Standing in a circle, participants place their palms together in front of them, explain that inside their palms is a ball of energy. Next up explain to the group that Zip Zap Zop all refer to different directions that they will point their hands.
- Zip: left
- Zap: right
- Zop: across the circle (or whatever you like)
Whoever starts chooses one of Zip, Zap or Zop says it out loud for example “Zip” and passes/points their hands to the person on their left, it carries on (domino effect) with each person turning to the left with their hands and saying “Zip” until someone says something different such as “Zap” and then the direction changes to the right. It can just get faster or people who slip up sit down. And you can add different sounds like ‘boing’ that bounce the energy back to the person who sent it to you.
A variation of this game is that again your get everyone to form a circle. This time however, you have one person quickly clap and points at another, while saying “zip.” The person who received the “zip” then claps and points at another, while saying “zap.” That person then claps and points to someone while saying “zop.” The pattern continues, “zip, zap, zop, zip, zap, zop….” The goal is to pass the words and energy around as quickly as possible, which is harder than it seems. Many theatre companies use this as a warm-up before going on stage, to establish teamwork and to encourage quick thinking. If you use this with a group who find it takes several tries to get into the rhythm of the game. Keep going! Eventually, the group will begin to go at lightning speed and you’ll find it hard to keep up yourself.
