Novice Rowing

Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other in boats (or shells) on rivers or lakes. There are many different classes of boats and different types of racing, such as bumps racing, regattas, and head races. It uses the second most muscles of any sport (after cross country skiing) and is one of the only forms of cardio that also builds muscle, so is a great way of staying fit!

The coxswain (cox) is the ninth member of an 'eight' (or the 5th member of a 4), and crucial to the success of a crew. Depending on the boat they sit either at the stern or bow of the boat - but are always facing the direction the boat is going! At a basic level, they steer the boat, and instruct a crew over the course of an outing / race. A good cox is often the difference between winning and losing a race, with picking the correct 'line' through the river, and giving their rowers good advice on pacing and technique deciding many close contests. We are always on the lookout for new coxes, so if you're interested please email our captain of coxes.

University College Boat Club is very fortunate to enjoy the support of the College, corporate sponsors and our generous alumni, who give us vastly subsidized access to the best coaches, boats and facilities. Subscription fees for novices in Michaelmas are usually between £10 - £20 and will be tacked directly onto your college battels. The only other expenses are optional formal dinners and college 'stash' (or clothing).

Absolutely not! Whilst many of our novices each year are indeed freshers this is in no way a requirement, and Univ students are welcome to join the club regardless of their age / how far into their studies they are.

Yes! The overwhelming majority of our rowers and coxswains come to Univ as first-time novices, and many of those in our top boats learnt to row at UCBC. It's our mission to provide a fun and rewarding program for everyone of all abilities and time commitments!

We do everything possible to make your rowing experience fun, active, and above all safe! As such, the swim test is compulsory and really important! If you haven't had much swimming experience, let your Men's or Women's Vice-Captain know and we'll do our best to train you for the test. After the test, it's important you can swim, but capsizes are very rare, and most people will go through their entire rowing career without taking a dip in the river ! If you do not know how to swim at all, we strongly suggest taking a few lessons before coming to Oxford, as regulations prohibit rowers or coxswains from competing without first passing the test.

Primarily we row on the river Isis - which is the name for the stretch of the River Thames in Oxford. We have our very own boathouse on the south bank of the Isis (a map can be found here), opposite the row of college boathouses (conveniently named boathouse island). At the boathouse we also have an erg room, where we have 8 rowing machines, and then at college we have a weights room too! Especially when teaching novices to row, we go to the rowing Tank at Iffley Road Sports Centre - which is a bit like a giant bathtub where you sit in the middle and practice rowing. It’s great to practice your technique without having to worry about being in the middle of a river! Occasionally, we go and train offsite, often at Eton Dorney or Caversham. The weather can sometimes not be the greatest in Oxford and if the river is flooded we go elsewhere to row!

At first, only if you want to! In Michaelmas, crews arrange their training sessions themselves depending on when every rower is available, which is usually in the morning or evening. If you are keen to push for higher boats, you probably will end up having some mornings, but most rowers end up learning to love these; nothing compares to rowing on the Isis as dawn breaks, and many crews end up having breakfast together afterwards!

The best bit about college rowing is that everyone is in the same boat (excuse the pun!). All of us have academic commitments, and our coaches are extremely understanding and mindful of the need to balance studying with rowing. It is definitely possible to achieve really great things academically as well as on the river - and lots of our rowers say that rowing is the best way to de-stress from a busy day of studying or revision!

There are lots of post-grads who row with UCBC! Training is almost always organised outside of the working day, with morning and evening outings on weekdays and then weekend outings too! If there are any clashes, then we will do our best to help solve them.

There are two main types of rowing - sculling and sweep. In sweep rowing, each rower is in charge of one blade (oar); in sculling each person has two smaller blades. There are different sizes of scull - you can have a single with one person, denoted a 1x, a double with two people (2x), a quad with four people (4x), a quad with four people plus a cox (4x+) and an oct with eight rowers pus a cox (8x+). Similarly, there are different sizes of sweep boat, namely a pair, a four or an eight. Eights (8+) always have a coxswain, fours can have a cox (4+) or be coxless (4-) and a pair is coxless (2-). If there is no cox then the steering is done by one of the rowers using their footplate!

In your first term, novice rowers are allocated boats entirely based upon how much time they wish to spend rowing. Beyond that, people can trial for whichever boat they want, depending on how much time they want to put into training that term. If more than eight people wish to row in one of the top boats, as is often the case, we are likely to have a pre-season training camp where squad selection takes place; this will take into account a number of factors including experience, potential and ability to move a boat. For lower crews there is a much more relaxed process, with crews being formed around people's availability and desire to get out on the water.

