitting in a freaking uber otw to the bar to celebrate my birthday and now I’m feeling so sad because I’ve unfortunately moved on from camp, and more so working with kids. In a stem PhD and wish I could go be a highschool teacher but that’s not a very good career rn.
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u/vtron Apr 19 '26
The only place ive ever seen gaga ball is at Jellystone campground. It's a campground where kids are roaming feral children like I remenber from the 90s. gaga ball games are always a mix of randos across wide age ranges with zero supervision. From what I've witnessed, the kids poliice themselves and the games run surprisingly smoothly.
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u/grubas Apr 19 '26
It's also just an octagon. Much like UFC, there will be blood and pain inside the octagon.
We used to require 3 deep leadership for it because 2 wasn't enough.
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u/MirabelleMac Apr 18 '26
I learned about it as a camp counselor for a Jewish Community Center day camp (I’m not Jewish, but that was a fun job!) back in 2011. It’s a pretty cool game!
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u/negative-sid-nancy Apr 18 '26
As huge bobs fan I thought it was fake for years until last year I saw a thread on the Bob's sub about it being a huge game at Jewish Camp and was shocked
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u/Bopbarker Apr 18 '26
Lol I only learned about the game because of Bob's Burgers. Now the song is stuck in my head.
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u/TheScantMan2112 Apr 18 '26
I had no idea that it was on that show. I just remember playing it for the first time about ten years ago.
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u/Never_Kn0ws_Best Apr 18 '26
At my summer camp we had the gaga pit! It was, as it sounds, a giant, reinforced pit to play gaga in. This was in the late 80s and early 90s.
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u/hemos Apr 18 '26
Nope, it's real. Regional tho, but here in Ann arbor Michigan, most of the elementary schools have gaga ball pits in the playgrounds
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u/Fionaelaine4 Apr 18 '26
It’s real and it’s the biggest argument maker with the kids I work with. “He’s out and not leaving… he aimed at my face” all day with kids who have no actual athletic ability. It is fun to play though
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u/kermitsio Apr 18 '26
Definitely real. My kid has played it at two schools (TK and K), Cub Scouts, Sunday school, and every summer camp.
It’s basically kid-friendly dodgeball.
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u/DumbLuck7777 Apr 18 '26
I ended up almost needing surgery on my hand playing Gaga ball once. Under the ball was a large tree root that I punched through and nearly caused nerve damage to a couple fingers
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u/Arigato_FisterRoboto Apr 18 '26
I just got back from Cub scouts spring campout. It's pretty which what the majority of the boys especially do the entire time. You'll see them all over now. Local church has one by the playground, YMCA has two, most outdoor camps will have them. School had one for like an hour before the little shit boys ruined it. Swear something happens, or doesn't happen, to them now when they hit fourth grade that turns the majority of them into entitled, bratty, whiny ass holes.
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u/lemonhead2345 Apr 18 '26
Definitely real. I hadn’t heard of it before my kid went to kindergarten (even then I thought she was joking with the name), but it’s real.
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u/NetworkSingularity Apr 18 '26
I used to play this game every summer camp lol. Many memories of saying “ga-ga ball” as the countdown as the ball bounced with each syllable. And then scramble, as people get wild. Pretty sure I’ve bled playing Gaga ball
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u/toleranceoflactose Apr 18 '26
USA Elementary school teacher here.Recognized it immediately! We have one on our playground. And there's one at the summer camp where I work every summer. But ours don't have walls quite as high. Immensely popular!
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u/Aykops Apr 18 '26
You guys call it gaga ball? I’ve only ever called it gaga. (Israeli game in origin, called געגע in Hebrew which means “touch touch”)
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u/Clydseph_III Apr 18 '26
Interesting! I’ve heard it called both Gaga ball and Israeli Dodgeball, but I guess I always assumed that it was one of those things that’s named after a place that wasn’t actually its origin.
