Each sport has its own culture; its own rituals, gestures, etiquette and vocabulary. During the Olympics and Paralympics you see table tennis players touch the table religiously between points, long jumpers rock back and forth seemingly getting into a trance, hammer throwers scream with effort, many gymnasts wear make-up and swimmers splash themselves with water before diving in.  

The costumes and behaviours of each sport have become normalised through years of people performing these actions in these ways. They are specific, and non-essential actions, phrases that have become ingrained which help define a movement and a collective identity of the players of that sport. There’s a shared culture of physical, social and visual references. Alongside the social norms, there are stories of the greats of the sport that have achieved the seemingly impossible. The culture of each sport is more powerful than the rules in terms of defining its success.  

We sometimes talk about GoodGym as creating a new sport; it has some basic rules, a language, parameters, points and league tables. We have defined the rules of the game and there’s now a culture emerging and ways of playing it. Our rituals are the headcount at the beginning of group runs, signing in and the various warm-ups and stretches. Our greeting is “Which area do you run in?” often followed by questions about the types of tasks people do in one area or another.

Like a sport, the culture of GoodGym is the most important factor in our success; whether it’s cheering new people, supporting all who turn up or reviewing biscuits, each area has its own characteristics and approaches the task of running to help their community in a slightly different way.

GoodGym aims to reach tens of thousands of older people by 2020 and is launching in cities from Bournemouth to Sheffield and beyond. To do so will mean involving over 100,000 runners. Developing a culture that gets people excited about the game, that’s open, appealing and inspiring is our most important task. The great thing is that this is not just the job of the people in the office; our role is simply to provide support to make it as easy as possible for people to get involved and stay involved, and to maintain the focus on the overall missions of combining fitness and doing good.

As in a sport, a GoodGym culture will be developed and influenced by everyone who participates. At the extremes, it is also defined by the people who push the boundaries; those who’ve run extraordinarily fast or done a huge amount of good deeds in a month. Just as important, if not more so, is a culture that celebrates the moments of personal achievement. Someone’s first run is for them potentially as momentous as another’s 250th. In order to achieve what we aim to we will have to continue to build a culture of positivity that sustains everyone, not just the elite, in feeling rewarded, recognised and part of the whole.  

Developing GoodGym over the next few years through the support of the Accelerating Ideas for Ageing pilot is an extraordinary opportunity. GoodGym is not a sport; but its challenges are the same. As we expand across the UK it will be critical to maintain an open and inviting culture that leaves room for its players to define it.