Committee: this draft is written from the club’s own guides and race reports. Check anything in [square brackets] and fill in the real details before removing the draft label.
Outings
Most of a rower’s week is outings: sessions on the river with your crew. Novice crews go out [how many] times a week in Michaelmas, and senior crews [how many] times a week in Lent and Easter terms. Outings are often early in the morning before lectures [check], so you cycle to the boathouse (about five minutes from College by bike), row, and are back in time for breakfast.
An outing starts with the crew carrying the boat out of the boathouse together, the cox calling each step. On the water your coach follows along the towpath giving feedback on technique, while the cox steers and calls the drills. Early on it’s all about learning the stroke; by the end of term you’ll be doing race pieces.
Land training
Alongside outings there’s land training, especially ergs (rowing machines) in the boathouse erg room, often as a full crew. Ergs build fitness, and they’re a race in their own right: novices compete at Queens’ Ergs every Michaelmas.
A sample week
| Day | What’s on |
|---|---|
| Monday | [Outing] |
| Tuesday | [Erg or land training] |
| Wednesday | [Outing] |
| Thursday | [Rest or land training] |
| Friday | [Outing, then crew meal] |
| Saturday | [Longer outing or racing] |
| Sunday | [Rest] |
[Committee: replace with this year’s real timetable for novice and senior crews.]
Racing
Every term has something to aim for. In Michaelmas, novices race Queens’ Ergs, Emma Sprints and the Fairbairn Cup. In Lent and Easter, senior crews race head races and, above all, the Lent and May Bumps: four days of chasing the boat in front. Read how Bumps works, or look through our race reports.
Off the water
A week at SSBC isn’t only rowing. There are crew meals, games nights, swaps with other boat clubs, the termly Boat Club Dinner and, at the end of the year, the SSBC garden party. Rowing is one of the easiest ways to make friends across years and subjects, undergraduate and postgraduate alike.
Fitting it around your degree
At the start of term you agree how many sessions you can commit to, and if you need to row less for a while, you just tell your coach or captain (it’s in our Code of Conduct).
Ready to try it? Find out how to join.