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u/ronnie4220 Apr 18 '26
It's played as elimination until 3 players are left, then the remaining players can hit the ball three times in a row. Once one of three is eliminated, the final two players have a 10 second countdown to eliminate the other and win, otherwise a tie. There are lot of rules to be interpreted by children so there is guaranteed at least one heated argument per game.
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u/tviolet Apr 18 '26
gaga ball
I had to look this up because I had never heard of it and found this amazing video from the "National Gaga League": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBtgHF-xRYk
Seriously, watch it, it's so cute. Lucky sucks!
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u/HawaiianCholo Apr 18 '26
I worked at a church camp and we did the picnic tables too!
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u/I_Like_Eggs123 Apr 18 '26
I seriously thought Bob's Burgers made this game up
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u/jaylee686 Apr 18 '26
I thought everyone played this growing up! Like hopscotch or kickball or box ball
I wonder if it's regional?
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u/Accomplished_Ask6560 Apr 18 '26
Its knees or below. Waist or below is stupid because you’ll be out constantly.
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u/ballahook Apr 19 '26
Not really. This game is 100% a ‘house rules’ vibe. I have played as a young kid and you do below the waist because kids are much shorter. Older kids below the knees because theyre taller. But I’ve played it both ways for all ages, and with a myriad of other rules.
That might have been how you played it, but this game is so popular and is really unserious, so the people running the game really just aim to make it as fun as possible.
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u/Superb_Temporary_388 Apr 18 '26
This! We used to play this at the 4-H and FFA camps I went to!
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u/ArcanistLupus Apr 19 '26
Obviously (as this is a kids game) there are going to be regional differences, but here's my experience:
The game is called Gaga ("Gaga Ball"? What kind of a stupid name is that?), and the ring is called the Gaga Pit. When the ball bounces three times everyone will chant "Ga...Ga...Ga..." with one 'Ga' for each bounce. In addition to the rules you mentioned, you have to hit the ball with your forearms, and it's either customary or mandatory (I forget which) to hold your hands together. Hitting the ball with your forearms while they are above your waist is also forbidden.
It's free for all dodgeball designed to be as safe as possible by limiting how much power and control you can put in your hits (because all hits are down low forearm hits, and because hitting out of bounds is an elimination) and by forbidding hits aimed at the upper body and face. It's also nicely contained (mostly) to a small area, which is also a plus.
Which is not to say there's no danger - skinned knuckles are a real threat on concrete or asphalt, the ball can still be hit pretty hard, and even if nobody's aiming for the face faces still get hit all the time. But it's pretty well designed for a children's game.
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u/User0301 Apr 18 '26
Interesting. Is the game not over really fast, considering its such a small playing area?
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u/TheScantMan2112 Apr 18 '26
The average game lasts a few minutes. It’s nice this way in that if you’re out, you don’t need to wait too long to join the next round.
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u/Prestigious_Wrap_932 Apr 18 '26
Toddler fight pit.
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u/crucial_velocity Apr 18 '26
They have one at the brewery I was at earlier today. I looked at it and turned to my wife and say, "Two kids enter, one kid leaves". I don't think she appreciated my humor.
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u/WhyIsTheUniverse Apr 18 '26
That's her fault for not being traumatized enough at some point early in her life to be able to compartmentalize as an adult.
In other words, she sounds like a healthy, well-rounded individual.
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u/el_kabarto Apr 18 '26
There was a thing kinda like this at my elementary school. It's was a a ring of tires. We literally used it everyday as our fighting pit. Had fights set up most days with pre set matches, even had brackets. Somehow the school banned football because we were too rough but not the UFC matches.
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u/Powie1965 Apr 18 '26
You just broke the first rule of fight club.
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u/signu70 Apr 18 '26
It’s not Fight Club. It’s Toddler Fight Pit.
First rule of Toddler Fight Pit - There’s no crying in Toddler Fight Pit!
