There’s a walking revolution going on in Gloucestershire and we’d better get used to it.

So says Chris Walker, of Age UK Gloucestershire, who has established a non-competitive walking football club at Coopers Edge in Brockworth and another in partnership with GL1 Aspire Leisure Gloucester with the support of Active Gloucestershire, Abbeymead Rovers and the Gloucestershire FA.

Walking football is usually for men and women aged 50 years and above and has been described as “the perfect social sport”.

The idea has been well supported by the Football Association and it has been such a success that around 800 clubs have been formed in the country in just five or six years.

Walking football has an established league in the county for those who want to compete and enter local and national competitions.

So who plays walking football?

“People with sports injuries who just want some exercise or people who want to get back into sport because they’ve missed the social side, or people who want to try something new” said Chris. “We’ve had 75-80-year olds who have come and played.

“My aim is to create more opportunities for the over-50s. There is a not a great deal of team sport for people that age.

“The social element is as important as the sport too, it has not only reconnected people; it has also helped create new friendships and with that more social opportunity. Some have said that the walking sports have changed their lives.”

Chris first became aware of walking football when going past Abbeymead Rovers on a Wednesday evening.

“There’d be up to 20 players playing and they were clearly having fun,” he said. “I thought that’s something I’d like to be involved in.

“I thought it would be easy but I soon changed my mind when I started playing it. Abbeymead are currently county champions. Unfortunately I developed a hernia and it has restricted my playing for a while and injuries are something of a hazard especially at this level where your inner youngster eagerly wants to compete.”

So how do you define walking in the context of walking sport?

“Walking is when you have one foot off the ground, running is two feet off the ground,” said Chris. “That’s how we differentiate.”

Now that walking football has become well established, other sports are starting to follow suit.

Walking rugby, which has the support of Gloucester Rugby, now has a foothold in the county, while walking netball has also been played at GL1 in Gloucester and there are plans to introduce walking basketball in the near future.

Chris has been grateful for the support for walking rugby provided by Gloucester and it is now played at the Q Club in Quedgeley as well as at Innsworth.

“We had an 81-year-old with alzheimer’s come along and it reconnected him with the game,” said Chris. “It’s a bit like tag rugby and he absolutely loved it.

“Mind you, I got an email from his wife after the game saying he ached a bit! It didn’t bother him, though, and he and a friend now want to try football too!”