Walking football session at VfL Wolfsburg- European Football for Development Network

Walking Football Session at VfL Wolfsburg

Last week, EFDN visited a Walking Football Sessions of the VFL Wolfsburg’s in the SoccaFive Arena, where the team meets once a week with their coach Yannik Joop.

VfL Wolfsburg is one of the 13 members of the EFDN European Legends programme and therefore, actively engaged in establishing a Walking Football training programme at the club and aiming at promoting the Walking sports methodology.

At VfL Wolfsburg, the sport supports people above 55 years old to get fit or maintain an active lifestyle independently from their age and level of fitness. The programme supports participants to get back into football, if they had previously given up due to age, injury or health reasons.

The VfL Wolfsburg sessions are on average attended by 15-20 players. At the moment, the team is joined by one women, however, for the future, there is the hope that more women will become part of the team.

Health & social benefits

Walking Football is a sport, which has seen many health benefits including lowering heart rates, blood pressure, weight loss and better mobility.

Additionally, it has a very valuable social component since the programme is providing participants opportunities for social interaction.

After each training sessions, the members of the VfL Wolfsburg Walking Football team get together to have a cup of coffee or refreshing drinks.

One of Wolfsburg’s players tells that he travels for each training sessions 300 km, however, due to the great team and the sport itself, he does not see it as a burden. Additionally, many players are very proud to represent the club VfL Wolfsburg and playing in the clubs jerseys.

This feeling of pride was especially experienced at tournaments, when matches were played against other Walking Football teams.

Participating in the European Legends Walking Football Tournament

The team is in particular looking forward to the European Legends Walking Football Championships, which will take place in Arnhem, the Netherlands, from 18th to 20th of September 2017.

At the Championship Festival, 24 teams from across Europe will participate and play matches against each other. Next to the tournament, entertainment and cultural visits are part of the programme.

Walking sports

In the past week, VfL Wolfsburg’s team has also participated in diverse other Walking sport activities as Walking Badminton and Walking Hockey and thereby contributed to the broadening of the Walking sports methodology in Europe.