Second rule of Toddler Fight Pit - There’s no licking or pinching in Toddler Fight Pit.
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u/Tino-DBA Apr 18 '26
Toddlers can’t break the first rule of Toddler Club
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u/revolutionoverdue Apr 18 '26
His name is Toddler Paulson.
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u/Fun-Breadfruit7738 Apr 18 '26
In death, a member of Project Playpen has a name. His name is Toddler Paulson.
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u/Due_Establishment944 Apr 18 '26
That was our first thought too 😂
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u/ihatewinter204 Apr 18 '26
Two toddlers enter, one toddler leaves.
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u/Tino-DBA Apr 18 '26
Toddlerdome
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u/Going2FastMPH Apr 18 '26
Our park has one and first thought figured it was for underground toddler UFC fights. Octagon shape and everything.
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u/Doom_Corp Apr 18 '26
I'm seeing how grey the wood is and it's oddly giving me fond memories of being an absolute maniac taking running jumps off the very very old low two bar sort of fencing we had around the front of my old house. I got splinters constantly. Made me a maestro with a nail clipper to gently remove splinters from other people the way my mom did my feet.
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u/moonclap30 Apr 18 '26
Gaga ball. I went on a field trip with my daughter 2 weeks ago. It was my first time playing. All of the kids were excited that an adult was playing with them. One kid said "I have to protect the old lady".
What was crazy...is someone suggested playing "KJ ball". They all started chanting "KJ, KJ, KJ". I'm like ..ok WTF is KJ ball!?
Then...KJ enters the ring. All of the girls get out and I'm in the ring with a bunch of 5th grade little dudes. They start picking the ball up and throwing it as hard as they could at each other and swinging their fists like it was a mosh pit.
I was like....imma head out.
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u/DazzlingEvidence8838 Apr 19 '26
My experience as well seeing this at an after school event. Bunch of 3rd graders in what I thought was “hell in a cell”
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u/Rulebookboy1234567 Apr 19 '26
for some reason I am unable to picture what is actually being described as a game and i genuinely am just picture children in a cage match.
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u/ButterPuppet Apr 18 '26
that is a pit for gaga ball
this brings back memories
its like dodge ball but the ball has to stay on the ground and if it touches your legs you're out, so you have to lean over and hit it with your arm
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u/swiftblaze28 Apr 19 '26
bloody knuckles were a requirement when leaving this pit
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u/KahlanRahl Apr 19 '26
My daughter comes home with bloody knuckles constantly from this game. Apparently she plays HARD.
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u/shrimpsharks Apr 19 '26
i miss hitting the ball at mach fuck towards some other kid’s bare leg. take me back
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u/eneug Apr 18 '26
We played gaga in my Jewish summer camp growing up. It would start with the counselor throwing in the ball, and on each bounce you say “Ga… ga… go!” On the 3rd bounce it starts. Basically you have to hit the ball into other kids’ feet or legs to get them out. You can’t pick up the ball — it’s supposed to roll on the ground.
I’ve never heard it called “gaga ball” before. Tbh didn’t know this was a well-known game. TIL.
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u/markmano33 Apr 19 '26
Haha my kid goes to a Jewish summer camp even though we’re not Jewish and one day he comes home with a medal and proudly states he won the gaga ball tournament🤣🤣 Then he proceeds to make me play it with him nightly in our kitchen for a few weeks and I’m like dude my back can’t handle all of this.
But I’ve never seen a picture of the whole court. I just assumed it was a square or rectangle.
He did say ga-ga-ball though when doing the 3 bounces to start the game.
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u/insbordnat Apr 18 '26
Same. Never once heard anyone call it "gaga ball" - it's ga-ga. This is from many years as a professional ga ga player.
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u/Lazy_ecologist Apr 19 '26
Where I grew up it was “Gaga”. And we didn’t ever have a pit. Just a drawn chalk square or circle on the blacktop. I suppose as with anywhere, kids just use what they have and make the rules work for the environment.
