Walking Football Sessions

We’ll start with an easy one. The year a walking football session was founded can help to give you some confidence in its quality. Would a session have been running for two years if nobody enjoyed it? Reach out to existing players for recommendations.

Sessions with fewer players may run smaller-sided games, with five-a-side matches commonplace. Those with a larger turnout may to run multiple smaller games or use larger teams on bigger pitches. Turnout at sessions can fluctuate so the format listed should be viewed as a guide only.

Despite existing mostly for fitness and leisure, some walking football groups still like to test themselves against others as part of regional or nationally-run competitions. At WFW, we define a walking football competition as a tournament which extends across weeks and months, not days.

This defines the openness of a session to new players. Session types include, ‘Just turn up’, ‘Call ahead’ and ‘Sign up required’. The latter to may be necessary for busier sessions with fewer coaches, so be sure to get in touch with the organiser before your arrive.

The surface you play on affects the roll of the ball, your exposure to the weather and, perhaps most importantly, the impact on your joints. Harder surfaces such as concrete and sports halls are typically harsher on feet, ankles and knees than softer pitches such as grass or artificially 3G turf.

If you prefer your competition a little closer to home - and condensed into a single day or weekend - you might want to consider joining a session that takes part in walking football festivals. Play one-off, small-sided games against players from sessions similar to your own.

One of the best things about walking football is that you don’t have to have played football before to enjoy it. We’ve labelled sessions as either ‘Beginner’, ‘Confident’ or ‘Mixed’ to define the level and standard of football you can generally expect.

Walking football can be enjoyed by people of all ages and circumstances, but it is common to see some sessions restricted by minimum ages to ensure a relatively level playing field. Age limits can be flexible so be sure to check with a session organiser first if you fall just outside of the listed range.

Another way that some walking football sessions compete is in friendly matches. Participation in games is never compulsory but can make a nice change from playing against the same opposition in every session. The rules of friendly matches usually mutually agreed between teams beforehand.

Walking football is one of the few sports where the phrase, “It’s the taking part that counts”, is actually true. However, if you do want to play to win, keep a look out for sessions marked ‘Competitive’ at the foot of a page.

The most commonly used ball size for adult games is size five, however it is not unusual to see size four used, especially for sessions hosted indoors. The difference is negligible, but noticeable, for the most pedantic of players!

The faster pace and smaller pitches of five-a-side walking football often requires shots to be restricted to outside of the box only. This helps to prevent scores from running into double-digits and protects goalkeepers from injury.

While football is typically a contact sport, the slower pace of walking football and the older age of players lends itself to gentler levels of physicality. Many sessions are almost entirely ‘non-contact’ to minimise the risk of injury.

Love them or hat them, limited touch rules are as prevalent in walking football as they are in the training sessions of youth teams. Limited touch rules usually restrict players to two or three touches of the ball before passing or shooting.

Many walking football sessions impose a ‘below head height’ rule to keep the ball on the floor and eliminate the need for headers. Many older and more vulnerable players find this rule preferable to its ‘above head height’ opposite.

Walking football is not only the fastest growing sport in the UK, it’s also one of the most inclusive. Keep a look out for gender-orientated sessions to suit you, from ‘Men Only’ and ‘Women Only’, to ‘Mixed’ sessions for everyone.

Throw-in or kick-in? Every footballer has a preference, but often the decision is at the mercy of the environment. Some indoor sessions, or those on smaller astroturf pitches, may even allow the use of walls as an extra player.

The English FA only published its official rules for walking football in early 2017. A session may choose to adopt these, use the Walking Football Association variant, or simply set their own rules based on a mixture of both.