For one month, Hobsons Bay residents have been participating in a new program called Walking Football.
IPC Health partnered with Football Victoria and University of the Third Age (U3A) for the program which is aimed at residents aged 50 and over who are looking for a low impact way to get moving and improve wellbeing.
IPC Health team leader Nuredin Hassan said so far, the response from participants has been great.
“We have 10 regular attendees that participate with room for another 10-15 more, the response so far has been amazing,” he said.
“A lot of the participants have told us they have never played before and its been really fun and engaging for them.”
The program started on March 15 , designed to benefit participants physical and mental health, social opportunities and to promote the ongoing benefits of being physically active.
Walking Football is a small-sided low impact version of the game which is suited to all people but mostly created for older community members.
“Walking Football is a new , fun ,social, safe environment for 50+ to play in, each session is designed to cater to their needs,” Mr Hassan said.
Each session begins with learning the skill components of the game, followed by quick, easy warm up and then finishes with the play component of the session.
“The aim of the sessions is to give players an orientation to the game, the program then becomes participant lead,” Mr Hassan said.
“Prior experience is not necessary, the purpose of the sessions are to encourage active living by looking at ways to do sport differently to make it accessible for a broad range of cohorts.”
The sessions are currently being run every Wednesday from noon- 1pm at the Altona Sports Stadium.
Jennifer Pittorino