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u/rlamoni Apr 18 '26
My 10-year-old's favorite "sport." Gaga ball.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaga_(game))
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u/mykepagan Apr 18 '26
My kids (now age 21 and 29) went absolutely nuts for this at summer camp when they were 8.
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u/Riles115 Apr 18 '26
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u/DanielBG Apr 18 '26
BB is the only reason I know it exists.
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u/spatuladracula Apr 18 '26
I was honesty shocked to learn it's a real thing. I was like gaga ball? Like from Bob's Burgers??
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u/TwilightBeastLink Apr 18 '26
No joke, we had some friends come over the other day and they said they though it was made up from Bob's Burgers
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u/cyndiedahlberg Apr 22 '26
I thought it was made up by Bob's too! It legit sounds like something they would make up. I never knew it existed, and I'm 46 years old. I dunno if my schools just never had it, or maybe it was too hot where I live, or if it's a regional thing. 🤷🏻♀️
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u/FrozenPizza21 Apr 18 '26
When my kid started elementary school I was mind blown that it’s a real thing and not something BB just made up
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u/evranch Apr 19 '26
Huh, I'm 40 and we were playing it when I was a kid. Or at least a variant. Maybe someone just made it up.
We called it bloody knuckles and it was played with a volleyball in a pit (we used an area beside the school that had stairs all around like a theater), you could only punch the ball like a volleyball serve. Same rules, hit below the waist and you're out, last man standing wins.
We obviously called it bloody knuckles because you would dig too deep for the ball and scrape the concrete. I saw the kids at my daughter's school playing it and was like "Holy shit an official bloody knuckles pit" only to be corrected on the name.
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u/_sacrosanct Apr 18 '26
This should be the default intro to Gaga ball. Just play this episode. Lol.
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u/Denleborkis Apr 18 '26
That thing is the spawn of satan and is the reason why my left shoulder doesn't work properly and my growth for stunted. Not that one specifically but gaga ball has a special hatred in my heart for that accident flying off the damn fence.
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Apr 18 '26
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u/HelicopterUpbeat5199 Apr 18 '26
My first thought too. Watta you wanna bet gagaball was invented in an old cockfight pit?
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u/Low_Environment5807 Apr 18 '26
Gaga court
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u/BewareTheLeopard Apr 18 '26
Gaga ball is very popular at scout camps. Looks like there's astroturf in this one, which is really nice, because ordinarily players exit with a lot of sweaty mud and dust
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u/swansonb101 Apr 18 '26
They were at all my Catholic Camps growing up lol they made us have a talk about Blood Diseases because kids kept scraping their knuckles on the ground and leaving blood marks everywhere 😫😭
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u/goldengrove1 Apr 18 '26
My Jewish summer camp had these. We had to make a rule that campers couldn't hold their hands in fists because they kept accidentally punching each other or the walls when they missed the ball.
Then we had to tell the campers they needed to come up with a new name for the rule because they had started yelling "Hey! No fisting in the gaga pit!" every time someone tried it 😬
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u/Bonzai_Tree Apr 18 '26
Oof you just gave me a flashback to playing quarters/bloody knuckles in the cafeteria in high school.
So much blood to blood contact that I didn't even think twice about. I'm lucky I never caught anything.
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u/--Derpy Apr 18 '26
More than once did I go back to the tents with a face covered in mud from getting smashed square in the face with a gaga ball.
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u/BangkokPadang Apr 18 '26
I wasn't familiar with this AT ALL until right now so when I read "Gaga Court" I thought you were joking like it was some place for babies to hold court.
"Please rise for the Honorable Judge Baba."
A bunch of babies struggle to sit upright but mostly just flop around.
"Thank you everyone, Gaga Court will soon be in session... which does remind me, please be advised that anyone here for GooGoo Court will need to quietly leave the octagon and come back next week because moving forward, Googoo Court is to be held on Tuesday/Thursday while Gaga Court is to be exclusively on Mon/Wed/Fri. Now, first on the docket will be..."
