I recently attended a walking festival in the Lake District. Some of the walks were a challenge but as you can imagine the views were spectacular.
I was asked to lead one of the walks with a local expert, they were responsible for the actual route and local knowledge; my job was more group management. There were another 2 walk leaders on the team for additional support.
The group was varied in fitness level, and experience of walking in hilly terrains and uneven paths. But that did not worry me as I have years of experience in managing groups with different needs and abilities. I naively thought that we were all there to take time out to enjoy our surroundings, I appreciated some would be faster walkers, but we would naturally split and then catch up with one another in our planned breaks and to take photos.
It did not take long for me to realise that our goals were all the same in relation to enjoying the walk but how to do that was very different.
There was a group of faster walkers who had an agenda (their words) of getting to the end at a fast speed. Others wanted to take their time and soak in the surroundings. There were also some people who clearly struggled with the terrain and needed to go at a slower pace.
Everyone on the same walk with completely different agendas.
Luckily with the number of leaders we had on the team we managed to cater for all and had a great day.
It made me think about how we can use the same spaces for our exercise sessions and make them truly accessible for everyone. Sadly, you often hear of people being intimidated by the gym environment or frustrated by beginners not knowing what they were doing but I had not considered it to be an issue when being active outside.
I was excited to hear about the TGO new SMART Activator Screen. They have truly embraced the different needs of people using their active outdoor spaces. They have sessions designed for people with lifestyle diseases such as Diabetes to HIT classes.
My local running group is a prime example of setting various groups off at the same time to either run at 6-minute miles pace or join in the 0 – 5k session. All to finish at a similar time.
Walking groups will often have strategies designed to cater for the different speeds within a group.
I know there are some excellent examples of indoor exercise sessions who manage to cater for all abilities, I do however, think that outdoor spaces are easier to manage and when it is open a little less intimidating.
I am sure there will be other opinions, these are just my thoughts. All comments welcome (not rude!).
Ad-Lib Training would be happy to hear how you manage your outdoor activity sessions and how you are catering for all abilities.
