Zip (game)

Zip, also known as zip zap boing or zip zap zop, is a fast paced elimination game in which a group of players stand in a circle and pass an imaginary impulse of energy from person to person using set hand gestures and spoken calls. Saying zip while pointing at a neighbor passes the impulse to the player immediately beside them, saying zap while pointing across the circle sends it to a non adjacent player instead, and calling boing reverses the impulse back the way it came. A player who hesitates, uses the wrong gesture or call, or otherwise breaks the pattern is eliminated, and rounds continue in this way until only two players remain. The game is widely used as a theatre and improvisation warm up exercise to sharpen a group's focus and reaction speed, and it is also taught within scouting movements such as the UK Scout Association as an icebreaker activity. Because it has spread mostly by word of mouth among performers, educators and youth group leaders, Zip exists in many regional variations, with different names, gestures and elimination rules recorded in different communities rather than one single fixed rulebook.