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INTERVIEW


MALCOLM MCPHAIL The CEO of Life Leisure talks to Kate Cracknell


about his successful actiLife programme and how it's spawned the new actiSport initiative





inactive can be commercially viable,” says Malcolm McPhail, CEO of Life Leisure – a not for profit social enterprise that runs 16 sports and leisure centres. The former British Counties Champion runner and PE teacher is referring to the transformation he and his Life Leisure team have overseen at Avondale Leisure Centre in Stockport. Five years ago, the ageing centre had just 500 members and the site was losing £170,000 a year. McPhail, already frustrated by the public health commissioners' failure to recognise the importance of getting people more active, was keen to try a completely new approach. Avondale was to become a test bed. “The centre was earmarked for closure and it was the last throw of the dice,” says McPhail. "So we invested £250k and decided to do the complete opposite of what has been done in this industry." He and his team came up with the


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concept of a local ‘health hub’. The physical environment was changed: mirrors removed, partition walls brought in to offer privacy, bariatric chairs introduced and an AlterG anti- gravity treadmill acquired to help larger individuals exercise. The programming was overhauled, with new schedules introduced utilising the pool for water- based activities and classes such as Legs Bums Tums given prime-time slots. “You could say Avondale is more of


Malcolm McPhail set out the concept of actiLife in 2009


a self-help centre than a health club” McPhail explains. “We take inactive people and talk about discipline, because that’s what they need if they want to change their behaviour. We make them aware what they’re doing is an important change in their lives. For us to be successful, we need to educate – we can’t just tell people to go on a treadmill and run for three minutes,


30 sportsmanagement.co.uk issue 3 2014 © Cybertrek 2014


hat we've done at Stockport proves that tapping into the 87 per cent of people who are physically


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