Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Club of the week
Airdrie Walking Football
This week’s club of the week is the Airdrieonians Walking Football team.
The club meet once a week next to the Diamonds home, the Excelsior Stadium.
Since forming last year, they have gone from strength to strength.
The Advertiser caught up with Airdrie Commercial Manager Douglas Allsop about starting up and continuing the side...
How did the club get started?
Airdrieonians FC began a community programme back in August, involving classes for pre-school kids, school camps, classes to get those a little‘out of shape’back to fitness, and of course, the walking football.
The classes were initially taken by a couple of Airdrie’s young professionals, but are now up and running and basically look after themselves.
The walking football – along with the school camps – has by far been the most successful, and we are looking at revising the others.
When does your club train and play matches?
No training as it’s just a fun – and dare I say competitive – kickabout!
All games are held at the five-a-side cages at the Excelsior Stadium every Friday night from 6pm-7pm.
Who are the coaches and trainers?
The games pretty much run themselves these days.
Myself and Willie Marshall from the Supporters Trust generally do the round up of names on a Thursday/ Friday, and pick teams,
However, the games are good natured and look after themselves.
What youth options do you have at the club?
Well, most walking football groups are aged at over 50’s, but we don’t discriminate against age or gender.
You generally find that anyone under 40 still plays normal five-a-sides, but we’ve had a teenager come along with his dad, and a few guys in their 30’s.
The hardest thing the younger guys face is the fact you are not allowed to run! We really struggled with numbers at the start – finding a time to suit everyone was a problem.
But we put out a‘use it or lose it’ appeal on Facebook, and within a week went from four players to 16!
Players have other commitments, and so some weeks can be feast or famine with people not turning up, but as long as we know in advance, we can usually rumble up some extra bodies.
How does the club benefit the community?
Walking Football has seen a surge in popularity in recent years with teams and projects developing in settings from football clubs, local authorities, community groups, sports clubs and in healthcare settings.
The sport is aimed at keeping people aged over 50 involved with football if, due to a lack of mobility or for other reason, they are not able to play the traditional game.
Though based on association football, the key difference in the rules, from standard football, is that if a player runs then they concede a free-kick to the other side.
This restriction, together with a ban on slide tackles, is aimed both at avoiding injuries and facilitating the playing of the sport by those who are physically disadvantaged.
These sessions compromise of an active warm up with the majority of the session being based around gameplay which is broken up with some skill development, we then finish with an extensive cool down.
Everything is done at your pace with everybody at different levels, so regardless of your age or fitness levels there are still benefits to be had.
Walking football also has the potential to improve people’s lives. Benefits include increased physical activity, improved mental health and wellbeing, access to additional sources of support and the opportunity to form new friendships for those living in isolation.
How much work goes into running the club?
The hardest thing has been finding a time that suits everyone.
We’ve got a time now where we manage to get between eight and 14 bodies – enough for a game, but that’s not to say there wouldn’t be a better time elsewhere in the week.
Also getting the word out there, and letting the community know you don’t have to be an Airdrie fan to come along.
How would someone join your club?
You can just turn up from 6pm-7pm at the cages behind the stadium – we’re a welcoming bunch.
But preferably, drop myself an e-mail at douglas.allsop@airdriefc. com or phone 07790663974.
We generally take a roll call on the Airdrieonians Fans page on Facebook to see who is in or out, and are in the process of setting up a WhatsApp group as well.
And if you come along and don’t like it, then no problem – but you won’t know unless you try!