New to rowing? Want to try a new sport?
Join our Novice Squads
Our Novice Men’s and Women’s Squads welcome complete beginners to rowing. Whether you want to switch-up your sport, or try something new at university, theres a place within the Novices. We’re proud to have one of the largest beginner programs within the country – in fact, most of our current committee learned to row here at UCL.
As a novice, you’ll be introduced to the UCL training program, set by our professional coaches, and gradually introduced to competitive racing, with the aim of competing nationally within BUCS competition by the end of the year.
(If you have some experience rowing on the water, please reach out to our senior captains to discuss the squad that’s right for you).
Join us!
1 – Register your interest
Register your interest for our 25/26 novice program to receive updates as Freshers’ week approaches.
2 – Give-it-a-Go Session
Sign-up for a Give-it-a-Go session, where you’ll be taught the basics of the sport, and have your first chance rowing on the water.
3 – Group Chat
Join your squad’s Whatsapp group, for updates and crew lists.
Training is done on the river on Wednesday afternoons and at the weekend, land training is done at Bloomsbury Fitness through the week (although this can be flexible), with erg sessions regularly on Mondays and Fridays and opportunities for weekly circuits on Tuesday evenings. Through training often on the water and in the gym, we get everyone up to a good standard as quickly as possible.
The novice squads enter numerous races over the year. These include: Allom Cup, WeHORR and HORR (the most widely entered Head of the River Races, with over 300 entries!), BUCS Head/Regatta and more.
While there are competitive ambitions for the novice squads, if you don’t like the idea of being hugely competitive then that’s fine too, many of our novices join on a more social basis!
There will be at least one training camp throughout the year, typically in the Easter holidays, in recent years this has even meant trips to Avis in Portugal (where the GB squad has their training camp!) These are very beneficial for everyone’s rowing and a lot of fun!
Novice Men’s Captains
Arthur Hucknall and Harry Dixon – uclbcnovicemen@gmail.com
Novice Women’s Captains
Charmaine Chan – uclbcnovicewomen@gmail.com
University College London Boat Club 