Gaga Ball Pit – Octaball

Known as Gaga Pit, Gaga Ball or Octaball it is a staple at any summer camp, day care, school, church, VBS or YMCA it combines dodging, striking, running & jumping with the purpose of hitting opponents with a ball below the waist while trying to avoid being hit yourself. Gaga Ball game is perfect for schools, churches, summer camp, community center, activity center, corporate events, and backyard parties.

GaGa Ball Rules of Play:

1. To start, everyone in the pit must be touching the wall. Someone tosses the ball in the center of the pit, and it must bounce twice on the ground. As it bounces, everyone can say “Ga” for each bounce. After the second bounce (“Ga-Ga”), the ball is live.

2. Slap-hit the ball with your hand, aiming it at another player’s leg at the knee or below. If the ball hits or touches anyone from the knee or below, that player is out and must exit the pit. At any time, if a player makes any type of contact with the ball at the knee or below, that player is out and exits the Gaga Ball Pit.

3. Anytime the ball goes out of the pit, the last person that the ball touched is out. Players that are “out” stand around the outside of the GaGa Pit and if they catch a ball that leaves the pit before it hits the ground they go back into the Pit and resume play.

4. You can only hit the ball one time until it either touches another player or the wall, then you are able to hit it again. You can dribble the ball against the wall to position it if necessary, and, you can move around anywhere inside the pit during the game.

5. The game ends when the last person is eliminated, or, to speed up the end of the game, the last few players can be given a count-down for a tie game. Once the game is over, everyone else re-enters the pit to start a new game.

6. You can add variations to the game such as playing with more than one ball, play in teams, expand the ‘hit’ area, catching the ball eliminates the person that hit it, and any other variation you can come up with!