It was March 2022 and after a few weeks of post-dry-January binge I was starting to look like an overstuffed sausage. I desperately needed to make a lifestyle change as I was on that slippery slope to becoming a proper couch potato, but there just wasn't enough hours in the day to go to the gym. I spend most of my life working, and when I'm not working I'm doing stuff for the kids. Football, Judo, Kickboxing, and Swimming. As they were getting fitter, I was getting fatter. Something had to give!
I'd heard on the grapevine via one of the dads at football that BPL (Barnsley Premier Leisure) had some kind of Leisure Pass which allowed the full family (2 adults and up to 4 kids) to do a load of activities for about £69 a month. I did the calculations, and I was currently forking out about £300 a month for the current set of activities the kids do, so if I could get them interested in the stuff BPL had to offer and wean them off the other stuff they were currently doing, there would be some serious cost savings to be had, and me and my Mrs would get something out of it too.
We decided that football was going to stay. Both my sons play for local teams and really enjoy it, so for a few quid a week it wasn't worth pulling the plug on that. So the football stayed, and everything else went.
Time to sign up
Joining the gym is the easy bit, actually going to the gym is the hard part, and keeping it up is harder still. All journeys start with a single step though, and the time had come to sign up. I decided to go through the process at the Dorothy Hyman sports Centre in Cudworth (one of the facilities you can use as part of the membership). It didn't go to plan. I arrived at the Centre and started the registration process. I didn't know the kids' birthdays so the process required input from the Mrs. Being a little more sceptical than me the Mrs started to ask a few probing questions around what you could and couldn't do with this Leisure Pass. Oh no, my plan to get us all signed up quickly, before we had chance to properly think about it, was failing. The lady taking us through the registration process was lovely, but she wasn't the best salesperson I've ever known. She focussed more on the limitations of the pass rather than its benefits. With two women against me, I had no other option but to retreat and abandon the registration process...for now.
Football Training (2 days later)
Two of the mothers at training who'd previously sang the praises of the Leisure Pass asked me if I'd signed up yet? I explained what had happened at my first registration attempt and that we'd been put off. They couldn't believe their ears. They demo'd the YourSpace app and debunked some of the myths fed to me by the anti-sales assistant. They convinced me to give it another go, but this time I was going straight to head office.....Metrodome!
Time to sign up - Take Two
We arrived at Metrodome on a busy Saturday morning looking like the Waltons, all kids in tow.
I was expecting a similar resistance from the Metrodome receptionist but I was well prepared. First of all I received the verbal clarifications I needed from the receptionist to shut the Mrs up. I was winning, I couldn't believe it. The registration process was really straightforward, they passed us an iPad with the Application Form open. We filled in the details (the Mrs did the birthday bit), and we clicked GO. With a quick swipe of my flexible-friend (Google it (or see below) if under 30) the process was completed and we had our membership cards within a couple of minutes. Brilliant! Phase One of my mission had been accomplished.
TBC...
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