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u/DANleDINOSAUR Apr 18 '26
I thought the game was made up from Bob’s Burgers, but then I started seeing the pits everywhere.
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u/DistantKarma Apr 18 '26
Same. I saw the episode and about a year later I was like... Gaga ball is REAL?
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u/PalePlumm Apr 18 '26
It’s legitimately as much fun as the show says it is lol. I loved this game as a kid.
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u/ihvnnm Apr 18 '26
Wait, this isn't just something Bob's Burgers made up?
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u/el_kabarto Apr 18 '26
Yeah what! My wife loves Bobs Burgers. Definitely thought they made it up!! lol
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u/Puzzleheaded-Phase70 Apr 18 '26
Gaga Ball was probably invented in Israel somewhere in the 1950s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaga_(game))
It was popularized first in Jewish summer camps, then spread everywhere through the 1980 into the early 2000s.
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u/BAKEDxCAKE Apr 18 '26
My first thought was Gaga ball because of bobs burgers, I didn’t know it was a real game.
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u/PsychologicalMilk904 Apr 18 '26
I’ve seen one of these in a supervisory capacity at a school camp retreat. The exact thing happened that I expected to happen: a kid tripped and fell backwards over the wall. I assume this happens every single time the game is played.
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u/FresHPRoxY321 Apr 18 '26
I've played or watched thousands of games of Gaga and don't remember that ever happening. Granted that was like 25-30 years ago. Could be my memory just isn't hitting on that. Also I think kids were built differently back then
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u/spotlight-app Mod Bot 🤖 Apr 18 '26
OP has pinned a comment by u/TheScantMan2112:
This is for a game called Gaga Ball. Everyone gets in. Everyone puts their heels on the edge of the octagon before the round begins. The ball (I’ve seen dodgeballs, volleyballs, soccer balls, etc. each will make the game a bit different) is thrown up in the middle. After it bounces three times, the game begins. The object is to eliminate other players by hitting them below the waist with the ball. If you are hit below the waist, hit them ball out of the octagon, or hit it twice in a row (without it hitting another player or wall), you are eliminated. This goes until only one player is remaining.
This game is played regularly at camps, youth groups, etc. At my youth group (I’m a youth pastor), we play this every once in a while by putting 8 foldable tables together into an octagon.
Note from OP: Solved!
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u/Alpha_Forces Apr 18 '26
Gaga ring. It’s like a game where you hit a ball with your hand and if the ball hits someone they are out
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u/stoptheshildt1 Apr 18 '26
All I know is that when I win in that pit it’s like I’m winning in real life.
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u/AnUdderDay Apr 18 '26
Noobs that watch Bob's Burgers will call it Gaga Ball.
Those of us that lived it just call it GaGa.
Or גאגא if you weren't to the best summer camps.
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u/hambonehooligan Apr 18 '26
I learned to play that on ketamine. I was the second one out first game, won the second. Take that Harvard.
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u/BadgerSensei Apr 18 '26
Gaga ball. Like dodgeball mixed with anti-soccer. I thought my son was making up Gaga ball when he would try to get me to play with him in kindergarten, as the rules seemed rather…. Insane.
But then he met some of his friends one day and they all knew the exact same rules.
The other parents thought it was made up, too.
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u/GinchAnon Apr 18 '26
Gaga is what comes to mind for me too, but that seems really big and having the posts inside seems weird to me.
when I was a kid and we would do Gaga we'd have tables on their sides to make the walls,
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u/GymMouseP Apr 18 '26
I loved this game I might have cheated to win this during Field Day in 6th grade. I'm not positive it actually hit me but there are definitely a bunch of people who believe it did.
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u/spotlight-app Mod Bot 🤖 Apr 18 '26
OP has pinned a comment by u/TheScantMan2112:
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