The Bantams are very pleased to welcome Wakefield Walking Football club to the Northern Commercials Stadium this Saturday (7 January 2017) for the club's Sky Bet League One fixture with Chesterfield.
Representatives from Wakefield Walking Football Club will be participating in a demonstration with two games of Walking Football during the half time break of the Chesterfield game on Saturday.
Wakefield Council, funded through Sport England, started Walking Football sessions in late 2014 aimed specifically at the 50+ age group as research showed that 65% of males aged over 50 took part in no physical activity.
Walking Football is exactly what it sounds like – a standard game of football where players walk instead of run and must have ‘one foot on the ground’.
It’s designed to help people get fit or maintain an active lifestyle no matter what their age and fitness, as well as support people getting back into football if they have given it up due to age or injury.
The lads who play have seen many benefits: lower heart rate and blood pressure, less fat, more muscle, and importantly better mobility.
It’s not just health benefits - Walking football also offers social benefits.
Participants can meet new people, avoid becoming isolated, and interact with individuals and small groups.
It is rapidly gaining in popularity around the whole country.
Initially only six players of varying ability and physical condition attended the “once a week” I hour session at the indoor Wakefield Football Centre – a group of generally unfit blokes who were clearly too old or too slow for the physical demands of normal football but who all wanted to keep on playing.
The weekly sessions increased in popularity and as the numbers increased so have the number of sessions – the club now have three lunch time sessions and one evening session.
The club are always happy to get new members and if you are interested details of sessions, and the club, are available in the programme or type “Walking Football Wakefield” into your internet search engine or visit www.pitchero.com/club/wakefieldwalkingfootball.