Walking Alone, Walking in a Club: What the New Season Can Change
Walking alone has its reasons, and they hold up: setting off when the light is beautiful, keeping your own rhythm without negotiating with anyone. Many Nordic walkers have practised this way for years, and nothing obliges them to change. Yet the start of the season is the only time of year when the club question deserves to be weighed calmly, while the associations open their doors and fill their slots.
What an outside eye changes
The Nordic walking movement wears down in silence when nobody watches it. The hand that stays closed at the end of the push, the pole planted too far in front of the body: these classic faults cannot be felt from the inside, and they cost propulsion at every step. An instructor spots them in one session and corrects them in a few outings. Without an outside eye, they can follow a walker for years.
September, the month of open doors
The clubs are recruiting now. The associations' fairs take place in most towns at the start of the month, and many clubs offer one or two trial sessions before enrolment. It is the moment to compare atmospheres and time slots, a luxury the rest of the year no longer offers.
Why aim for a MØNARC® Partner Club
If you walk with arcs, or if you plan to equip yourself, an extra selection criterion appears: the MØNARC® Partner Club label distinguishes the clubs where the curved poles are known, because a coach there is approved or because the arcs already circulate among the members. You will find instructors capable of supporting your equipment, and the €30 reduction per pair of arcs that applies to all members, from enrolment, with group prices for collective purchases. The question to ask the club you are interested in fits in one sentence: are you a MØNARC® Partner Club?
Privileged access to the courses
Joining a Partner Club opens a second advantage, often decisive for someone who has long walked alone: preferential conditions on all the courses of Nathalie Gilbert and Jean-Pierre Guilloteau, our two ambassadors. Technical weekends to work on the movement, multi-day mountain journeys, training courses: these events are open to members as well as instructors. A few days in a supervised group often bring what several seasons of solitary practice do not.
The conditions and the application are on the MØNARC® Partner Club page. And if you finally prefer to continue alone, that choice deserves as much respect as the other.