Honestly, 2km ergs, whilst useful, are not everything. Ergs famously don't float after all. If you're targeting the top boats, our coaches are much more interested in how fast you can move the boat, and how quick our boat is compared to everyone else's. With all of that said, faster than the ninth fastest 2km is quite a good benchmark to aim for!

How much each crew trains depends entirely up to it members! We form novice crews based solely on how much time and commitment rowers wish to dedicate - the Novice A's will train approximately 4-5 days a week, while the more casual Novice boats might only train on the weekends; it really depends on numbers and demand in your year.

Throughout term from October to June, crews are regularly training in readiness for Torpids and Summer Eights. Over the vacation, our rowers usually continue land and weight training, and rowing normally continues in small boats for those left in Oxford.

Rowing in the rain is fun at times (except when it’s cold!). But, we still row in the rain - with appropriate clothing, this isn't an issue at all ! If there is thunder/lightning/high winds/poor visibility, we do not row, although may do an erg / land training session instead.

Yes! In recent years univ has had great successes in the University lightweight squads, which tend to favor shorter rowers. It doesn't matter if you don't want to go for uni squads, please do come along - there's no minimum height. And whilst there's no pressure, you'd be welcome to come and try coxing also :).

The first race of the year is the Nepythys Regatta in mid-Michaelmas, which involves side-by-side race-offs between novice Oxford crews. In 2012 Univ's Men's Novice A won Nepythys Regatta. The next race is Christ Church Regatta, which is the same side-by-side format for novices. In Hilary, the big event is Torpids, followed by the ultimate event 'Summer Eights'; the highlight of any Oxford rower's season! There are many other small regattas and day races throughout the year as well, including Bedford Regatta and Oriel Regatta. These offer a mix of side by side racing and time trialing, and are always good fun, attracting large numbers of crews.

The Men's and Women's 1st VIIIs regularly travel to Eton Dorney, Wallingford and Caversham for training, and travel to London to compete in the Head of the River Races, as well as Henley to race in the Henley Royal. All of these expenses are covered by the club.

Torpids and Summer Eights are the two major bumps races of the year; Torpids runs in Hilary term, Summer Eights in Trinity. They draw massive crowds of spectators and supporters in a big 'carnival' atmosphere, and are undoubtedly the highlight of a rower's season.

Bumps racing is a type of rowing race used in Oxford and Cambridge, where the river is too narrow for many crews to row abreast. Crews line up along the river, one after the other, and when the cannon is fired, they attempt to 'bump' the crew ahead while avoiding being caught by the boat behind. A 'bump' is made either by making physical contact with the boat ahead or when their cox concedes by raising their arm. It leads to some very exciting and heart-pumping racing! To get an idea of this, click here to see our women's first boat in action in Div 1 of 2021 Torpids. (Confusingly, this was actually in Trinity - a result of the pandemic, and the calendar is now returning to normal).

Yes - Christ Church Regatta, Torpids and Eights run from Wednesdays to Saturdays during term time. However, a significant proportion of students in Oxford are rowers, and so many tutors are very flexible and happy to reschedule. Just be sure to get permission fromyour tutor well in advance, and let us know early if you've got any problems that might prevent you from participating.

That's not a problem at all! You're still welcome at all of the socials that involve nights out, and as mentioned above, our social secs also arrange a whole host of other social activities, as above! If you have any further questions about our social calendar, feel free to email our social secretaries, they'll be happy to help!

The highlight of any rowers social calendar! The boat club dinner is a big formal meal held after the last day of torpids and summer eights, where all members of the boat club come together to share a meal and celebrate the terms successes. These are normally followed by attending a university-wide party for everyone involved in the weeks racing, at one of the nightclubs in the city.

A crew date is a dinner organised between two crews, usually from different colleges but we do have internal ones. They tend to involve a lot of cheap wine, curry and embarrassment for all!

Yes! This is always a really fun experience, all the crews racing that week have breakfast together with the master of the college, and talk about pretty much anything.

Obviously, global events have affected our ability to function as normal. However, we have remained active as a club, with training continuing all the way through, as much as restrictions allowed. In full lockdown, this involved Strava challegnes and circuits to do at home; as restrictions relaxed we were one of the first clubs back on the water, first with more experienced rowers out in singles and pairs and then later back to full fours and eights. During Trinity of 2021 we were lucky enough to be able to race in several regattas, and are hopeful that we will be able to follow this with a relatively normal calendar in the 2021/22 academic year.